Senate leadership unveiled the Preserve California legislative package to insulate the state from dangerous rollbacks in federal environmental regulations and public health protections.
The bill package establishes strong and legally enforceable baseline protections for the environment, public health, worker safety, and other areas of federal regulatory law that could be dramatically and recklessly weakened by the Trump Administration. Measures would also protect federal lands within the State of California from sale to private developers for the purpose of resource extraction; ensure federal employees are not penalized under California law for whistleblowing; and shield public information and data resources from federal censorship or destruction.
“The Trump Administration and Republicans in Congress are racing to weaken decades-old environmental and public health protections,” California Senate Leader Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) said. “SB 49 makes existing federal laws – like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts – enforceable under California law, so we can preserve the state we know and love, regardless of what happens in Washington.”
“This is pretty straightforward – just common sense measures to preserve minimum safeguards for clean air and water,” Senator Henry Stern (D-Agoura Hills) said. “We still have a ways to go to clean up our environment, but at the very least we should not be backsliding.”
“We have a sacred duty to take whatever actions we can to protect public lands from any sale or lease that would result in their loss or degradation. SB 50 will put the state in a strong position to defend federal lands in California against those threats,” said Senator Ben Allen (D – Santa Monica), author of the Public Lands Protection Act.
“With science and scientific data under threat, SB 51 will protect whistleblowers who bravely and selflessly stand up for the public’s interest from having their professional credentials stripped away if they are licensed to practice in California,” said Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). “It will also ensure that climate change and other scientific data so critical to our future remains intact and accessible to scientists for years to come.”
“California’s leadership on clean air and climate issues has shown the way forward for other states and the world. After 50 years of progress, relaxing our safeguards on pollution will damage our emerging clean economy and increase the number of people suffering from asthma, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses,” said Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. “We must not turn back.”