SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California voters overwhelmingly rejected Proposition 45 by a margin of more than a million votes and growing. The measure would have fast-tracked a broad range of polluting projects while reducing stakeholder input and transparency.
The projects eligible for streamlining would have included, but were not limited to geothermal, fuel cells, freeway expansion, small hydroelectric generation, digester gas, biomass, landfill gas, ocean wave, ocean thermal, or tidal current, along with their associated transmission lines. Prop 45 would also have made it easier for data centers to bypass CEQA environmental review, leaving Californians with limited information about projects and less oversight.
The following is a statement from Esther Portillo, Western States Environmental Health Director at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council):
“The environmental community and our allies worked hard to defeat Proposition 45, while big tech and billionaires spent $56 million campaigning in support of it. Californians made their decision at the ballot box to protect their right to transparency and to ensure their voices are heard in decisions about development projects that could affect their health and environment.”
NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd).