elsoldevalle

June 18, 2015
California’s Climate Change Laws Help Valley Families
by Assemblymember Eduardo García

Any parent understands how emotionally difficult it is to see their child sick. In California, nearly 700,000 school-aged children experienced asthma symptoms last year—their parents watching them suffer through the difficulty breathing, coughing and wheezing caused by a narrowing of their airways.

These parents spend countless hours at home and in the emergency room, away from their jobs, doing everything they can to make their children better. It’s a fact of life that’s especially true for families in the Coachella and Imperial Valleys, which suffer from some of the worst air pollution in the country.

Many families in these areas live beside busy highways, incinerators or agricultural areas that are regularly sprayed with pesticides or burned, releasing particulate matter into the air. It’s no coincidence that over ten percent of both adults and children in the Coachella Valley have asthma.

The historic drought, which scientists agree is part of larger shifts in the Earth’s climate, has made things worse: the lack of rain has fueled wildfires, which increase soot in the air, and increased temperatures have aggravated smog conditions in the Inland Empire region.

That’s precisely why climate change matters for places like Thermal and Indio. It’s about our health, and the air our children breathe.

AB 32, California’s climate change law, has put strict caps on pollution from industrial facilities, transportation fuels and other sources, helping to make our communities healthier. For example, although air pollution levels remain far to high, environmental policies like AB 32 have reduced summertime smog levels by 35 percent in the Inland Empire region since 2000.

The same laws that reduce pollution also help put money back in families’ pocketbooks. California’s climate change laws encourage cars that are fuel-efficient, electric and compatible with biofuels. These laws have also improved walking options and access to public transit such as buses and light rail in Imperial and Coachella Valley communities.

Together, these policies can reduce the amount we spend on driving cars by 30 percent in the next 15 years, improving the quality of our air while making it easier for parents to get to work, and children to get to school.

These are practical improvements our communities need and support—a poll by the American Lung Association found that 80 percent of Southern California voters support greater investment in public transportation to reduce traffic and air pollution, and voters support expanding public transportation over expanding roads and highways by a two-to-one margin.

Finally, our state’s climate change laws have resulted in high-quality, skilled jobs. So far, nearly half a million jobs have been created in California’s clean energy sector, including at facilities like the Imperial Valley Solar Farm power station. Jobs in clean energy offer good pay, stable employment and career growth opportunities for people of all educational backgrounds. Investing in clean energy projects in our region—while simultaneously respecting agricultural spaces and land set aside for conservation and recreation—can help to dent our stubbornly high unemployment rate, which remains above 20 percent.

California’s environmental laws are delivering cleaner air for our children, better, more affordable transportation, and dependable jobs. We’ve already experienced many of these benefits.

Our children are depending on us to fight for our right to clean air and ensure that these laws continue to benefit our communities. For their sake, we can’t let the oil companies win.