California Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice Achievements
Advocacy
In partnership with the American Lung Association, trained nurses to meet with their elected officials at our Advocacy Day at the Capitol.
Environmental Health Education
- Held two regional Environmental Health Nursing conferences in San Diego and Sacramento
- Completed 5 statewide comprehensive CE workshop series on our 6 Key Issue areas of focus
- Produced a virtual six part Farmworker Series
- Produced a Food & Agriculture Webinar for the California School Nurses Association
- Invited to present climate change workshops for UC San Francisco Med Center nurses, the state chapters of the Oncology Nursing Society, California Nurse Leaders Organization, and the California Nurse Practitioner Association’s Government Affairs Committee
Advocacy & Legislative Efforts
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Fossil Fuels
- Met with elected officials and/or their staff: Weiner, Limon, Stern, and Skinner
- Wrote sign on letters, attended Town Hall meetings, and collaborated on a full-page ad in the Sacramento Bee (see below)
- Participated and supported coalitions in dozens of legislative hearings
Regulatory
- Tracked CalGEM Public Health Advisory Board
- Active in the Last Chance Alliance’s Just Transition (JT) Committee meeting regularly with Sarah White and Kate Gordon (ORP), heads of Gavin Newsom’s Just Transition planning team
- Tracking Just Transition Road Map policies
- Hosted a presentation for the Labor Network for Sustainability and other the national nursing organizations participating in the Nurses Climate Change Collaborative
- Work closely with SEIU/Nurse Alliance
- Presenting on Just Transition issues to local labor councils including the Alameda Council and the Sonoma Council
- Working with the League of Woman Voters (LWV) on a Just Transition educational session for their members in CA
Bakersfield
- Participated in the Bakersfield hearings to offer testimony regarding environmental impact reports (EIRs) and fast-tracking drilling permits.
Bay Area Air Quality Management
- Participated in press conferences regarding Rule 6.5, which would require more stringent air pollution controls (wet scrubbers) on oil refinery smokestacks. The resulting vote was in our favor for better protection for the greater Richmond and other impacted communities on the fence lines from refineries in the Bay Area.
California Air Resource Board (CARB)
- Attended CARB hearings, wrote letters and have continued to track the CARB Scoping plans
California State Water Resources Control Board
- Testified with Food and Water Watch regarding oil well water contamination
Pesticides
- Nurses are advocating for communities’ “right to know” about toxic pesticide exposures in their neighborhoods. CNEHJ is working with Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), a coalition of environmental justice, community, environmentalist, and health organizations.
- Submitted comments entitled “The Nurse’s View” on the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s 2024-2028 Strategic Plan.
Letter to Gov. Newsom- Re: Polluter Greed
Full page newspaper advertisement (on the right) produced by collaboration between Greenpeace, Consumer Watchdog, California Nurses for Environmental Health & Justice, and VISION
Dear Governor Newsom,
(see full letter in the Last Chance Alliance article)
We urge you to reject this thinly veiled polluter greed and instead prioritize the wellbeing of everyday Californians, by:
- Strengthening the draft setbacks rule to protect Californians from neighborhood drilling, including a 3,200 foot setback for both new and existing wells, including no new permits within that setback distance starting now. Existing wells, including idle ones (Bakersfield is the latest example), have been known to leak methane and other toxic emissions.
- Doubling down on your vision for a fossil-free future by resisting industry calls for new drilling permits. Do so while accelerating the timeline for a full fossil fuel phaseout and transition to clean energy, including clean cars.
- Delivering on the promise of a fully funded just transition that creates tens of thousands of good union jobs in the new emerging green economy, while providing certainty and support for the workers and communities that have powered our economy for the last hundred years.
- Ensuring communities most harmed by environmental racism and the fossil fuel industry are first in line to benefit from the transition to clean energy by ensuring the state’s policies prioritize health equity.
- Rejecting fossil fuel industry tactics to extend the life of their destructive fossil fuels via carbon capture and storage, ‘blue’ hydrogen made from fossil fuels, and carbon offsets that allow the fossil-fuel era to continue and impede the rapid transition to a clean and renewable energy future.
