I am writing as a concerned constituent and California resident to urge you to take swift and decisive action to address the serious environmental and public health threats introduced by Senate Bill 131 (SB 131).

While SB 131 was presented as a bill to support affordable housing and essential community services, it contains a dangerous and sweeping CEQA exemption for "advanced manufacturing" that was passed without public input and on a fast-tracked timeline it was passed over a weekend, signed by the Gov and became law the next day. As it stands, this exemption threatens the health and safety of low-income and other communities, undermines California’s climate goals, and opens the door to polluting industries with minimal oversight.

Here’s what concerns me and should concern every Californian:

** The term "advanced manufacturing" is dangerously vague. The definition used in SB 131 includes lithium mining, hydrogen fuel production, strip mining, semiconductor and plastic manufacturing, and even water bottling, all of which will be allowed with no requirement for environmental review under CEQA. This is not “clean” or “green” industry, it's deregulation disguised as "innovation."

Frontline communities will suffer first. Industrial zones disproportionately overlap with working-class and BIPOC neighborhoods. CEQA exists to ensure these communities are informed, protected, and heard. SB 131 strips them of those protections.

CEQA is not redundant. It's essential. Other environmental laws do not provide the same comprehensive, cumulative, early-stage analysis CEQA ensures. CEQA is often the only law that identifies impacts and triggers mitigation before damage is done. With the US EPA rolling back environmental protections, our California protections are even more important.

The "advanced manufacturing" exemption is inconsistent with California's values. We cannot claim leadership in climate and environmental justice while gutting the very protections that uphold those values. This aligns more with Trump-era rollbacks than the bold, transparent leadership Californians demand.

I respectfully and URGENTLY call on you to:
• Remove the CEQA exemption for advanced manufacturing from SB 131, or at minimum, significantly narrow its scope and clarify its definition to specific project types without known pollution and public health and safety risks.

• Restore SB 35’s protections for “habitat for protected species” and designated conservation lands which shockingly were removed from CEQA safeguards in this bill.

• Ensure that any future environmental policy changes are subject to transparent, public legislative processes, not last-minute trailer bills.

Please do not allow these harmful provisions in CEQA to stand. California’s families, frontline communities, ecosystems, and democratic processes deserve better.

I urge you to lead with courage and integrity by fixing SB 131.