SACRAMENTO – One of the world’s largest data center builders has contributed $250,000 to the Yes on Proposition 45 campaign, according to records filed with the California Secretary of State. Proposition 45 is the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, water, and public health laws.

SACRAMENTO – The American Lung Association, the nation’s leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease, today announced its opposition to Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

SACRAMENTO – Saying it “would create significant legal uncertainties that are likely to embroil local governments in additional litigation for decades to come,” a new report from the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) is urging rejection of Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

SACRAMENTO  — Saying it is “unnecessary and flawed,” the League of Women Voters California today announced its opposition to Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

DATA DEBATE: A new front is opening in the war over data centers. Opponents of Proposition 45, a ballot measure to overhaul California’s landmark environmental law, are seizing on bipartisan backlash to AI infrastructure to argue that the measure could help developers fast-track their construction.

SAN JOSE — The California School Employees Association (CSEA), an influential union that represents nearly a quarter-million public school support professionals across California, today announced its opposition to Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

According to a statement from Representing California’s Rural Counties (Lassen County is a member), this memo provides an analysis of Proposition 45, which would make significant changes to local and state permitting processes, the California Environmental Quality Act, and tribal consultation obligations for a wide variety of “essential projects.”

SACRAMENTO – The California Professional Firefighters (CPF) today announced their opposition to Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

SACRAMENTO – The California Federation of Teachers (CFT) today announced their opposition to Proposition 45, the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, clean water and public health laws.

A debate over whether Proposition 45 could ease environmental review for data centers is emerging as a major fault line in the campaign over the California ballot measure, as opponents seek to connect proposed changes to the California Environmental Quality Act with growing public resistance to the massive facilities.

The special interests behind Prop 45 – including oil and gas companies, utilities, and data center developers – are dead-set on dismantling California’s existing protections for our air, water, and health and leaving taxpayers stuck with cleanup bills.  The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates Prop 45 could cost taxpayers more than $100 million per year. Here’s the truth about what this dangerous measure would mean for our state.

Opponents of Proposition 45, which creates new rules under the California Environmental Quality Act for some building projects, are arguing the so far well-polling ballot measure would grease the skids for the construction of data centers, which poll very badly.

The allegation comes as a large and growing coalition of environmental groups, joined by some labor unions and the California Democratic Party, mount a pitched campaign against what they call a corporate power grab clothed as an affordability measure.

For advocates working at the intersection of environmental protection and climate-smart growth, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has long been a source of both pride and frustration. While it has been a critical tool to protect our natural and working lands, its procedural delays have often been used to stall projects essential to a low-carbon future: dense infill housing and transit-oriented development in our existing communities.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An enthusiastic crowd of diverse stakeholders gathered on the West Steps of the California State Capitol on August 5 to oppose Proposition 45, the November ballot measure coalition members are calling the Corporate Polluting Projects Prop. Speakers from environmental justice, public health, and conservation organizations warned that the measure would strip away decades of public oversight over harmful industrial projects and hand more power to corporate polluters.

Proposition 45 would minimize environmental review of data centers, freeways, fossil-fuel power plants, dams, sprawling land uses into wildfire zones and more. The cost of review would be shifted to the government, over $100 million per year.

Proposition 45, known as BACA, which should stand for the Backtrack California Act, would take California back to the days when developers had no accountability for the impacts of their projects.

California voters will decide the fate of a proposal that speeds up approvals for certain projects and changes how the state’s bedrock environmental law can be applied to them. Below, an environmental justice advocate says Proposition 45 empowers bad actors and shifts costs to taxpayers. The opposing view: An affordable housing advocate says historic misuse of environmental laws have delayed projects California can no longer wait for.

This November, Californians will face a ballot measure that should concern anyone who values clean air, clean water, clean soil and the health of their community. Prop 45, brought forward by the California Chamber of Commerce, is a serious threat to public health, and people who care about protecting their families and neighborhoods need to stand up and oppose it.

Don’t let the supporters of Proposition 45 fool you. Their main interest is in lining their own pockets. It is supported by developers and businesses.

They care nothing about our neighborhoods, our environment or actually providing affordable housing.

We actually need to strengthen CEQA to protect our environment, neighborhoods and the ability of cities to determine their own development.

Please vote no on Proposition 45.

The California Chamber of Commerce wants voters to believe its ballot initiative is a commonsense fix to an outdated law. It is not. The initiative is a sweeping rewrite of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the state’s most important environmental law, that would shift enormous costs and legal risk onto cities, counties, and other public agencies across California. The growing coalition of good government, public health, labor, environmental and environmental justice groups opposing this measure aren’t alarmists. They’re reading the fine print. Public officials should too.

As I noted in my initial analysis of the California Chamber of Commerce’s ballot initiative to rollback most of CEQA, one important point about the initiative is how many different projects are covered by it – despite the framing that it only covers “essential projects.”

Proposition 45 begins with a diagnosis that is difficult to dispute: California has forgotten how to build, and the friction of regulation is too burdensome, resulting in delays and inflated costs. Useful infrastructure gets caught in procedural thickets that raise costs without always producing better outcomes. There is clearly appeal to a ballot measure promising faster environmental review.

The problem is that Proposition 45 is far less careful than the sales brochure might lead you to believe.

The committee — operating as One Voice for California, sponsored by labor, health and environmental organizations — unites the organizing strength of California labor, the credibility of the state’s leading public health and environmental advocates and funders, and the people power of more than 250 organizations and growing.