I have called Sonoma County home for 41 years. What I love most about this place is the land itself: the rocky cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the ancient redwood forests and the rolling hills of oak chaparral and grasslands, alternately green or gold depending on the season. I’ve dedicated my life to protecting these places.
Thirty-six years ago I had the idea to create Sonoma County Conservation Action, a county-wide organizing effort to save Sonoma County from urban sprawl and the loss of its rural character and rich natural ecosystems. A year later, we started recruiting and training canvassers to go door-to-door and talk to local residents about environmental issues.
From this experience, I learned the power of reaching out, neighbor to neighbor, to share information about things that matter to us all: clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, habitat for wildlife and access to nature close to home. It’s because of this that I am compelled to write and urge my fellow residents throughout Sonoma County to vote no on Proposition 45 this November.
This statewide ballot initiative will weaken protections in Sonoma County and beyond for clean air and clean water. It is paid for by corporations trying to build polluting projects — including data centers — with less public oversight. And, communities like ours should be especially suspicious of Prop. 45 as it would encourage new large sprawl developments in high wildfire-risk areas.
Prop. 45 is aimed at undermining California’s bedrock environmental law: the California Environmental Quality Act. CEQA has a critical mission that protects all of us: For 56 years, it has required developers to disclose and mitigate the environmental and public health impacts of proposed projects. This process gives the public a chance to weigh in as decisions are made on developments like data centers, new freeways, warehouses and more.
CEQA protects your voice and ability to speak up for what matters in your community. If Prop. 45 passes, though, that would change. Prop. 45 would let developers fast-track polluting projects. Key decisions about what gets built near our homes, our schools, and even our water supply would be made with less information and less public input.
If you’re wondering why someone is trying to take away these fundamental rights, I encourage you to follow the money behind Prop. 45. This 41-page initiative is written and backed by the California Chamber of Commerce, data center developers, for-profit utilities and some of the state’s biggest corporations. PG&E has donated more than $2.5 million to try and pass Prop. 45. Edison International has contributed $4 million to political action committees supporting the campaign. In total, the amount of data center company-related contributions to the yes campaign has reached over $4 million.
These corporations do not have our best interests at heart. Nothing in Proposition 45 is about making housing or the cost of living more affordable. In fact, it doesn’t include a single requirement to lower housing prices, utility bills or costs for consumers. And, taxpayers would be the ones footing the bill for clean-up costs from polluting projects. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, implementing Prop. 45 could cost taxpayers $100 million or more per year.
The bottom line is that Prop. 45 is a corporate-funded rollback of California’s most critical environmental law. It will silence our voices and ability to weigh in on proposed developments and leave us to foot the bill for development clean-up costs. I’ll be voting no on Prop. 45 this November. I urge you to join me in standing up for what matters in Sonoma County: our clean air, clean water, and the natural environment make this area such a special place to live.
Mark Green served as the founding Executive Director of Sonoma County Conservation Action from 1991-2000 and is a longtime resident of Sonoma County.
You can email letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com. Don’t miss The Press Democrat’s new weekly opinion newsletter, Second Thoughts. Sign up here.