Support Our Work
Your support—even just $5—will help the BlueGreen Alliance continue this critical work creating quality jobs in the United States.The BlueGreen Alliance in California has a strong local membership of labor, environmental, and community organizations working towards creating good jobs, while protecting our environment.
About the California BlueGreen Alliance
We are guided by the principle that we can no longer choose between good jobs and a clean environment—that the actions we take to create quality jobs and to protect working people and the environment must go hand-in-hand, and that together, we will build clean, thriving and fair economy.
Our Work
CLIMATE AND JOBS
The BlueGreen Alliance in California has worked to support the state’s landmark clean energy and climate change law by showing its positive impact on workers in the state—both economically and in terms of their health and safety.
REFINERY SAFETY
Four years ago, a chemical release and fire at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond threatened the lives of 19 workers and caused some 15,000 members of the surrounding community to seek medical attention. The incident exposed serious weaknesses in the state’s 24-year-old refinery safety regulations. It also created an opportunity for California to lead the nation in developing new approaches to regulating refineries that will benefit workers, neighboring communities, the state’s economy, and the industry itself.
Working with allies in labor, environmental, civic, and community organizations, the BlueGreen Alliance has focused on ensuring that proposed standards for refineries protect the workers and the communities around them.
NATURAL GAS LEAKS
In California, the BlueGreen Alliance worked with labor unions and environmental organizations to help enact SB 1371, which compels the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) to improve leak identification, repair, and avoidance, as well as better account for the climate change impact of natural gas leaks in the state’s natural gas distribution systems.
“Utility workers are proud of the broad public interest coalition of unions, environmental groups and consumer and community interests that have come together to support this measure [SB 1371]. Being proactive in repairing and upgrading these vital pipes will benefit the environment and public safety while creating and sustaining good jobs for workers throughout the state.”
– Robert Hoffman, President of Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) Local 132.
Key Facts
100,000 miles California is the nation’s second largest consumer of natural gas, with over 100,000 miles of pipes and other equipment delivering natural gas to customers across the state. (Source)
AB 32 The state's landmark clean energy and climate change legislation AB 32 was signed into law in 2006.. (Source)