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Comment 4 for : April 28, 2016 Cap-and-Trade Workshop on Sector-Based Offsets (sectorbased4-ws) - 1st Workshop.
First Name: Katherine
Last Name: Valenzuela Garcia
Email Address: kbvale@gmail.com
Affiliation: AB 32 EJAC
Subject: EJAC Member Comments on International Offsets
Comment:
Cap and Trade is not working in California. The data we have from the Adaptive Management tool shows that emissions have gone up since 2010, quite significantly. This is what we know even before the Cal EPA report on AB 32's impacts on environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities need to be prioritized because we are and historically have been most impacted by pollution and exposure to other environmental hazards. And government has a responsibility to ensure public health, not business profits. I have this inhaler - and the other medications I take every day - because I grew up in Oildale, a community surrounded by oil extraction activities. I continue to need this inhaler more than I should because the community where I live now - a mostly people of color neighborhood thanks to redlining and racial covenants - was deemed the appropriate place for a new freeway. The EJAC has been to San Bernadino, Brawley, and environmental justice communities across the state, and there are still plenty of improvements that are needed here in California, mostly by reducing the emissions of industry and the products they create. Children today shouldn't continue to pay the price for anyone's unwillingness to change course. I want to reiterate - as I've told ARB staff many times - that it seems like the decision to pursue REDD+ has already been made, as all of the documents assume an ambitious path forward from this point. This is even though there is significant and continued opposition from environmental justice communities. ARB could learn from the models we've heard about today in Brazil, which are grassroots up. I think it's ambitious - to say the least - to assume that ARB is somehow more qualified than the United Nations to create a program that doesn't replicate the human rights violations we've heard about in Nigeria and other countries that have current REDD programs. In conclusion, we oppose REDD+, and encourage ARB and the stakeholders in this room to explore other methods to preserve tropical forests while allowing for more ambitious emissions reductions here in California.
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Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2016-04-30 13:26:01
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