Climate Policy > CEC’s Policy Platform
CEC’s Policy Platform
About the Community Environmental Council (CEC)
The Community Environmental Council is a nonprofit that has pioneered environmental solutions on California’s Central Coast for more than 50 years. We build on-the-ground momentum to reverse the threat of the climate crisis. We transform the systems that fuel it. We safeguard the community from its impacts. We’re boldly reimagining how we live on the only planet we all call home. Our current work advances rapid and equitable solutions to the climate crisis in our region — including zero carbon goals, drawdown of excess carbon, and protection against the impacts of climate change.
Our Climate Policy team collaborates with a diverse group of passionate and committed community members and partners across San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties to enact the bold, equitable climate policies. When the Central Coast advances ambitious goals and solutions, we illuminate a path for other regions and the state to set more aggressive policies.
CEC recognizes that climate change disproportionately burdens vulnerable populations who face compounded challenges from fossil fuel infrastructure, legacy pollution, and other intersecting injustices. We emphasize policy priorities that center the wants and needs of those most impacted, and that bring the benefits of sustainable solutions directly to them. We believe that our response to the climate crisis must include a radical shift away from the extractive and oppressive practices that currently drive many of our industries.
To ensure just and equitable climate policy on California’s Central Coast, CEC:
Cultivates opportunities for historically excluded community members to participate in local planning, collaborative governance, and civic processes so funding, program, and policy recommendations center their needs, experiences, and vision.
Advocates for improved language access — at local legislative meetings, at public hearings, and across policy and planning documents — to create culturally and linguistically accessible public spaces for community engagement and leadership.
Recommends that implementation of zero emissions mobility networks and building decarbonization initiatives include support for community resilience.
Advocates for guardrails that prevent gentrification and displacement of vulnerable communities in local plans, projects, and policies.
With these at the core of CEC’s policy and advocacy priorities, we can create a just climate future for everyone in our region.
ACCELERATE FUNDING FOR CLIMATE ACTION
Problem
Immediate, significant financial resources are needed to reduce carbon emissions and avoid the worst climate impacts.
Many local agencies lack adequate sustainability departments or relationships with other agencies to effectively apply for and manage large influxes of funding.
The State of California 2024-2025 budget has swung from record surpluses to record deficits, and climate spending is at risk.
Solution
New federal, state, regional, local, and private funding is being unlocked to address the climate crisis. With the California General Fund climate funding proposed to be scaled back in 2024, advocacy for new permanent state climate funding is critical.
Public/private partnerships can help ensure that the Central Coast secures our fair share of resources and spends them wisely and equitably while piloting and scaling solutions that can be replicated elsewhere.
Policy Priorities
State
Ensure that local agencies and community organizations are aware of new funding opportunities and build partnerships and networks to bring significant climate funding to our region.
Work with statewide partners to secure consistent funding for climate resilience projects – either through a Climate Resilience Bond or State funds. Advocate for comprehensive, well framed programs that equitably benefit California’s diverse communities.
Regional
Advocate for the three regional Community Choice Energy (CCE) organizations to develop programs that will accelerate residents and organizations to adopt clean energy technologies. This would collectively increase CCE program funding by $10 million annually.
Advocate for our regional Resource Conservation Districts to expand their budgets, staffing, and scope to position them as strong partners who can access state funding for local farmers and ranchers.
Local
Support the creation of local government sustainability divisions, push them to set stretch goals, and provide them with resources to pilot and scale innovative policies and projects.
Advocate for investments in and the development of utility and community-scale renewable energy and storage for climate resilience and equity.
Reverse Climate Pollution and Reduce Waste
Problem
Climate change is occurring faster and more intensely than previously thought.
The scientific community calls us to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce our carbon emissions, and stop polluting our air within the next decade to avoid catastrophic impacts.
Although California has some of the most ambitious climate policies in the United States, its current goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2045 is inadequate.
Solution
Dozens of scalable solutions are available now to reverse the climate crisis.
As the fifth largest economy in the world, California can trigger markets and drive national and global policy through its leadership.
The Central Coast can propel California by solving for hard-to-reach waste streams and modeling a rapid transition to clean, zero-emission transportation and buildings by 2035.
Policy Priorities
Push the City of Santa Barbara and the County of Santa Barbara to finalize Climate Action Plans, and work with the Cities of Guadalupe and Camarillo to initiate their Climate Action Plans. These plans should accelerate state mandates and timelines and position the California Central Coast as a model for other communities.
Advocate for the last remaining Central Coast city, Fillmore, to adopt Community Choice Energy (CCE) so that Fillmore’s 16,667 residents can have access to the Clean Power Alliance. Ensure that CCE providers, including Central Coast Community Energy, the Clean Power Alliance, and Santa Barbara Clean Energy, develop programs to equitably help residents and organizations adopt clean energy technologies. Push CCE providers to stay on track to reach 100% renewable electricity goals.
Advocate for local governments to develop equitable Electric Vehicle (EV) Action Plans, EV Reach Codes, and comprehensive zero emissions mobility plans and policies. Push jurisdictions to build capacity for transportation electrification by hiring clean mobility staff and pursuing more funding opportunities.
Champion all-electric codes so new buildings don’t use natural gas, prioritizing the Cities of Oxnard, Ventura, Goleta, and Carpinteria, and the County of Santa Barbara. Work with local partners to electrify existing buildings through policy and voluntary incentive programs.
Repair Lands and Sequester Carbon
Problem
Agriculture is a primary economic and employment driver on California’s Central Coast and is suffering from front-line climate impacts.
Over the last century, industrial agricultural practices have released tremendous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Solution
By rapidly scaling climate-smart agricultural practices on natural and working lands on the Central Coast, agriculturalists can remove carbon from the atmosphere, put it back in the soil, and deliver a huge win for the climate.
If provided with proper incentives, ranchers, farmers, and land managers have an unprecedented opportunity to provide an essential public benefit while improving their bottom line.
Policy Priorities
Advocate for the advancement of state carbon sequestration targets that emphasize natural and working lands as a solution and that incorporate regionalized data.
Push local governments to meaningfully include natural and working lands in their Climate Action Planning processes.
Advocate for financial incentives for ranchers, farmers, and land managers to implement climate-smart agriculture — storing carbon in plants, roots, and the soil.
Increase the supply of free or subsidized compost available for land managers interested in implementing climate-smart practices.
Build Climate Resilience and Advance Climate Justice
Problem
The climate crisis is already negatively impacting the Central Coast with record-breaking drought, extreme heat, fires, smoke, floods, and extreme storms.
The stretch of coast from Point Conception to the Southern California border is warming at twice the rate as the rest of the continental United States.
Impacts from climate change disproportionately burden vulnerable populations who are additionally impacted by fossil fuel infrastructure, legacy pollution, and other intersecting injustices.
Solution
Advancing climate justice and centering those most impacted increases the region’s climate resilience and improves public health effects from extreme heat, wildfire, and smoke.
For every dollar invested in climate resilience now, six dollars in health benefits can be saved. This means that investing in climate resilience creates jobs and saves money.
Policy Priorities
Adopt and implement ambitious and equitable Climate Action and Adaptation Plans, Heat Resilience Action Plans, and Hazard Mitigation Plans that protect communities from the impacts of climate change. These plans should put particular emphasis on the most vulnerable populations and promote climate adaptation measures identified by and for people in these communities.
Supporting the Central Coast Climate Justice Network and its Green New Deal framework, and in doing so, advance actions and systems-level changes that center communities who bear the greatest environmental burdens.
Advocate for Climate Resilience staffing in the County of Santa Barbara to ensure plans account for the real and lasting impacts of climate change.
Ensure development of robust community benefits plans for offshore wind development on the Central Coast.
Please direct questions to
Michael Chiacos, Director of Climate Policy
