ACTION ALERTS

Below please find actions you can take on the local, state, and federal levels, to protect the environment, defend health, and demand justice, including anti-nuclear weapons and military spending reduction policy advocacy.

SUBSCRIBE to our Action Alert Emails at the SIGN UP button above. And please follow us on Twitter @SFBayPSR, for more immediate news and info.

The 2023 California legislative session has ended and Governor Newsom has finished signing bills into law.
We have a lot to celebrate!!! READ about 2023 POLICY WINS in our Newsletter HERE!

ONGOING ACTIONS!

  • SIGN ON: Peace Caucus Call to Address Violence in Israel and Gaza
  • TELL Governor Newsom to protect solar power for apartments, schools, hospitals, farms, and multi-use buildings
  • Nation’s forests should not be a dumping ground for fossil fuel companies and other industrial polluters
  • Endorse: the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California
  • SIGN Health Professional Letter: Protect Neighborhoods from Oil & Gas Health Harms
  • Keep Coal Out of Oakland: Oaklanders, please place a sign in your front yard
  • Ask San Francisco to add building electrification to a 2024 housing bond
  • Urge U.S. Representatives to abolish nuclear weapons, H. Res. 77
  • California Air Resources Board (CARB) — we need a climate plan that prioritizes health and equity
  • Close Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
  • Sign: No Nuclear War over Ukraine
  • Demand the Cleanup of Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco
  • And more below

Health Care and Public Health Professionals Call to Immediate Action to Address the Violence in Israel and Gaza and Its Health Consequences

Initiated by the Peace Caucus in affiliation with the American Public Health Association (APHA)

As health care and public health professionals, we unequivocally condemn terrorist attacks against civilians and violence during war against civilians. International law recognizes attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure as crimes against humanity and, when committed during war, as war crimes. The medical and public health consequences of this violence against civilians in Israel and Gaza have been and continue to be horrendous and catastrophic.

The health harms of violence to civilians extend well beyond morbidity and mortality from explosives and other weapons. Forced displacement and restriction of access to food, water, shelter, health care, and medicine lead to widespread suffering, illness, and death.  When people live in crowded conditions during war, they are at increased risk of tuberculosis and other respiratory disorders. When they are denied access to safe water, they develop dehydration and potentially fatal diarrheal diseases, such as cholera.

Malnutrition makes people vulnerable to infectious diseases and causes long-term consequences on health and development. When people with diabetes, epilepsy, or chronic heart or lung disease cannot get their basic medications, they are at increased risk of serious complications and death. When pregnant women do not receive medical care and adequate nutrition, they are at increased risk of potentially fatal complications and delivering premature or low-birthweight infants. During war and terrorist attacks, exposure to violence and the threat of violence also causes mental health problems, which can persist for years afterward.

In addition, war violates human rights, damages critical infrastructure and housing, and diverts resources that support people’s health. It also contributes to environmental contamination, pollution, and degradation as well as climate change.

We call on all parties directly and indirectly involved in the violence in Israel and Gaza and its consequences to immediately:

1.    End the violence against all civilians and ensure their security;
2.    Free all hostages;
3.    Protect all health care workers and health care facilities;
4.    Ensure that humanitarian assistance is promptly provided; and
5.    Begin to build sustainable peace by ensuring human rights and justice for all.

We also call on health care and public health professionals, as well as their employers and professional organizations, to promote and support these actions.

Robert M. Gould, MD, chair, Peace Caucus and SF Bay PSR president
Patrice Sutton, MPH, co-program chair, Peace Caucus and SF Bay PSR Environmental Health Committee co-chair
Barry S. Levy, MD, MPH, Peace Caucus member, and past president of the American Public Health Association

SEE ALL SIGNATURES

ACTION

We invite you to sign the call above, strongly supported by the Board of SF Bay PSR, which we hope to use to advance broader efforts to cease the violence and begin to build peace and justice for all people in the region.

SIGN HERE

THANK YOU for taking action.

READING

Save Rooftop Solar for Schools, Hospitals, Farms, and Multi-Unit Buildings

Sponsored by Solar Rights Alliance

For years, SF Bay PSR has been supporting efforts to force the utilities to protect homeowners solar rights, the right to make their own solar energy. Over the summer the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) proposed rules that will irreparably hurt the ability of schools, colleges, renters, multifamily property owners, condos, coops, small farmers, health centers to reduce their utility burden through rooftop solar. These rules are called virtual net energy metering (VNEM).

Letters signed by hundreds of community organizations, and nonprofit housing developers, farmers, schools, elected officials, and apartment owners were sent into the CPUC in late June.

Thousands of apartments, farms, schools, and hospitals benefit from rooftop solar.

  • California’s nearly 2 million solar rooftops include multi-family homes, farms, and schools.
  • These solar panels help to lower utility bills through two programs that are very similar to the net energy metering (NEM) program used by homeowners.

The CPUC has proposed to stop apartments, farms, schools, and hospitals from using their own rooftop solar to reduce their electricity bill.

  • Here’s how it works: the solar energy directly powers your property when the sun is shining, which reduces the amount of electricity you buy from the utility. This is common sense.
  • But the CPUC is proposing that properties with more than one electrical meter be blocked from directly using their rooftop solar energy.
  • For these solar users, the CPUC is proposing to give the utilities exclusive control over their rooftop solar energy when it is produced. The landlord and tenants of an apartment building, for example, would then have to buy their own solar energy back from the utility at full price. Under this scheme, they would lose all of the savings that single-family homeowners get.

ACTION

Deadline: ASAP but definitely BEFORE the CPUC meeting on November 2.

1. Call the Governor: Gov. Newsom appointed the CPUC Commissioners. His phone number is (916) 445-2841. His lines are open weekdays. Or you can email him here.

2. Call your Assemblymember and Senator. We think legislators are starting to realize the scale of this threat to their constituents. If you have 1 more minute, please also call your state legislators using this Look up your legislators here.

SAMPLE SCRIPT:

“I am [state if you are health professional or advocate] and I am calling to ask you to OPPOSE CPUC’s proposed changes to net energy metering aggregation (NEMA) because it would make it economically unfeasible for schools, colleges, hospitals, farms, and multi-unit housing to install solar and storage. The CPUC must reject those proposals.”

READ MORE at Solar Rights Alliance

LA Times: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar

Protect Neighborhoods from Toxic Oil Drilling

More than 2.7 million Californians live within 3,200 feet of an operational oil or gas well. When we expand that distance to one mile, the number is nearly 7.5 million Californians. More than one-third of these people live in areas considered to be the most burdened by environmental pollution based on the results of the state’s screening tool, CalEnviroscreen. Of those at risk, over 90% are people of color.

Until SB 1137 passed, creating a 3,200-foot protective zone, California was the only major oil production state without a health protection zone (setback) to shield children, families, and communities from highest exposure levels to harmful emissions and other forms of environmental degradation originating from oil and gas operations.

Environmental justice communities have fought for over a decade to protect themselves and their families from oil and gas pollution and to mandate a health protective zone around their homes, schools, and health care facilities. SF BAY PSR mobilized health professionals in support of SB 1137. But, just a few days after Governor Newsom signed SB 1137 into law, Big Oil spent millions to deceive Californian voters on a referendum to overturn this health protective law. The law was to go into effect in January of 2023, but it is now on hold until it is voted on through a ballot measure in 2024.

At the start of 2023, hundreds of oil and gas drilling permits were approved, many within the 3,200-foot health protective zone from schools, homes, and hospitals.

ACTIONS

1. Endorse the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy California

SIGN HERE

This campaign is defending the oil drilling buffer zone law (SB 1137) on the November 2024 ballot. SF Bay PSR is a proud supporter of this effort, and PSR-LA is a member of the Steering Committee for this campaign to protect a landmark public health and environmental justice law from being overturned by powerful fossil fuel special interests.

2. Health professionals, please SIGN this Letter to Governor Newsom

This letter to the Newsom Administration urges them to use the power available to them right now to protect Californians living with the ongoing public health risk of oil extraction.

READING: Inside Climate News: History of Racism Leaves Black Californians Most at Risk from Oil and Gas Drilling, New Research Shows

Keep Coal Out of Oakland!
Add a yard sign in front of your Oakland home or business to show your support!

On July 10, a trial began pitting would-be coal developers against the City of Oakland. The City aims to enforce its 2018 termination of the developers’ lease because they failed to meet construction deadlines written into their contract. The developers are pressing for clearance to build a coal shipping terminal and for hyperinflated damage claims, on the pretext that the City is to blame for their failure to meet terms of a contract to which they themselves agreed.

If the developers prevail, they plan to ship coal overseas from the Oakland waterfront for decades, blanketing West Oakland with toxic coal dust that will cause serious damage to Oaklanders’ health … while escalating climate-changing emissions to which burning coal, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere, is a principal contributor.

Yard signs throughout the city will show that Oaklanders still reject a coal terminal on Oakland’s waterfront, as we did years ago in polls and (unanimously) through the Oakland City Council in 2016.

The yard sign (graphic shown above) will include a QR code and a URL pointing to an informational web page that will be updated as the situation develops. The No Coal in Oakland website has a wealth of information about the issues at trial, as well as the history of Oakland’s campaign against the proposed coal terminal.

ACTIONS

Do you live or work in Oakland? Will you help dramatize Oakland’s opposition to coal by placing a sign in your yard (or a large window)?

Contact NoCoalInOakland@gmail.com or SF Bay PSR Board Member, Dr. Jan Kirsch at oncoj@yahoo.com to have a Keep Coal Out Of Oakland yard sign delivered to your home or business. Please let them know the address where you will display (and to which they can deliver) your sign; your cross-street(s) and City Council district would be helpful too.

And they welcome your help distributing signs throughout the city.
Please respond to either email address if you can help distribute signs.

Thank you for your support!

The coalition coordinating this campaign includes: No Coal in Oakland, 350 East Bay, Youth vs. Apocalypse, West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, SF Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Sierra Club, SF Baykeeper, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, West Oakland Neighbors, Interfaith Council of Alameda County, Faith in Action

UPDATED: Tell Mayor Breed and Supervisors to Fund San Francisco’s Climate Plan

Sponsored by SF Climate Emergency Coalition, including SF Bay PSR

To fund San Francisco’s Climate Plan, voters will need to pass bonds. These bonds could be put on the ballot in 2024—if the committee approves.

A UC Berkeley Center for Law Energy and the Environment (CLEE) report recommended that the first step toward funding SF’s Climate plan should be a general obligation bond. See page nine of the Executive Summary.

We are asking the city to issue a bond to rehabilitate existing affordable housing buildings with climate-friendly features such as: 

  • electrification, replace gas water heaters, furnaces, and stoves with healthier, efficient electric appliances
  • energy-efficiency upgrades such as double-pane windows
  • green space/plantings in or around the buildings

ACTIONS

Make your health voice heard! Tell Mayor Breed and the Supervisors that the City of San Francisco must do its part to address climate change by incorporating climate goals and actions into a housing bond.

1. CALL: Please call and tell your Supervisors that we want a housing bond that includes building electrification  on the ballot in March 2024.

Connie Chan (chair) 415-554-7410, ChanStaff@sfgov.org
Rafael Mandelman 415-554-6968, MandelmanStaff@sfgov.org
Hilary Ronen 415-554-5144, hillary.ronen@sfgov.org
Shamann Walton 415-554-7670, shamann.walton@sfgov.org
Ahsha Safai 415-554-6975, ahsha.safai@sfgov.org
President Aaron Peskin 415-554-7450, aaron.peskin@sfgov.org

2. WRITE: Or write a short email to the Supervisors.
Email Clerk of the Committee brent.jalipa@sfgov.org with File #230265 in the subject line.
Copy President Peskin on the letter for sure, and the other 5 Supervisors if you wish.

MORE INFO about the benefits of a bond to fund electrification of affordable housing:

  • Removing “natural” gas will reduce climate-warming emissions, lessen the danger of gas leakage and explosions, and provide our most vulnerable residents with healthier indoor air while lowering their energy usage.
  • Such projects will comply with the coming BAAQMD regulations on replacement of gas furnaces and water heaters, and reduce the cost of utilities for the tenants because of the ultra-efficiency of heat pumps and induction cooking.
  • The CA Energy Commission has funding for pilot projects to electrify buildings, so those funds might further support City projects, adding value.

MORE INFO about the battle to gain funding for SF’s Climate Plan:

The San Francisco Climate Emergency Coalition has been actively meeting with the mayor’s budget staff and supervisors.

San Francisco has an ambitious Climate Action Plan (CAP), which Mayor London Breed proudly introduced in 2021. Confusingly, in the past two city budget cycles, she funded it at $0. The city is in danger of missing its climate goals without serious efforts to fund and implement the CAP.

After years of inaction, the passage of the federal Inflation Reduction Act means the US finally has a fighting chance at meeting our climate goals. But the IRA is just the start — now we have to do the hard work of implementation, everywhere. Cities, including San Francisco, have a critical role to play to ensure we get to net-zero carbon emissions as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, San Francisco is already behind. This year, the San Francisco Environment Department (SFE) is requesting $7 million for staffing and programs essential for achieving the CAP on schedule. This is a minuscule amount in the city’s overall $14 BILLION budget.

The climate crisis impacts the city in countless ways. It is a public health crisis, and funding climate initiatives will improve residents’ and the planet’s health. Such initiatives are also critical to address environmental justice and equity issues in San Francisco and improve the lives of underserved, low-income, and BIPOC communities. Climate initiatives will attract more businesses and tourists, create jobs, and elevate the status of San Francisco as a world-class city.

Mayors around the world are leading on aggressive climate policies in their cities. It’s time for Mayor Breed to show that she is a serious leader who recognizes that climate action is the path to a livable, equitable, and rejuvenated San Francisco, by committing to funding $7 million for SFE in her 2023-2024 budget and to a city bond that would help fund building electrification and other climate friendly projects.

Tell Your U.S. House Representative to Show Leadership on Abolishing Nuclear Weapons by Cosponsoring H. Res. 77

Last month, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved their iconic Doomsday Clock ahead to 90 seconds before midnight, the closest it’s ever come to symbolic global apocalypse. It’s time for action and leadership—especially from members of Congress whose voice and votes help shape U.S. nuclear weapons policies and the decisions of the Executive Branch.

ACTION

WRITE HERE, a template is provided.

Write to your Congressional representative today to urge them to co-sponsor H. Res 77, a resolution introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) that calls on the United States to embrace the goals and provisions of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) and to adopt Back from the Brink’s common sense policies for preventing nuclear war.

Feel free to personalize your letter, including if you live in an area that has adopted a BftB resolution as a way to demonstrate broad constituent support for H. Res. 77.

CA Climate Scoping Plan: We Need a Public Health Advisory Group

As a result of efforts led primarily by environmental justice advocates, there has been some improvement made to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2022 Draft Climate Change Scoping Plan. While we are encouraged by the elimination of all new gas plants, and improvements in the transportation sector, we are disappointed that the final 2022 Scoping Plan is still centered on putting the interests of fossil fuel and other polluting industries above the needs of overburdened communities, public health, science, and common sense.

Global warming is the biggest health threat we have ever faced, but a comprehensive public health analysis was not integrated into the design of the 2022 Draft Climate Change Scoping Plan. The health analysis conducted by CARB was extremely limited in scope, and did not inform members of the Air Resources Board or the public about the comprehensive public health threats, benefits, and costs of the potential policies and scenarios within the Scoping Plan.

We urge CARB to form a public health advisory group and work with public health professionals with expertise in climate, health, and equity to conduct on-going robust and comprehensive public health equity analyses that inform the implementation of each component of the 2022 Scoping Plan. We have to do all we can to minimize health harms and maximize health benefits of climate policies being enacted in California.

In brief, our top priorities include: 

  • Direct emission reduction (real zero not net zero emissions)
  • Rapid phase out of fossil fuels, phase out of refineries
  • Clean renewable electricity and energy
  • No reliance on unproven technologies such as CCUS
  • A scoping plan centered on public health and equity

Helpful Resources: 

We will post updates throughout 2023.

Prevent California from a Nuclear Disaster

UPDATE: SB 846 passed. This is bad news!

The aging Diablo Canyon Nuclear power plant that is near four earthquake faults will remain active for at least five more years.

We remain OPPOSED to the continued operation of the Diablo Nuclear Power Plant for these reasons:

  • It was built on the presumption of no active earthquake faults within 30 kilometers, it is now known there are 4 nearby active faults capable of larger quakes than the plant was designed for. One fault comes within 600 meters of the plant.
  • The reactors are aging, with critical upgrades having been avoided because of the presumed shutdown in 2025.
  • The attacks on the Zaporizhzhia reactor complex in Ukraine remind the world of the vulnerability of such plants to attack by adversaries / hackers, whether governments or terrorists, and the potential for massive radiation release.
  • Spending billions of dollars on the aging Diablo nuclear plant would steal resources that should be used for far more cost-effective renewables and storage, essential for dealing with climate change.

No Nuclear War over Ukraine

Supported by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, SF Bay PSR, PSR National, and others

SF Bay PSR continues to stand with our global allies in support of the Ukrainian people. We have all been feeling a bit overwhelmed by Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine and the new United Nations Climate Change report. But history has proven that we can achieve power and hope when we take action alongside others who are standing up across the globe for peace and a healthy planet. Join us!

As of August 4, 2022, more than a million people have signed! Let’s keep it going!

SIGN HERE

As healthcare professionals, we call for NATO and the Russian Federation to renounce the use of nuclear weapons in this conflict and for an immediate cease fire and the withdrawal of all Russian military forces. We are extremely concerned about the heightened risks of nuclear harms, including from the use of nuclear weapons and from potential damage to the 15 nuclear power plants in the region. We must protect Ukraine’s people and sovereignty. Our own government must work for immediate and long-term diplomatic solutions that will provide for true security, both at home and abroad. And we must follow Ukraine’s lead in their negotiations for peace.

CLICK HERE for more info on our efforts to support peace in Ukraine.

Aude Bouagnon at BVHP Rally

SF Bay PSR Board Member Dr. Aude Bouagnon spoke at a rally on Earth Day 2021 to support Bayview Hunters Point community efforts to advocate for the clean up of toxic wastes harming the health of residents. Photo by Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai.

Demand the Cleanup of Bayview Hunters Point in San Francisco

Contact San Francisco Mayor Breed & Board of Supervisors to ask them to ACT NOW:

● Declare a Public Health Emergency in Bayview Hunters Point and Treasure Island!
● Declare a moratorium on shipyard development and Lennar’s unsafe soil excavation!
● Conduct full retesting, safe cleanup and removal of all radioactive and toxic contamination at Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site & Treasure Island!

The San Francisco Hunters Point Naval Shipyard site was home to a Naval shipyard repair facility from 1945 to 1974 and the Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory (NRDL) from 1948 to 1960. These facilities contaminated soil, dust, sediments, surface water and groundwater with toxic chemicals, heavy metals, PCBs, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and radionuclides.

We are honored to support the Bayview Hunters Point Community Advocates in their efforts to fight for environmental justice.

READINGS & RESOURCES can be found HERE.

SIGN to demand the Cleanup of Radioactive & Toxic Contamination in San Francisco, Bayview Hunter’s Point Community

SIGN the petition here

Please join SF Bay PSR to support Bayview Hunters Point Mothers and Fathers Committee, Marie Harrison Community Foundation, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Literacy for Environmental Justice, Youth Vs. Apocalypse and other allies to demand a FULL cleanup of ALL contamination at the Hunters Point Shipyard Superfund Site and adjacent areas.

KEEP THE PRESSURE ON the Biden-Harris Administration

Let’s keep the pressure on the Biden-Harris administration and your congressional representatives. Tell them you want to see in a “Green New Deal” that justly transitions us to a green economy.

Support the Thrive Agenda and contact your representatives. Supported by 200 grassroots organizations and 83 members of Congress, the Thrive Agenda is a roadmap to a just recovery from our climate crisis, the global pandemic, and the intertwining of persistent racial injustice, Make your voice heard!

Also, please support the Third Reconstruction resolution, introduced on May 24, 2021, by Congresswomen Barbara Lee and Pramila Jayapal, in collaboration with the Poor People’s Campaign, “Realizing a Third Reconstruction: A Moral and Political Commitment to Fully Address Poverty and Low-Wealth in America by Building Up from the Bottom.”

Please help us to continue to make taking action easy for more health advocates.

PLEASE DONATE HERE TODAY!