Oppose CA SB 607

The content below is from the California Native Plant Society’s article Speak Out to Protect the California Environmental Quality Act: Oppose CA SB 607, published on April 15, 2025 by Karah Fisher. We stand with CNPS in opposing CA SB 607.

The California Environmental Quality Act

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) serves as an environmental bill of rights, ensuring Californians have a voice in the decisions that impact our communities. With unprecedented threats to environmental protections at the national level, now more than ever, it is critical to protect California’s bedrock environmental regulations. That is why we joined a broad coalition of over 120 environmental and conservation organizations to oppose CA SB 607 and its attempt to drastically rollback CEQA. Please consider joining this effort by urging your state representative to oppose SB 607 today.  

Taken together, the upcoming oversight hearing, H.R. 521/S.220, and the DOI review of public lands constitute a clear threat to biodiversity and cherished lands, setting the stage for corporate extractive industry interests. These actions threaten millions of acres here in California that we have worked hard to protect.

What’s at stake? 

Under CEQA, public agencies are required to identify and disclose the potential environmental impacts of a proposed project before it’s approved. CEQA can serve as a community’s last line of defense for safeguarding clean air, safe water, healthy ecosystems, and our state’s biodiversity. 

The changes outlined in SB 607 are not minor or “technical fixes” to CEQA; they broadly undermine the carefully designed protections that have been in place for over half a century. SB 607 attempts to lower the threshold for requiring environmental impact reports (EIRs), for nearly all private and government projects – not just infill housing projects, as its stated purpose indicates. These changes would apply across the board and limit public oversight on harmful projects. 

Act now for native plants 

Environmental and community advocates across the state rely on CEQA to protect the places we care about most. Your state representatives need to hear from you—please urge them to oppose SB 607.  

Let’s raise our voices to protect one of the most powerful tools at our disposal in the native plant movement.