CCAEJ Condemns SCAQMD Board’s Failure to Act on Life-Saving Clean Air Rules

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 6, 2025

Contact:

Ana Gonzalez

Executive Director, CCAEJ

Ana.g@ccaej.org

Diamond Bar, CA – Today, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) Board failed to approve Rules 1111 and 1121, delaying critical protections that would have begun the long-overdue transition away from dangerous, gas-burning furnaces and water heaters. These rules were the result of years of planning, research, and public input—and yet, instead of acting to protect public health, the Board chose more delay by sending the proposal back to committee.

This is not a neutral decision. This inaction will cost lives.

The residents of the South Coast region—overwhelmingly working-class people and communities of color—will continue to suffer the devastating health impacts of unchecked air pollution. Families in neighborhoods already burdened with asthma, heart disease, and toxic air will now wait even longer for relief that is already far too late. Gas appliances in our homes generate more smog-forming pollution than all the region’s power plants combined, and the Board’s refusal to move forward today represents a clear failure to stand up to the fossil fuel industry and put our communities first.

“Today the leaders of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties failed to protect the most vulnerable.” said Ana Gonzalez, Executive Director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ). “This decision is a betrayal of the public trust. After years of delay and compromise, SCAQMD still chose polluters over people. Our communities are dying while decision-makers send life-saving rules back to the drawing board.”

CCAEJ has long advocated for tiered mitigation fees, strong compliance timelines, and real investment in zero-emission technologies like heat pumps. The current proposal had already been weakened under industry pressure, and today’s vote signals that even those watered-down protections are too much for this board to approve.

Sending the rules back to committee is not a step forward—it is a stall tactic. Every day of delay means more asthma attacks, more missed school days, more hospital visits, and more lives lost.

We will not stand by quietly. CCAEJ will continue to organize, mobilize, and demand real action. The Board has another chance to get this right, but the community will be watching—and we will not accept another failure.