Chevron’s refinery in Richmond is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases in California and has caused a series of spills, flares, and other damages that have harmed the region’s air quality and, in 2012, even sent 15,000 people to the hospital. In 2024, the city council’s climate majority secured a $550 million settlement with the refinery after organizers threatened to run a “Make Polluters Pay” ballot measure to address decades of environmental and health impacts. It’s critical we help protect that majority to ensure that funding is used for environmental remediation and climate action, which is why we’re backing: 

• Claudia Jimenez for Richmond Mayor: Jimenez has been a champion for the climate movement on the Council and led the fight to ensure the city won a strong settlement against the refinery. If elected, she’ll champion the Port of Richmond’s efforts to build offshore wind infrastructure and the city’s clean energy workforce development plan she helped pass, and ensure the funds the city was allocated from Chevron are used to improve the city’s climate-resilient infrastructure and bolster its clean energy use. 
• Doria Robinson for Richmond City Council District 3: Robinson is a third generation Richmond resident who has helped build healthy and sustainable food systems as the Executive Director of urban agricultural hub Urban Tilth and an appointee on the California State Food and Agriculture Commission. She helped negotiate and champion the city’s settlement with Chevron and helped secure a $30 million grant from the state for Richmond to improve low-income homes’ climate resiliency. If elected, her primary climate focus will be to continue building Richmond’s economy by investing in green industry infrastructure and phasing away from fossil fuels.

California’s last proposed fossil fuel power plant, the Grayson Power Plant, was scaled back by the Glendale City Council in 2023 after opposition from organizers but future members of the Council will still have the opportunity to completely phase the city off gas and increase its clean energy infrastructure. To ensure the city achieves a 100% energy transition, we’re backing:

• Dan Brotman for Glendale City Council: A former economics professor and current Glendale Councilmember, Brotman has led the plan to transition the city’s utility to 100% clean energy and led the fight to replace gas generation at the Grayson Power Plant. If reelected, he’ll continue to work on moving the city’s power utility to 100% clean energy by 2035 and to push on building and vehicle electrification and climate adaptation work.
• Alek Bartrosouf for Glendale City Council: Bartrosouf is a transportation planner for the city of Los Angeles who worked during the pandemic to quickly enact city planning interventions that allowed the community to safely get together outside. He’s running as a newcomer to the Council to ensure the city produces and sources 100% clean energy by investing in solar and local battery storage, to improve the city’s public transit and biking infrastructure, and to prepare the city for worsening heat by increasing its tree canopy. 

Just a year after the city endured the Palisades fire, LA’s mayoral and city council elections offer the city the chance to ensure it rebuilds damaged neighborhoods, invests in resilient infrastructure for the future, and moves the city fully to clean energy. We’re backing two climate leaders running for Council: 

• Faizah Malik for Los Angeles City Council District 11: Malik is one of LA’s leading public interest lawyers and housing advocates whose work has helped defend eviction protections against landlord lobby attacks, sued the state to stop the denial of rent relief, and lead the campaign for the city’s strongest tenant protections in 40 years. If elected, she’ll fight to invest in climate-resilient infrastructure that can help the city recover from the Palisades Fire, move the city towards cleaner energy by closing the Playa del Rey Gas Storage Facility and holding firm to LA100’s goal of 100% carbon-free power by 2035, supporting the Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act, and incentivizing electrification standards in new construction.
• Estuardo Mazariegos for Los Angeles City Council District 9: As co-Director of one of California’s largest progressive organizations, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Mazariegos led fights to pass historic tenant protection bills in LA and to pass Measure ULA to fund affordable housing. His district earns the lowest median income in the city and faces some of the worst climate impacts from extreme heat by having the least green space. He knows that supporting clean energy can mean supporting good-paying jobs that enrich his district without polluting. If elected, he’d fight to shut down polluting plants, hold LADWP to its 2035 clean energy goal, and make sure “100% clean energy” means no fossil fuels.

Flojaune Cofer for Sacramento County Supervisor District 1: Dr. Cofer is a public health advocate whose work at the California Department of Public Health helped build a statewide coalition that decreased infant mortality by 14% across the state. She treats climate change as the public health emergency it is and, if elected, would use the full power of the county government to reduce harm, protect frontline communities, and accelerate a just transition to clean energy.

Chelsea Byers for West Hollywood City Council – As West Hollywood’s former Mayor and as a current council member, Byers has been a champion in ensuring this small city takes action on climate change. She sits on the committee that oversees the Clean Power Alliance, a clean energy provider that through her leadership now provides 100% renewable energy to the city. She also helped the city finalize a building performance standard, a key step toward eliminating fossil fuel use in existing buildings that sets the city on a path to carbon neutrality in building emissions by 2035. If reelected, she’ll build on this work by helping expand green spaces in the city, tackling emissions from transportation, and more broadly standing up to the Trump administration’s regressive agenda as a local official by supporting her community’s immigrant population and expanding social services for low income families.