Climate activists miss East Bay state senator with Easter Sunday protest

Yahoo

23-04-2025

The Brief
Protesters gathered outside State Senator Jesse Arreguín's office on Easter Sunday to urge him to vote yes on the Climate Superfund Bill.
Arreguín's office was vacant for the weekend and the protesters' messages were washed away by custodial staff.
The Climate Superfund Bill, which would hold polluters accountable for greenhouse gas emissions, is expected to be heard by legislators in the near future.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Protesters marched to State Senator Jesse Arreguín's office on Sunday, demanding he vote yes on an environmentally-focused piece of legislation. Unfortunately, the senator and his staff did not receive the message.
The protest was organized by the Bay Area chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a political action organization, who wanted Arreguín to vote yes on the Climate Superfund Bill (SB684), which would force fossil fuel polluters to pay for the damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
Attendees of the event carried signs, left chalk drawings, and hid plastic Easter eggs containing statements about holding polluters responsible for their actions around the premises.
Arreguín's Oakland office is only staffed Monday through Friday. A staffer said they were unaware of the protest until KTVU called for comment, and added that the office's janitorial staff had reported picking up "litter" and washing away chalk drawings prior to Monday morning.
The backstory
The protesters were motivated by Arreguín abstaining from another climate-focused bill, the Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act, earlier this month. That item, SB 222, only received five of the seven necessary votes at an April 8 hearing. Arreguín, who made climate action a cornerstone of his 2024 campaign for state senate, was one of five representatives who abstained from the vote.
Even if Arreguín had been present for the Easter Sunday protest, the action may have been for naught — the April 22 hearing for the Climate Superfund Bill was canceled at the request of its author, Caroline Menjivar (D-San Fernando) on April 10.
A spokesperson for Menjivar's office said the bill's hearing will be rescheduled, but a date has not yet been set.
"I am committed to supporting clean, healthy communities and proud to continue the East Bay's strong tradition of protecting our environment, parks, and public health. I appreciate the advocates' passion and look forward to meaningful conversations once this bill is formally back before us," Arreguín said in a statement to KTVU. "As an advocate for environmental causes, I was proud to vote for multiple bills this week that advance our climate action goals. I respect the right to advocate and always encourage folks to reach out to my office directly — we welcome those conversations."
Big picture view
California is one of several states that have proposed or passed Climate Superfund legislation. New York and Vermont both passed their own versions in 2024, and four other states — Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Oregon — have introduced similar bills.
The bill, which was introduced in the state assembly by Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo), would require fossil fuel polluters to pay for their share of the damage caused by greenhouse gases released into the covered period, which the bill defines as between the 1990 and 2024 calendar years.
That damage is defined as stemming from the extraction, production, refinement, sale or combustion of fossil fuels or petroleum products, to help relieve the state's current and future taxpayers of the burden.
If passed, the bill would require the California Environmental Protection Agency to determine and publish, within 90 days, a list of responsible parties, which the bill defines as an entity with a major ownership interest in a business engaged in extracting or refining fossil fuels that operated in the state during the covered period. That entity would also have to be determined to be responsible for more than 1 billion metric tons of covered fossil fuel emissions.
"The Central Coast has faced the devastating impacts of climate change, from floods and wildfires to coastal erosion. This year's fires in Los Angeles serve as a stark reminder that collective inaction has catastrophic consequences for all Californians," Addis said in a press release. "We can't deny that climate change is real, and we must take action now to prepare and rebuild after these devastating events."