SACRAMENTO, Calif — As climate change is impacting California's environment, a state lawmaker is proposing adding the right to a healthy environment to the California Constitution.
Known as Assembly Constitutional Amendment 16, or simply just ACA-16, it would change Article 1 of the state constitution by adding:
"The people shall have a right to clean air and water and a healthy environment."
Essentially, the so-called "green amendment" would enshrine the right to a healthy climate for current and future Californians.
If it passes out of the Assembly and Senate with a two-thirds majority, it would then be added to the November ballot for the voters to decide on.
As much as it sounds like a California-led effort, it's not the first state to have such an amendment introduced.
Montana and Pennsylvania have had climate amendments to their state constitutions for more than 50 years, while New York state voters approved a green amendment in 2021 with nearly identical language to ACA-16 that California lawmakers are now debating.
Numerous other state legislatures have had green amendments introduced in recent years, including Florida, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia, however, they've not made it out of their respective state houses.
Democrat Issac Bryan, whose assembly district includes south Los Angeles, is the author of ACA-16.
Bryan spoke with ABC10 about the bill on Thursday. Here are three main takeaways from the conversation. The full interview can be seen in the video player above.
1. "Enshrine the right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment."
Asm. Bryan says California is "about four decades" behind other states when it comes to protecting the right to a healthy environment.
"In California, we like to promote ourselves as climate champions [and] as climate leaders. But it's strange that 40 million people in our state don't have those rights," he said.
Bryan cites New York as an example, which added a nearly identical green amendment into its constitution in 2021.
"That's what ACA-16 is about. It's about making sure the people of California have all of the rights and liberties that they're entitled to, and the rights that we can find in our sister states across the country," he said.
2. "More pressing and timely now than it perhaps ever has been."
In order to keep environmental protections at the forefront of state and national policy, Asm. Bryan argues the best way to do that is to add the right to a healthy environment into California's constitution.
"If we at all have any concerns about not maintaining an environmentally friendly White House in the near future, then California has to do all that it can to insulate itself," he said.
Bryan uses a lawsuit brought against the Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The lawsuit alleged the EPA didn't do enough to compel the state of Pennsylvania to reduce pollution according to the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint. The lawsuit was settled in 2023.
"We're insulating ourselves from rollbacks and damage done by the federal government... That's the power that our state constitution and the green amendment could have as well. It's one that I think is more pressing and timely now than it perhaps ever has been," he said.
3. "The people of California will have a new tool to hold polluters accountable."
The green amendment isn't without opposition. In a Los Angeles Times editorial piece, a policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce told the LA Times the amendment would be a "job killer" and would embolden "wealthy white NIMBYs" to prevent needed housing and other development, similar to how the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, is currently misused.
"The fact that it's [CEQA] being abused is something we're actively working through the legislature," Bryan said. "But that doesn't mean everything that is for providing clean air, clean water and a healthy environment for people is somehow anti-housing. That's a false conflation."
"What I think the chamber is actually letting us know is that in New York, there are a number of lawsuits that are citing the green amendment, and the state is the plaintiff holding bad actors in the state accountable. What I think they're afraid is the people of California will have a new tool to hold polluters accountable and that new tool scares them a little bit," he said.
WATCH MORE ON ABC10: Some Sacramento neighborhoods will soon be seeing more trees
