FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2025
Contact: Michael Blenner, michael.blenner@sierraclub.org
Sierra Club California and Delta Coalition Stop Newsom’s Catastrophic Delta Tunnel Trailer Bills
Sacramento, CA - At the stroke of midnight last night, not a single legislator was willing to bring forward Governor Newsom’s destructive Delta Tunnel trailer bills for a vote, decisively killing them. Newsom’s two trailer bills would have skirted environmental review to fast-track approval of the Delta Conveyance Project (aka Delta Tunnel) and Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan package. Sierra Club California and our allies have consistently opposed these environmentally destructive projects, and the failure of these bills represents a huge victory for Delta communities, tribes, and environmental organizations.
After a resounding rejection by legislators in California Senate Budget Subcommittee #2 on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy in June, the trailer bills encountered an unstoppable roadblock. Thanks to the courage of Senators Allen, Blakespear, and McNerney, who stood together to reject and defer both trailer bills to the legislative process, the trailer bills did not move forward in June. Despite this rejection, the Newsom administration threatened to reintroduce the bills later in the season.
The first trailer bill, specifically addressing the permitting and funding process for the Delta Tunnel, was designed to significantly relax requirements for approval and construction of the Tunnel. The second trailer bill, focused on Water Quality Control Plans, attempted to reclassify the plans as “Class 8 Actions” lawsuits, allowing for the circumvention of essential environmental review and the public comment process. The Delta Legislative Caucus strongly opposed these bills in an opposition letter, pushing the legislature to “abandon the tunnel project and instead pursue an aggressive sustainable water strategy across the state that relies on strengthening the existing Delta water system.”
Due to impassioned organizing from Sierra Club California as part of a broad coalition of 50+ tribes, environmental orgs, environmental justice organizations, and community groups, and strong leadership from the legislative Delta Caucus co-chaired by Senator Jerry McNerney and Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, Newsom’s attempts to expedite the Delta Tunnel were thwarted. Not a single legislator volunteered to reintroduce the destructive pair of trailer bills.
By rejecting these attempts to relieve this calamitous project of environmental review requirements, the legislature has made their stance clear: a project as destructive and controversial as this must comply with crucial environmental review procedures.
Statement from Layne Fajeau, Sierra Club California Associate Organizer:
“Sierra Club California applauds the California legislators who stood against the Newsom administration’s attempts to subvert crucial environmental review processes on behalf of powerful water wholesalers and agencies. Senators McNerney, Allen, Blakespear, Assemblywoman Wilson, Senate Pro Tem McGuire, Speaker Rivas, and the entire Delta Legislative Caucus deserve immense praise for standing up for communities and species that depend upon a healthy Delta ecosystem."
The Delta Tunnel is a project that the public despises, and it has rejected time and time again for over sixty years. Ratepayers will not tolerate a project that will burden them with debt, that yields no new water and no additional security, and that only serves to benefit wealthy water wholesalers, agriculturalists, and agencies. We are proud that the legislature has listened to their constituents and decided to protect the Bay-Delta, and the ecosystems, tribes, and communities that depend upon it.”
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Sierra Club California is the legislative and regulatory arm of Sierra Club’s 13 local chapters in California, representing half a million members and supporters.