Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter accomplished a lot of work in 2024. Our staff-led campaigns produced webinars and events, attended public hearings, and ran actions reaching thousands of members and supporters to educate them and galvanize them to action. All of this work happened even as our leaders and volunteers led additional campaigns, guided endorsements, directed positions, and engaged decision-makers in support of the environment and environmental justice. Along with this on-the-ground work, we also hired a new Chapter Director and two new Chapter Organizers to spearhead our campaign work, build relationships with our partners, and support our volunteers.
SF Warehouse Ordinance
In the beginning of 2024, the Chapter helped to pass an ordinance in San Francisco requiring conditional use authorization permitting for new warehouse development. Warehouses serving e-commerce needs act as magnets for sources of emissions like trucks and cargo equipment. In San Francisco as of 2022, 100% percent of the warehouses (within a .2 mile radius) are in areas where diesel particulate matter 2.5 pollution is in the 90th percentile. This is largely clustered in the southeastern part of the city where communities are dealing with the history of and ongoing harms of environmental injustice.
The CUA ordinance requires additional review and oversight for any new warehouse development above a certain size. This gives communities greater awareness of the projects proposed for their communities and greater opportunity for interventions to reduce the harmful emissions that warehouses bring in. The Chapter was proud to work with a coalition to get this ordinance passed before the warehouse moratorium expired, a coalition that included community partners, the SF Building Trades, the SF Labor Council, and the Teamsters.
Sea Level Rise Education–”Heron and the Green Crayon”
As part of our efforts to increase awareness of the benefits of natural and nature-based solutions to sea level rise, we published a comic in March 2024 that illustrates the Sierra Club’s approach to adaptation and resilience. “Heron and the Green Crayon” follows a black-crowned night heron, the iconic local bird named Oakland’s official bird in 2019, as it describes green infrastructure possibilities in the Bay Area region. With rising tides imminent, appropriate planning is necessary. “Gray” infrastructure can have unintended, negative consequences, so “greening the gray” is always a better option as it supports natural resiliency and can be more cost-effective in the long-term.
Nutrient Pollution Permits Strengthened
Following up on work in 2023 calling on the Regional Water Quality Control Board to implement stricter nutrient permits from wastewater dischargers after two harmful algae blooms (HABs) that led to fish kills in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Bay Chapter continued to work to pressure the Water Board to strengthen the permit guidelines. Over the summer of 2024, the Water Board held a hearing on the new permits that required a stricter standard on nitrogen levels allowed to be discharged, a key nutrient for HABs. The Chapter recruited more than 90 people to give public comment, calling on the Water Board to maintain the standards in the face of pressure from dischargers to weaken them. Ultimately, the permitting passed as we called for. Along with this mobilization, we also conducted educational tours of various local wastewater facilities for our volunteers to learn more about the processes that are critical to protecting our local waters from pollution.
Fighting the Dangerous Oakland Airport Expansion
In 2024, the campaign to stop Oakland Airport’s dangerous and unnecessary expansion came to a head with the release of the Final Environmental Impact Report and subsequent Port of Oakland Commission vote on whether to certify. The Chapter had been opposing the expansion since 2022 since it would double passenger flights and increase cargo flights, leading to a heavy increase of emissions that would harm East Oakland, an environmental justice community, and the climate. We had an ongoing action that garnered 1200 signatures along with sending and signing on to several letters and showing up to hearings.
After signing onto comments outlining the deficiencies in the Draft Environmental Impact Report, we waited for an updated FEIR only to realize that it remained inadequate. The FEIR did not appropriately account for all the emissions and impacts that the airport expansion would cause and subsequently did not develop appropriate mitigation measures in order to ensure that communities and the environment would not be damaged by the “significant and unavoidable impacts.” We launched a new action that earned X actions in the one week it was live and attended the Commission hearing as part of a 60+ person mobilization, all opposed to the certification of the FEIR and the airport expansion. Despite groundswell community opposition, a faulty FEIR and misrepresentations of the expansion’s impacts, the Port of Oakland Commission voted to certify the expansion, essentially greenlighting the project. However, the campaign isn’t over! We’re exploring all legal options to protect our communities and the environment.
Calling on Community Choice Aggregates to Reject Dangerous Nuclear Allotments
Sierra Club has been a longtime proponent of Community Choice Aggregates and their work to procure renewable energy as an alternative to fossil fuel based energy from standard utilities like PG&E. We’ve long supported and watchdogged CCAs like MCE and Ava Community Energy. Unfortunately, this year MCE and Ava were offered energy allotments from PG&E powered by nuclear energy. Sierra Club has had a blanket anti-nuclear policy for decades, and as such the Chapter opposed both CCAs accepting the nuclear allotments. MCE, California’s first CCA, has a founding principle to not procure nuclear energy. Nuclear energy can be highly volatile, as seen in cases like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, and produces harmful radioactive waste that is often disposed of near marginalized communities.
For these reasons, Sierra Club opposed MCE and Ava accepting the nuclear allotments as we believe it violates the CCA commitment to renewable energy and goes against Sierra Club’s vision of a truly renewable energy future that supports all communities. We ran petitions for both CCAs, garnering 124 actions taken, and turned out to both public hearings to let our position be known. Unfortunately, both CCAs voted to accept nuclear allotments while still claiming to oppose nuclear energy future, particularly Diablo Canyon Power Plant. We’re working to ensure their remain true to their commitment and do their part in making sure Diablo Canyon shuts down and decommissions in 2030 as planned.
Protecting the Clean Water Act from San Francisco’s Lawsuit Against the EPA
In late August, Chapter staff and volunteers launched a campaign to stop the lawsuit San Francisco filed against the EPA for dumping untreated sewage into the ocean from going to the conservative-majority Supreme Court which would likely use it as an opportunity to deregulate the EPA and undermine the Clean Water Act. We built a coalition of dozens of organizations, getting 70 community-based, environmental, environmental justice, water, and water justice organizations to sign on to a letter to the Supervisors, Mayor, City Attorney, and SFPUC General Manager. Between three actions, we garnered over 3000 letters sent and calls made. We held a press conference and rally in front of San Francisco City Hall. We mobilized more than 100 people to two Board of Supervisors meetings. And we raised the specter of this issue, earning more than 40 media spots locally and nationally.
Our work culminated in the passage of a resolution calling on the Mayor, City Attorney, and SFPUC General Manager to drop the lawsuit–a bold, strong statement from the Board of Supervisors. Nonetheless, Breed, Chiu, and Herrera kept the lawsuit which was heard by the Supreme Court on October 16th. We’re awaiting a decision between January and June. In the meantime, we’re going to keep the momentum going and continue to build a powerful movement calling for accountability from San Francisco decision-makers–and hold the opaque and intractable SFPUC to task for their out-of-touch policy decisions.
Ensuring Timely and Equitable Implementation of Zero-NOx Appliance Rules
After passing first-in-the-nation rules at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District requiring the selling of appliances that don’t produce nitrous oxide, an emission harmful to human health, the SF Bay Chapter continued to ensure that the rules remain on the same timeline so that the health benefits will be achieved quicker AND that the rollout of the rule does not cause undue burden to disadvantaged communities.
The Sierra Club remained engaged with the BAAQMD Board and Staff throughout 2024, and worked with the Equitable Implementation Working Group to ensure that the rules would have the greatest impact with the least burden to the greatest number of people possible. In the latter half of 2024, we also worked to ensure that BAAQMD maintained the established timeline for heat pump water heaters of 2027 being the date when zero-NOx appliances would be the only available option for purchase. We educated and mobilized our base and collaborated with partners in order to ensure the Board maintained the 2027 date. Our petition garnered over 500 actions and we mobilized more than 70 speakers to the early December hearing. We will continue to work to ensure that the rules remain in effect and are executed to the greatest benefit possible to local community health and the environment.
Planning for Regional Sea Level Rise Adaptation and Resilience
The SF Bay Chapter has been deeply engaged for several years in regional adaptation for anticipated sea level rise. With rising tides will come impacts against ecosystems and communities. The Bay Area is unusual in the level of disadvantaged communities near shorelines, highlighting the need for appropriate planning. However, not all sea level rise adaptations are created equal, with “gray” or hard infrastructure having potential negative consequences, including downstream impacts. Sierra Club has adopted the position of prioritizing natural and nature-based solutions, including wetlands and marshlands restoration, living levees, and more.
In 2024, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission needed to draft and adopt a Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan that would outline the guidelines for Bay-facing municipalities to develop sea level rise adaptation plans. The Chapter worked to ensure the RSAP put nature and communities first. To accomplish this, we needed to educate and mobilize our base so we put on 6 events to teach our supporters about the issue and train them on how to take action. Trainings ranged from LTE writing to giving public comment. We recruited over 300 people to these workshops, and concurrently ran actions and turned people out to hearings. Our actions garnered over 1000 actions taken and we had a total of 20 speakers on the day of the final vote.
Ultimately, the BCDC Commission adopted a version of the RSAP in early December that included most of our requests. While we had previously not been optimistic, thanks to thoughtful review and powerful organizing, we were able to achieve a sea level rise plan that will help our communities and ecosystems adapt and build resilience.
Empowering the next generation of leaders through policy and advocacy education
For a second year, the SF Bay Chapter co-sponsored and co-led the California Youth Climate Policy program (CYCP), taking more than 50 students through a six-month program that covers how to evaluate and create policy, how to build a coalition, and how to work with their school board to get an environmental or climate policy passed.
The program is an off-shoot of the SF Bay Chapter’s Climate Literacy Committee, designed in partnership with environmental educator non-profits Ten Strands and Undaunted K-12. A key element of the program’s success are the adult mentors who are paired with each student and support them on their policy journey. Mentors reported feeling deep purpose in their work, learning about policy and advocacy alongside their students. The students’ outcomes were striking: 100% agreed or strongly agreed that CYCP built their leadership skills; 100% felt they were capable of influencing sustainable change within their district, and 100% agreed or strongly agreed that the program furthered their understanding of civics and democracy. Plans are in progress for a 3rd year of CYCP to start summer 2025.