Clean Air, Clean Energy and Environmental Justice: Taking Back Our Air Quality

Allen Hernandez, Sierra Club My Generation
Mary Valdemar, Sierra Club

11:30 AM to 12:00 PM — Room 102

We are at a critical point as far as local environmental policy goes this year. The South Coast Air Quality Management District (the air quality regulatory board for Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles counties) is set to release its Air Quality Management Plan this summer. Residents of the Inland Empire suffer from the worst smog in the nation and some of the worst air in the nation. This especially affects low-income communities of color who live next to gas plants, refineries, warehouses and other sources of pollution. The current board is tied into fossil fuel interests, and is not thinking broadly enough about cutting pollution to safe levels for our communities or introducing a significant amount of clean energy solutions. There is a way to advocate for these solutions through direct action and activism. Please come learn how!

Allen is the lead organizer for the Sierra Club’s My Generation Campaign, working to clean up the air quality by moving California from fossil fuels and into a sustainable clean energy future. Prior to working with the Sierra Club, Allen was a union Organizer with UNITE HERE. Allen received his BA from Azusa Pacific University in Sociology and his MA from the University of Chicago in Social Service Administration. He also holds professional certificates from the University of Chicago and Harvard University. Allen is a life-long resident of Fontana, CA.

Sierra Club My Generation: 909-714-3129, allen.hernandez@sierraclub.org

Mary is Chair of the Sierra Club’s Metro Conservation Committee of San Bernardino & Riverside. https://www.facebook.com/SierraClubMetro/

She is also actively involved at San Bernardino Valley College, where she has been organizing students and community for over twenty years, and currently serves as the Vice-President of the Latino Faculty, Staff and Administrator Association and Political Action Coordinator of CSEA Chapter #291. Mary is the Core Team Lead for Village & Child Co-op and the co-founder of Chicano Indigenous Community for Culturally Conscious Advocacy and Action, a grassroots cooperative committed to educating and implementing Chicano Indigenous philosophies and ideologies into the Inland Empire. www.chicccaa.org, www.facebook.com/ChICCCAA, mvaldema@sbccd.cc.ca.us