ACTION ALERT: Help Us Stop a Highway Expansion Project!

The Coalition for Clean Air needs your help. California is planning to award $200 million to a highway expansion project in Southern California, which will significantly increase air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in the area. If constructed, this project will cause significant harm to the health of nearby communities and set back our state’s climate progress. Please call in to the California Transportation Commission hearing on January 25th to voice your opposition to this harmful project!

The I-15 Corridor Expansion Project is located in San Bernardino and Riverside counties and proposes to build an additional auxiliary lane and two express lanes on Interstate 15. While the project proponents claim the project is necessary to reduce congestion on the highway, the project documents admit that the project will cause a 12 to 28 percent increase in traffic by 2045. This is because the additional lanes will encourage more people to drive, which will increase the amount of cars on the road. This is once again shown in the project documents, which estimate that the vehicle miles traveled will increase by 22% by 2045.

Another reason for concern is the local air quality. More cars don’t only produce more greenhouse gas emissions but also release harmful pollutants into the air. Considering that San Bernardino and Riverside counties have once again been ranked as having the worst air quality for ozone in the United States, generating any additional air pollutants will create even more health problems for people living in the area. In addition, this project will lead to an increase in truck traffic due to the additional lanes creating more space on the road. Truck traffic generates significantly more air pollution than cars and is responsible for more than half of all ozone and particulate matter emissions generated by vehicles. Particulate matter and ozone pollution can cause a variety of health problems such as bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer, heart attacks, and even premature death. This increase in air pollution will especially impact neighborhoods located near the highway, which are disproportionately low-income neighborhoods and communities of color.

Despite the project being located in an area already plagued by high air pollution and evidence showing that the expansion will result in more cars on the road, the project proponents still claim that this project will have no significant impact on the environment or air quality. We need your help convincing the California Transportation Commission to not approve this project for additional funding given the significant harm it will cause to the Inland Empire region and California as a whole. Please call into the hearing to share why you oppose California's spending funding on projects that increase air pollution and undermine our progress on addressing climate change!

Click here for talking points and information on how to call in.