AB 40 Advances Through Senate Environmental Quality Committee to Protect Californians from Unstudied Coal Impacts

Today Assemblymember Mia Bonta's (D-Oakland) AB 40, the Community First Coal Review Act, advanced through the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. The bill responds directly to a June 2026 announcement in which President Trump committed $700 million in federal funding under the Defense Production Act to expand coal plants and export infrastructure nationwide.

"In West Oakland, one of the most environmentally overburdened communities in the state of California, the federal government is moving to build a bulk coal export terminal using emergency wartime powers and $75 million in targeted federal funding," said Assemblymember Mia Bonta. "California should not have to accept expanded coal infrastructure based on environmental review that is outdated, incomplete, and misaligned with the current science and current project plans… This is a textbook example of why our environmental review laws are on the books."

AB 40 requires a full CEQA Environmental Impact Report before any new or expanded coal terminal exceeding 5 million short tons per year can receive a discretionary approval. It requires updated review when coal type or quantity changes significantly, or when the existing environmental review is 10 or more years old. It requires that where significant air quality impacts are found, the developer must demonstrate enforceable mitigation before any approval can be issued.

"This coal terminal is adding a new impact to West Oakland," said Ms. Margaret Gordon founder of West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project. "We should not have coal as a commodity coming through a community like West Oakland."

West Oakland was selected as a first-year priority community under the Community Air Protection Program established by AB 617 (C. Garcia, 2017), reflecting its documented high cumulative air pollution burden from industry activity and adjacent Interstates 580, 880, and 980. The life expectancy for an African American child born and raised in West Oakland is at least 15 years less than for a white child raised in wealthier Oakland neighborhoods.

"Earthjustice supports this bill because it will ensure enormous, dusty, and dangerous coal facilities will be subject to robust environmental review and full public disclosure before they receive permits." said Colin O'Brien, Deputy Managing Attorney of Earthjustice's California Regional Office. "Alarmingly the previous outdated reviews for the Oakland terminal never even addressed the possibility of handling coal. And, while one old report did consider a generic bulk goods terminal it did not address fugitive dust emissions from the project's operations which is a unique concern for coal facilities and it contemplated a facility with roughly half the capacity that we're talking about now."

AB 40 next heads to the Senate Appropriations Committee and represents an extension of the Assemblymember's environmental justice efforts; in 2024, Assemblymember Bonta authored AB 2851, establishing fence-line air quality monitoring at metal shredding facilities, including the Schnitzer Steel facility located immediately adjacent to the proposed West Oakland terminal site.

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