UC Santa Cruz UC Santa Cruz Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title From Protest to Policy: The Political Evolution of California Environmental Justice Activism, 1980s - 2010s Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0fh1h8vh Author Perkins, Tracy E. Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SANTA CRUZ FROM PROTEST TO POLICY: THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION OF CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ACTIVISM, 1980s-2010s A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in SOCIOLOGY by Tracy E. Perkins June 2015 The Dissertation of Tracy E. Perkins is approved: _________________________________ Professor Andrew Szasz, Chair _________________________________ Professor Jonathan Fox _________________________________ Associate Professor Miriam Greenberg ____________________________________ Tyrus Miller Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Copyright © by Tracy E. Perkins 2015 Table of Contents List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Dedication and Acknowledgements ........................................................................... x Chapter 1: Environmental Justice Activism Then and Now ................................ 1 The origins of environmental justice activism ................................................................ 1 Environmental justice activism today ................................................................................ 5 Changes in the form of environmental justice activism ............................................... 7 Origin stories and the meaning of environmental justice ......................................... 11 Why California? ........................................................................................................................ 14 Methods ...................................................................................................................................... 17 Roadmap ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Ch. 2. Changes in California Environmental Justice Activism .......................... 24 From Low-Income Communities to Low-Income Communities of Color .............. 24 Movement Professionalization ........................................................................................... 32 Framing & the Expanding Task of Environmental Justice ......................................... 34 The Expanding Meaning of Environmental Justice ............................................................... 34 Multiplying and Potentially Conflicting Uses of the Environmental Justice Frame 38 Tactics .......................................................................................................................................... 42 Disruption and Collaboration ......................................................................................................... 42 Participation in Public Decision Making .................................................................................... 48 Scaling Up: Policy Advocacy & Electoral Politics .................................................................... 56 Being “for something” ........................................................................................................................ 76 New Localism ......................................................................................................................................... 79 Internal Conflict ....................................................................................................................... 82 Ch. 3: The Changing Political Context ...................................................................... 86 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 86 Reduced popular protest ...................................................................................................... 86 Influence of Prior Activism .............................................................................................................. 86 Changing Political Context ............................................................................................................... 92 Increase in statewide policy advocacy and electoral politics ................................... 96 Influence of prior activism ............................................................................................................... 96 Changing Political Context ............................................................................................................. 101 Institutionalization & professionalization .................................................................. 103 Influence of prior activism ............................................................................................................. 104 Broad trends in social movements and civic participation .............................................. 105 Collaboration ......................................................................................................................... 109 Influence of prior activism ............................................................................................................. 110 Changing Political Context ............................................................................................................. 110 Funding ................................................................................................................................................... 117 iii Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 118 Ch. 4: Kettleman City: Three Generations of Environmental Justice Activism at the West’s Largest Hazardous Waste Landfill ............................................... 119 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 119 The Anti-Incinerator Campaign ....................................................................................... 121 Kettleman City and Early Environmental Justice Activism .................................... 129 Outrage and Hazardous Waste as a New Social Issue ........................................................ 131 NIMBYism .............................................................................................................................................. 133 Anti-Incinerator Campaigns .......................................................................................................... 134 Local, Disruptive Tactics ................................................................................................................. 137 Kettleman City Now ............................................................................................................. 137 The Birth Defect Cluster .................................................................................................................. 140 Cumulative Health Impacts ............................................................................................................ 144 Civil rights law ..................................................................................................................................... 146 Kettleman City and the changing Environmental Justice Movement .................. 146 Issue expansion ................................................................................................................................... 147 Scaling Up .............................................................................................................................................. 148 Participation, Public Relations, and Access ............................................................................ 153 Sustaining long-term community activism ............................................................................. 159 Collaborative vs. oppositional politics ...................................................................................... 161 Outcomes ............................................................................................................................................... 163 Scale and Professionalization ....................................................................................................... 166 Divergent tactics and movement schisms ............................................................................... 169 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 170 Ch. 5. New Frontiers: Environmental Justice Interventions in the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 ................................................................. 171 Environmental Justice Activists and the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) .............................................................................................................. 172 Introduction to AB 32 ......................................................................................................................