Environment California

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Environment California
Founded 1970s
Headquarters
Method(s) Environmentalism
Website www.environmentcalifornia.org

Environment California is a 501(c)(4) non-profit political organization that lobbies for environmental legislation in the U.S. state of California and on a national level.[1]

History

Environment California was formed by the California Public Interest Research Group in 2003 to take over its environmental work.[2] Since becoming an independent organization, Environment California has lobbied for increased federal funding of national parks and keeping state parks open.[1] Additionally, they supported the Million Solar Roofs Bill in 2006 and the Global Warming Solutions Act in 2007.[3]

Structure

Environment California works with the Fund for Public Interest Research (FFPIR) to recruit members and run campaigns across the state through canvassing offices. The funding that results from this is used to hire staff who conduct research, coordinate statewide campaigns, hold press conferences across the state, and lobby in Sacramento and Washington D.C. on a variety of environmental issues.[citation needed]

Canvassing

FFPIR runs canvassing offices in a partnership with Environment California to raise money and build citizen support for the group.[4]

Criticism

Bernadette Del Chiaro, Director of Environment California’s Clean Energy Program, defends the political value of the group's door and street fund raising in an official website created to respond to criticism; She states that in her experience this type of canvassing “absolutely elevated the issue in terms of public awareness, which, in turn, made it clearer to decision-makers that they needed to act”.[5]

In contrast, the book "Activism, Inc.", by Columbia University sociologist Dana Fisher, charges this fund raising model with mistreating idealistic young people by using them as interchangeable parts and providing them with insufficient training.[6] Fisher published this opinion after completing a 2003 study of random canvass offices throughout the United States.

On May 15, 2009, the Fund for Public Interest Research (funder for Environment California), settled for $2.15 million in a lawsuit over unpaid overtime, below-minimum wages, and unpaid training for canvassers and canvassing management and staff. The suit affects canvassers and other canvassing staff working for Environment California.[7]

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Home - Environment California
  2. ↑ The Fund For Public Interest Research
  3. ↑ Million Solar Roofs - Environment California
  4. ↑ Fund for the Public Interest
  5. ↑ Canvassing Works: Bernadette Del Chiaro, Environment California, Energy Advocate
  6. ↑ Fisher, Dana R. 2006. Activism, Inc. How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns is Strangling Progressive Politics in America. Stanford University Press.
  7. ↑ http://www.rezlaw.com/news/events.html
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