The desert is beautiful, but it’s also been treated like California’s dumping ground. Illegal waste piles rot in empty lots. Industrial pollution creeps into communities. Heat waves are growing deadlier while basic cooling infrastructure lags behind.

Environmental justice is not an abstract issue here. It’s personal.

Apple Valley residents live near tire-burning cement kilns. Desert towns deal with toxic dumping. Asthma rates are higher than average, and water contamination is a real threat. At the same time, this region is crucial to California’s clean energy future, with massive solar and wind projects already underway.

I’ll fight to clean up illegal dumping, hold polluters accountable, and ensure renewable energy development creates real local benefits such as good jobs, safer roads, and community investment. Environmental justice means equal protection from harm and equal access to opportunity. We deserve clean air, clean water, and a future that is sustainable and just.