Stop SB 607

By Dee Swanhuyser, a prominent Sonoma County businessperson in the non-profit sector and, with her family, a long-time resident.

May 18, 2025

Dee Swanhuyser

The Press Democrat ran this Letter to the Editor from Dee Swanhuyser:

Senate Bill 607, now being considered in Sacramento, takes a sledgehammer to the California Environmental Quality Act, undermining environmental and safety protections. CEQA helps ensure much-needed housing developments and infrastructure are built with community wildfire evacuation routes, without putting people at risk and keeping toxic industry like battery factories out of neighborhoods and away from schools and hospitals.

Leaving Californians vulnerable to tragedy is unconscionable. Too many California residents and families have lost homes and loved ones to wildfires. Some legislators do not understand SB 607’s extreme and far-reaching consequences.

Think again if you believe California is insulated from Donald Trump’s influence and aggressiveness, stripping away common sense regulations Americans have relied on for generations.

Thankfully, state Sen. Mike McGuire can end this attempt. In his role as president pro tempore of the Senate, he has the ability and responsibility to stop ill-conceived bills from moving forward.

We need his leadership on SB 607 to protect us from the inevitable wildfire and climate-driven disasters we face now and in the future. SB 607 would leave us all vulnerable. It must be stopped.