Senate Environmental Quality roundup: hearings on hair relaxers, ports, CEQA, aggregate dust and more; committee advances most bills to next committees

The Senate Committee on Environmental Quality met May 20, 2025, and heard multiple bills affecting public health, air quality, land‑use review and infrastructure. The committee advanced most measures to other committees while several items prompted extended debate between labor, industry, environmental justice groups and air‑quality regulators.

The most immediately consequential items included SB236, which would ban certain endocrine‑disrupting chemicals in commercial hair relaxer products; SB34, which would limit aspects of the South Coast Air Quality Management District's authority over port‑related rulemaking and emphasize collaborative stakeholder plans for emissions reductions; SB607, a wide‑ranging CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) reform package; SB526, which asks the South Coast AQMD to strengthen dust and fence‑line protections for aggregate and recycling facilities near sensitive receptors; and SB675, a targeted streamlining measure for the proposed Seaport San Diego redevelopment.

Why it matters: The bills mix public‑health protections (hair‑product chemical bans), regulatory and procedural changes that could affect local air pollution controls and permitting (ports, CEQA, permitting modernization), and localized community health protections (aggregate facility dust control). Several measures drew sharply differing views over who should decide rules (local air districts vs. the Legislature), how quickly projects should be approved, and how to balance jobs, infrastructure and environmental protection.

SB236 — hair relaxers and toxic chemicals

Senator Weber Pierson presented SB236, which would prohibit manufacturing, distribution or sale in California of hair relaxer products that contain specified endocrine‑disrupting chemicals. "Hair can highlight one's identity, creativity, or culture," Senator Weber Pierson said, and added that the bill is intended to protect consumers from ingredients she and witnesses tied to hormone‑related health risks. Ryan Spencer of the Environmental Working Group testified in support, saying the bill "takes critical action to protect public health by prohibiting the sale or manufacture of hair relaxers in California that contain toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, parabens, and phthalates." The California Black Health Network, represented in testimony by a legislative aide, also urged an "I vote" in support, citing studies that link repeated relaxer use to increased risks of uterine and breast cancers and other conditions. No in‑room opposition witnesses appeared. The committee moved the bill forward to the Judiciary Committee (committee referral recorded as "passed to judiciary" in the roll call).

SB34 — Ports, the indirect source rule and local control

Senator Richardson introduced SB34 as a vehicle to require collaborative stakeholder processes and to add guardrails to any South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) indirect source rule (ISR) affecting the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach complex. Richardson noted the ports' own Clean Air Action Plan and decades of emission reductions by the ports and industry, and said the bill is intended to protect workforce and local economies while continuing progress toward near‑zero goals.

The hearing drew lengthy testimony from labor and industry: Marvin Pineda of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Thomas Yellinek of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association described large, long‑term emissions reductions already achieved at the ports and warned that an ISR without clear "guardrails" could divert cargo to other U.S. ports and threaten jobs. The Port of Long…