When the Fires Burn, Communities Deserve Truth — Not Distraction

In a recent opinion article, Rep. Luz Rivas argues that the devastation caused by Los Angeles wildfires is primarily the result of "weakened national environmental policies and diminished EPA authority." While federal policy certainly matters in shaping long-term environmental outcomes, this framing misses what our communities experience on the ground — and more importantly, what actually determines whether a fire becomes a catastrophe.

Luz Rivas represents CA's 29th Congressional District in the House of Representatives in DC.

Rep. Luz Rivas, elected in 2024 to represent California’s 29th Congressional District — including Pacoima, Arleta, Van Nuys, Panorama City, Sylmar, Sun Valley, and parts of North Hollywood — speaks frequently in the language of “environmental justice,” yet these communities are socio-economically largely middle-income, making it questionable to frame them as structurally "underprivileged" in the way the term is typically used.

Failures of land management, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and governance — most of which occur at the state and local level are being reframed under the banner of “environmental justice,” not to clarify responsibility, but to blur it.

For residents of Los Angeles County and cities like Compton, Lynwood, and neighboring communities, wildfires are no longer abstract climate events. They are failures we can see, measure, and fix. They are failures of land management, infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and governance — most of which occur at the state and local level, not in Washington.

Yet increasingly, these operational failures are being reframed under the banner of “environmental justice,” not to clarify responsibility, but to blur it. Instead of illuminating the causes of disaster, the term is often deployed to redirect attention away from concrete governance breakdowns and toward distant, abstract policy debates. In doing so, it risks becoming less a tool for justice and more a form of political gaslighting.

The difference between a fire that is contained and one that devastates entire regions is rarely decided by national regulatory language. It is decided by whether ...

• fuel loads were reduced,

• brush corridors were cleared,

• water systems were maintained,

• hydrants had pressure,

• fire engines were operational, and

• emergency response systems were ready when needed.

None of these operational realities are addressed in Rep. Rivas’s article.

Even more concerning is what the article leaves out entirely: in California today, wildfires themselves are the largest source of dangerous air pollution. The most severe particulate pollution events — the ones that harm children, seniors, and those with respiratory conditions — increasingly come not from factories or vehicles, but from uncontrolled fires fueled by unmanaged landscapes and fragile infrastructure.

If environmental justice is truly the concern, then wildfire prevention, land stewardship, and infrastructure resilience must now be front-and-center environmental priorities. That means serious investment in forest management, modernized water systems, utility hardening (process of making critical utility infrastructure — especially electric, gas, and water systems — more resilient to extreme weather, fire, and seismic events so they are less likely to fail or cause disasters), and rapid emergency response — not rhetorical reliance on federal greenhouse gas rules as a substitute for local accountability.

This is not a rejection of climate science or environmental protection. Climate change shapes the background conditions in which fires occur. But climate does not decide whether a hydrant is dry, whether a reservoir is offline, or whether a fire engine fails to deploy. Those are decisions — and failures — rooted in governance.

When public officials redirect attention exclusively toward national policy, cloaked in the language of environmental justice, they risk insulating local systems from scrutiny and delaying the reforms that would actually protect lives and neighborhoods.

Communities deserve better than symbolic debates while they breathe smoke and rebuild homes.

Compton Chamber of Commerce believes that real environmental justice begins with functional governance — governance that is honest about what failed, transparent about what must change, and committed to practical solutions that keep communities safe.

Until we demand that level of accountability, California will unfortunately continue to burn — not only because of heat and wind, but because of institutional failure.