I joined about 350 concerned residents from Boyle Heights, City of Commerce and Huntington Park at a Candle Light Vigil to protest the proposed Vernon Power Plant. The message we were all sending to the City of Vernon and the power plant was loud and clear: “No, thank you. We do not want your power plant!” I told those gathered that we are not willing to sacrifice the lives of the 3 to 11 people who a South Coast Air Quality Management District study said will die each year if this plant is built. Growing up and living in Boyle Heights, I know all too well the unfair burden that my neighbors and the surrounding communities have had to bear, breathing in polluted air from local industrial polluters. The costs have been great: asthma, respiratory illnesses, heart problems and cancer.
