California must invest in forestry and wildland management and modern electrical Infrastructure

Gov. Gavin Newsom toured the North Complex Fire. Local lawmakers who represent the region, state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-tehama) and Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-yuba City), issued the following statement:

The excuse of climate change cannot be used to deflect from the fundamental failure to address the fuels build-up in our forests that are the cause of these devastating fires.

Two years of long-awaited forestry management investments don’t make up for decades of inaction by Democratic politicians who control this state, and the radical environmentalists that drive their agenda.

These same misguided policy decisions have led to rolling blackouts and an energy grid that is falling apart.

It has also resulted in antiquated equipment that sparks wildfires that spew massive amounts of pollution into the air, and unsustainable green power that cannot meet our state’s needs.

We have proposed solutions this year that would do much more to invest in forestry management and modernize the state’s electrical infrastructure. Democrats wouldn’t even give them a hearing in committee.

The cause of our recent catastrophic wildfires and rolling blackouts is decades of bad policy enacted by Democrats, not climate change.

To help reduce wildfires, this Administration must fully fund Senate Bill 901.

Money can be achieved by reviewing existing General Fund commitments and immediately pledging the state’s Greenhouse Gas funds towards reducing fuel loads in our forests, the primary cause of these fires.