GOVERNOR WANTS TO SPEED CLIMATE GOALS
Newsom delivers plan to lawmakers working on budget
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to speed up the state’s transition to non-carbon electricity sources and accelerate its timeline for lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
Those are among the proposals the Democratic governor has delivered to lawmakers as they work to hash out how to spend $19.3 billion set aside for climate in the state budget.
He also wants to establish a permitting policy for projects that would remove carbon dioxide from the air and put into law the state’s 2045 carbon neutrality goal as well as a ban on new oil wells within 3,200 feet of homes and schools.
“The ambition of California’s climate goals must match the urgency and scale of the climate crisis,” the Newsom administration wrote in a document distributed to state lawmakers that was obtained by The Associated Press.
“Increasing ambition in the near-term supports the unprecedented rate of transformation needed in this decade to build the clean energy systems of tomorrow.”
The proposal would be part of the state’s $300 billion state budget. Lawmakers passed the budget earlier this year without figuring out how to spend the climate money. Newsom and state legislative leaders have until the end of August to reach a deal.
Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, a Democrat from Lakewood, noted the Assembly previously approved bills that would do much of what Newsom wants — including making the carbon-neutral goal a law and setting a goal for nature-based carbon removal of emissions.
“I would say that I more than support such efforts,” Rendon said in a statement. “I agree with the Governor that California absolutely must take more of the same kind of actions that the Assembly has been working on.”
Brian Dahle, a Republican state senator and Newsom’s opponent in the November election, said he thinks the governor’s plan is misplaced.
He said California should be spending money to thin overgrown forests, which too easily catch fire and release lots of carbon into the atmosphere.
“Put everything on the table and let’s reduce carbon,” he said. “He’s going to set a goal and (the Legislature) are probably going to pass that goal, and he’s going to take a victory lap and say ‘I’ve saved everybody in the world’ and nothing has changed.”