Will Gov. Newsom’s ‘Sweeping’ Climate Change Legislation Save the Planet?

This article has been updated with a correction below.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a “sweeping set of laws” Friday that aim to dramatically cut the state’s use of oil and gas, many in the California media reported. That “sweeping set of laws” is 40 new climate change bills regulating California businesses and its people.

Gov. Newsom even launched a new climate dashboard “launched to highlight state’s climate action and progress toward goals.” We hope it is more accurate and up-to-date than the state’s Covid dashboard.

“We’re not interested in doubling down on stupid,” Gov. Newsom said at the signing ceremony on Mare Island, with oil refineries in the background. “We’re not interested in investing in the industries that have created the problems that we’re trying to mitigate. That’s just profoundly ridiculous.” He added, “We’re moving in a completely new direction and I couldn’t be more proud and excited,” CalMatters reported.

Leading off the sweeping package of legislation is the ominous bill, The California Climate Crisis Act, AB 1279. Apparently California has a climate crisis.

According to the bill analysis (below), “this bill declares it the policy of the state to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible, but no later than 2045, to achieve that goal with at least an 85% reduction in GHG emissions, and to achieve and maintain net negative GHG emissions thereafter.”

That same analysis claims, “California is particularly susceptible to the harmful effects of climate change, including an increase in extreme heat events, drought, wildfire, sea level rise, and more.” The Governor is blaming wildfires on “climate change,” and not where the blame belongs – on state and federal government for not maintaining proper forest management.

The bill analysis then cites a 33-year old report from August 1989 from the Senate Office of Research titled “The Greenhouse Effect and Global Climate Change: Doing Something About the Weather,” which claims, “Although a global problem, California bears significant responsibility for the increasing greenhouse effect.”

“As a responsible member of the world community, California must explore ways to reduce its contribution to the global climate change problem,” the bill analysis states. “While some of those numbers vary slightly today, the message still rings as true as it did then, 33 years ago.”

You can’t make this drivel up.

What is so “sweeping” about this set of laws, and what are the goals? Will these bills save the planet from Climate Change? Will California lead the way?

Interestingly, as the Globe has been pointing out for many years, California already surpassed its original greenhouse gas emissions reductions target of 1990 levels of  by 2020 – this was achieved in 2016 – even the Governor’s Climate Dashboard website admits this:

“The 2006 California Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32) set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. California surpassed this target four years early in 2016, and emissions have continued to drop since then. California’s next climate target is to reduce emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The Scoping Plan lays out how California will achieve this target.”

This is why California Democrats have to keep moving the goals – we already are a clean state, with some of the cleanest air in the world.

But because California Democrats don’t have anything else to offer the people, they must maintain pretenses of an ostensible climate crisis, even though none of them really believe this.

In April, Gov. Gavin Newsom weighed in on the dire need to save the planet at a groundbreaking of the world’s largest wildlife overpass, the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, “which will provide a vital bridge for mountain lions and other Santa Monica Mountain wildlife to roam safely between two large areas of habitat.”

“No challenge poses a greater threat to our way of life, prosperity, and future as a state than climate change,” Gov. Newsom said. “With our rich natural heritage on the front lines of this crisis, California is building on our global climate leadership with bold strategies that harness the power of nature to fight climate change and protect our communities and ecosystems. Strong partnerships across the board will be critical to these efforts, and the project we’re lifting up today is an inspiring example of the kind of creative collaborations that will help us protect our common home for generations to come.”

May I offer you a word salad?

According to the Governor, the new climate package includes:

• CARBON NEUTRALITY: AB 1279 by Assemlymembers Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) and Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) codifies the statewide carbon neutrality goal to dramatically reduce climate pollution.

  • Establishes a clear, legally binding, and achievable goal for California to achieve statewide carbon neutrality as soon as possible, and no later than 2045, and establishes an 85% emissions reduction target as part of that goal.

• PROTECT COMMUNITIES AGAINST OIL DRILLING: SB 1137 by Senators Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) and Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) protects communities from the harmful impacts of the oil industry.

  • Establishes a setback distance of 3,200 feet between any new oil well and homes, schools, parks or businesses open to the public.

  • Ensures comprehensive pollution controls for existing oil wells within 3,200 feet of these facilities.

• 100% CLEAN ELECTRIC GRID: SB 1020 by Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) establishes a pathway toward the state’s clean energy future.

  • Creates clean electricity targets of 90% by 2035 and 95% by 2040 with the intent of advancing the state’s trajectory to the existing 100% clean electricity retail sales by 2045 goal.

• CAPTURING AND REMOVING CARBON POLLUTION: SB 905 by Senators Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and SB 1314 by Senator Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara) advance engineered technologies to remove carbon pollution, while banning the use of those technologies for enhanced oil recovery.

  • Establishes a clear regulatory framework for carbon removal and carbon capture, utilization and sequestration.

  • Bans the practice of injecting carbon dioxide for the purpose of enhanced oil recovery.

• NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS: AB 1757 by Assemblymembers Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) and Robert Rivas (D-Salinas) enlists nature in the state’s climate agenda.

  • Requires the state to develop an achievable carbon removal target for natural and working lands.

The overall goal of Newsom’s “sweeping” climate change package is “Achieving net zero GHG emissions” in the state. To do this California needs to address and change electricity, buildings, transportation, industry, agriculture and land use… according to the *Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, founded in 1998 as the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, C2ES.  “Twenty-nine percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions come from generating electricity. Most of the electricity is used in our homes, offices, and factories to power everything from heating and cooling systems to lights, computers, refrigerators, and cell phones,” Pew Center on Global Climate Change, C2ES says.

So pretty much everything we use in modern society needs to be upended, overhauled, and restricted, according to the Climate Change hustlers. And, in order to prepare, we must Learn more about resilience planning, according to Pew Center on Global Climate Change, C2ES, only the link doesn’t provide anything or go anywhere – which may tell us more than all of the climate change legislation signed by Gov. Newsom.

Remember, “We’re not interested in investing in the industries that have created the problems that we’re trying to mitigate,” Newsom said referring to the oil, natural gas, agriculture, and auto industries, or “polluters” as Gov. Newsom and climate change grifters would have you believe. Remember, Gov. Newsom has already issued draconian directives to the California Air Resources Board to ban gas-powered cars and trucks, shutdown oil and gas production and limit how Californians travel.

The full set of 40 bills the Governor signed that work toward achieving the state’s climate goals is available here.

*Correction: We incorrectly named the Pew Center for Global Climate Change, C2ES. The Globe was contacted by Philip Horowitz, the communications associate for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. He said they underwent an organizational name change in 2011 to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. 

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