Jan 7, 2025 05:39 PM
https://www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/ti...as-climate
INTRO: Faced with the election of Donald Trump to a second term, soaring inequality, and a decline in support from the state’s non-white majority, California’s Democratic leaders have begun asking hard questions about the state's vaunted climate policies. California’s Democratic Assembly leader Richard Rivas opened the new Legislative session signalling a strong focus on meeting voter concerns about housing and the state’s extraordinarily high cost of living, specifically calling out the state’s climate policies:
“California has always led the way on climate. And we will continue to lead on climate,” he told his Assembly colleagues. “But not on the backs of poor and working people, not with taxes or fees for programs that don’t work, and not by blocking housing and critical infrastructure projects. It’s why we must be outcome driven. We can’t blindly defend the institutions contributing to these issues.”
Almost twenty years after California determined to lead the world in efforts to mitigate climate change with the passage of its landmark climate law, AB32, the results of the state’s climate policies are troubling. California boasts the 5th largest economy in the world, with among the lowest carbon intensities of any US state.
But it also leads the nation in poverty and homelessness and has seen relentless declines in homeownership, especially among the young and Black and Latino families.
California’s environmental accomplishments, wealth, and world leading tech economy have masked the reality that GDP growth in the vast majority of California counties, excepting the handful where the tech industry dominates, is worse than the national average while the state has far higher costs of living—from housing to electricity to food and taxes—than other states. The state’s climate and energy policies are by no means wholly responsible for these problems.
But they have seen diminishing returns, as the low-hanging fruit of the coal to gas transition in the electricity sector has long since been picked, rising energy and transportation costs have exacerbated the state’s cost of living crisis, and the exodus of energy intensive industries have limited opportunities for high wage employment for the state’s working class, non-college educated, and largely non-white majority.
For all of these reasons, a reassessment by the state’s Democratic leadership is long overdue. California has made important climate progress over the last two decades. But a reset, to assure that the state’s environmental commitments lift all boats, is clearly in order... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Faced with the election of Donald Trump to a second term, soaring inequality, and a decline in support from the state’s non-white majority, California’s Democratic leaders have begun asking hard questions about the state's vaunted climate policies. California’s Democratic Assembly leader Richard Rivas opened the new Legislative session signalling a strong focus on meeting voter concerns about housing and the state’s extraordinarily high cost of living, specifically calling out the state’s climate policies:
“California has always led the way on climate. And we will continue to lead on climate,” he told his Assembly colleagues. “But not on the backs of poor and working people, not with taxes or fees for programs that don’t work, and not by blocking housing and critical infrastructure projects. It’s why we must be outcome driven. We can’t blindly defend the institutions contributing to these issues.”
Almost twenty years after California determined to lead the world in efforts to mitigate climate change with the passage of its landmark climate law, AB32, the results of the state’s climate policies are troubling. California boasts the 5th largest economy in the world, with among the lowest carbon intensities of any US state.
But it also leads the nation in poverty and homelessness and has seen relentless declines in homeownership, especially among the young and Black and Latino families.
California’s environmental accomplishments, wealth, and world leading tech economy have masked the reality that GDP growth in the vast majority of California counties, excepting the handful where the tech industry dominates, is worse than the national average while the state has far higher costs of living—from housing to electricity to food and taxes—than other states. The state’s climate and energy policies are by no means wholly responsible for these problems.
But they have seen diminishing returns, as the low-hanging fruit of the coal to gas transition in the electricity sector has long since been picked, rising energy and transportation costs have exacerbated the state’s cost of living crisis, and the exodus of energy intensive industries have limited opportunities for high wage employment for the state’s working class, non-college educated, and largely non-white majority.
For all of these reasons, a reassessment by the state’s Democratic leadership is long overdue. California has made important climate progress over the last two decades. But a reset, to assure that the state’s environmental commitments lift all boats, is clearly in order... (MORE - details)