Governor Newsom blasts Trump administration’s proposal gutting local weather and clear air protections as ‘negligence’

Dear Administrator Zeldin:

I write to you not solely as Governor of California — the fourth largest economic system in the world — however because the chief of a state whose individuals should dwell with the day by day penalties of your company’s failures.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to reverse the scientific discovering that greenhouse gases endanger public well being and welfare isn’t just placing politics over proof, it’s dangerous coverage, a dereliction of obligation, an ethical abdication, and a betrayal of the very mission entrusted to you.

The Clean Air Act couldn’t be clearer: EPA has an affirmative obligation to guard public well being and welfare from air pollution, together with greenhouse gases. The Supreme Court affirmed this accountability in 2007, ruling that greenhouse gases are pollution topic to regulation. Indeed, in your individual affirmation listening to, you acknowledged that the Clean Air Act offers EPA the authority to manage greenhouse gases as pollution. EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding acknowledges that these emissions threaten the well being and welfare of present and future generations. The proof supporting this is well-documented and settled. And but, you at the moment are proposing to disregard binding regulation, overwhelming science, and lived actuality.

That just isn’t discretion — it’s negligence. It is illegal. It will trigger nice hurt to the American individuals. 

The value of EPA’s give up might be measured in human lives and financial devastation. In California alone:

• Wildfires fueled by rising temperatures have killed a whole bunch, destroyed total communities and tens of 1000’s of properties, and triggered tens of billions of {dollars} in damages.
• Extreme warmth is now the deadliest local weather affect, liable for extra annual deaths than wildfires and floods.
• Drought has value California’s agricultural economic system billions, threatening meals manufacturing nationwide and harming household farmers.
• In current years, climate-driven floods triggered an estimated $5 billion in damages, devastating households and companies alike.

Nationwide, the image is not any much less dire: In 2023 alone, the United States endured 28 separate climate-driven climate disasters exceeding $1 billion in harm every — the very best quantity ever recorded — claiming greater than 400 American lives and inflicting $92 billion in damages. 

In the face of all that, you’re suggesting that local weather change doesn’t endanger us all. Seriously? 

EPA’s choice to advance this proposal just isn’t solely inconsistent with science, it’s inconsistent with the regulation. It fails to satisfy your statutory obligations below the Clean Air Act. It violates the rules laid out by the Supreme Court. It disregards the wealth of scientific proof and analysis underlying the 2009 Endangerment Finding. And in doing so, it abdicates EPA’s accountability to the American individuals.

By siding with polluters over science, EPA is telling wildfire victims to disregard the flames, flood victims to disregard the rising water, and fogeys of asthmatic youngsters to ignore the soiled air that chokes their respiratory techniques and takes their breath away. That just isn’t management — it’s an insult.

California won’t stand by. We will proceed to steer, as a result of we now have no selection; the lives and livelihoods of our individuals rely upon it. But historical past will ask: the place was the EPA — the company created to guard Americans — when the nation confronted the best environmental and public well being disaster of our time?

You nonetheless have a selection: honor the regulation, comply with the credible and established science, and fulfill your obligation to the American individuals. Or go down in historical past because the administration that deserted its mission, betrayed its mandate, and failed its nation.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom
Governor of California

California’s local weather management

Pollution is down and the economic system is up. Greenhouse fuel emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 – even because the state’s GDP elevated 78% in that very same time interval as California grew to turn into the world’s fourth largest economic system. 

The state additionally continues to set clear power data. California was powered by two-thirds clear power in 2023, the newest yr for which knowledge is out there – the most important economic system on this planet to attain this degree of fresh power. The state has run on 100% clear electrical energy for some a part of the day almost every day this year.

Since the start of the Newsom Administration, battery storage is up to over 15,000 megawatts – a 1,900%+ improve, and over 25,000 megawatts of recent assets have been added to the electrical grid.