Move over, Al Gore. The climate clown car has a new self-anointed driver. His name is Gavin Newsom.
The California governor is trying to use the ongoing United Nations climate conference (COP30) to position himself as the leader of the U.S., if not the world, on climate change. In hopes of advancing his presidential aspirations in 2028, Newsom is attempting to exploit the vacuum created by the boycott of COP30 by the Trump administration.
Toward that end, Newsom has attacked President Donald Trump as “an invasive species,” boasted about California’s success in climate and travelled into the Amazon jungle to “absorb a deeper spiritual connection to this issue that connects all of us.” Cue the eyeroll.
But Newsom is actually more of a tragic nuisance than any kind of hero when it comes to climate.
Californians pay the highest prices for electricity in the continental U.S. This is because Newsom has loaded the California grid with expensive wind, solar and utility-scale batteries. Not only has all this green technology caused prices to soar, it has also weakened grid reliability. During periods of peak electricity demand, EV owners are warned not to charge their vehicles.
Californians also pay the highest prices for gasoline in the continental U.S because the state requires special blends of gasoline that are supposed to be improving air quality. One might think that Newsom would be helping the oil industry to lower costs. But he’s not.
Newsom’s hostility to the oil and gas industry forces California to import gasoline from foreign countries that don’t produce oil as cleanly as we do in the U.S. He’s trying to block offshore drilling that would actually reduce oil pollution in the ocean. Oil from below the ocean floor naturally seeps into the ocean off the California coast. Oil drilling would reduce that natural seepage by reducing pressure.
Newsom is also chasing refineries out of California. The problem is so acute that Newsom is actually now forced to consider a state takeover of the refineries as the industry flees the state.
But it gets worse.
After more than four decades of forest mismanagement that has turned publicly-owned forests and lands in California into tinderboxes just waiting for sparks to turn into deadly, out-of-control wildfires, Newsom has opposed Trump’s suggestions to clean up the forests and public lands. These wildfires have burned down forests that companies like Microsoft tried to preserve by purchasing carbon offsets.
While the California legislature had directed in 2012 that reservoirs be built to provide water to fight wildfires and drought, Newsom failed to build any. When President Trump directed the diversion of water from Southern California to end, Newsom opposed the move.
At COP30, Newsom blamed the Los Angeles wildfires on global warming even though the fires were started by arson that was not completely extinguished by firefighters. When the conflagration later spread, aided by the naturally occurring Santa Ana winds, there was no water in the fire hydrants.
None of this is climate change. It’s incompetent government led by a vacuous hologram of a person.
Since 2012, California has charged the oil industry and consumers billions and billions of dollars as part of a cap-and-trade scheme to lower emissions. Not only have the wildfires more than offset all the emissions cuts, but the California legislature recently approved a bill to drill 2,000 new oil wells so that the state could reap more revenue from the cap-and-trade scheme.
The beep-beep of Newsom’s climate clown car is deafening. It’s a warning for 2028.
Steve Milloy is a biostatistician and lawyer. He posts on X at @JunkScience.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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