California’s environmental grade slips in statewide report. Newsom got his lowest marks yet

Despite embracing the role of global climate champion this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking home a weaker environmental report card. That’s according to a statewide report released Thursday by one of the state’s largest environmental advocacy groups.

Newsom received a B- from the California Environmental Voters in its annual scorecard, his lowest marks since he took office 5 years ago. It’s a slightly lower grade than California as a whole, which came in at a B — last year both earned an A.

“Last year we took two steps forward, one step back,” said Melissa Romero, deputy legislative director at the organization. “There’s some really, really big things that happened that were very positive, and there were bad things too.”

State lawmakers lined up mostly on party lines, the scorecard reported, with some surprisingly dismal grades for Sacramento-area Democrats who accepted contributions from fossil fuel industry.

The California Environmental Voters scorecard is based on lawmaker votes, authorship of consequential proposals and whether they accept contributions from fossil fuel companies. For the governor, regulatory actions and vetoes of bills are also incorporated.

Overall, Democrats who neglected to take oil industry contributions scored the highest and Republican representatives were graded least favorably. Voters can search their address to see how their representative measured up.

Romero of California Environmental Voters said the scorecard is meant to help voters peel behind the curtain of Sacramento policy making on climate, and raise awareness about policy decisions that pull the state further away from meeting its ambitious goals.

“We need to be doing far more, far faster on climate. We can’t be at this pace. We need to be taking five, 10, 20 steps forward every year,” Romero said. “This low B score represents room for improvement.”

Under Newsom’s leadership, the scorecard noted significant California climate wins. The governor signed corporate emissions disclosure laws with global impact, launched a lawsuit against fossil fuel companies for causing the climate crisis and sought to hold oil companies accountable for possible price gauging.

But there were also demerits. The scorecard said Newsom jammed an infrastructure package through the legislature to weaken environmental protections, extended the life of fossil gas plants and expanded the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility, cut $2 billion from the climate budget, vetoed 11 climate bills and streamlined Sites Reservoir.

“Governor Newsom’s environmental record was a complex blend of achievements and rollbacks,” said the report. “As California faces escalating climate impacts, 2024 demands a bold vision and unwavering commitment to climate justice and action from our state’s governor.”

In response, governor’s office spokesperson Alex Stack said in an email that “California is doing more than any other state to fight climate change, and it’s not even close — investing more dollars than what most countries spend, transitioning our entire grid to 100% clean energy, holding Big Oil accountable with the nation’s only gas price gouging law, and more.”

Other Democratic state leaders received far more sparkling reviews. Former Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins, who just announced a future bid for governor, received a 96% score, as did assembly speaker Robert Rivas.

In Sacramento and neighboring cities, some representatives stood out for extremely poor grades when it comes to lawmaking in service of fighting climate change and on environmental issues.

Modesto representative Marie Alvarado-Gil, a Democrat, received a dismal 1% score. The report called her “one of the worst-scoring Democrats of all time,” noting that most Republicans outperform her.

Assemblywoman Stephanie Nguyen, a Democratic who represents Elk Grove, received an F — 44% — on the scorecard for a poor environmental voting record and for taking oil industry contributions. The report placed her in its “polluter caucus class of 2023.”’

Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, had one of the lowest scores in the state at 4%. Republican Jim Patterson of Fresno came in at 3%.

A majority of Californians say its very important to them that the state is a world leader in fighting climate, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. And a whopping 76% of state residents consider the threat of global warming to be “very serious.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 5:00 AM.