California took ‘big steps back’ in climate actions in 2024, environmental group says
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CALIFORNIA TOOK ‘BIG STEPS BACK’ IN CLIMATE ACTIONS IN 2024, GROUP SAYS
Via Stephen Hobbs...
California lawmakers notched key environmental victories in 2024, but the state’s overall standing on climate leadership dropped, according to the advocacy organization California Environmental Voters annual scorecard. The group gave the state an 84% grade, a drop in two percentage points from the year before and from a 91% score in 2022.
During a press conference Wednesday, Mary Creasman, the organization’s executive director, celebrated that voters in November passed Proposition 4, which allowed the state to sell a $10 billion bond for natural resources and climate activities. It was placed on the ballot by the Legislature.
But, she added, lawmakers did not end subsidies to the oil and gas industry and cut back on climate-related funding in the state budget.
“We made some big progress moving forward, but we also had some big steps back in terms of undercutting our own progress through anti-environmental actions,” Creasman said.
The organization gave Gov. Gavin Newsom a B-, the same score he earned the year before. One of the knocks on his records, according to the group, was his veto of a bill that would have placed a warning label about air pollution on gas stoves.
Senate Pro Tem Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Salinas, earned As.
PADILLA VOTES NO ON TRUMP’S AG PICK, SHE ADVANCES ANYWAY
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 12-10 to advance President Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee — former Florida Attorney General Pamela Bondi — but it did so without the vote of Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California.
It was Bondi’s waffling on whether the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects birthright citizenship (it does, according to multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions) that led Padilla to vote no.
In remarks to the committee, Padilla slammed Bondi, a two-term AG with decades of legal experience, saying she was unfamiliar with the citizenship clause.
“She and I discussed the very issue when we met one-on-one, it’s clearly been in the news, and when given the opportunity to discuss it during the hearing, here in public, she refused to answer,” Padilla said. “Even worse, offensively, either claimed that she needed to study or telling me that she was not going to be doing my homework. Colleagues, in that moment, I wasn’t asking her to do my homework. I was asking her if she did hers.”
Padilla insisted that the law is clear: the Fourteenth Amendment does protect birthright citizenship, despite Trump’s attempts to repeal it.
Padilla also voiced concern about Bondi’s vocal support for Trump’s failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that Joe Biden won.
“I remain deeply concerned about Ms. Bondi’s willingness to go on national television and propagate lies about the results of a free and fair election despite a total lack of evidence,” Padilla said.
With the party line vote recommending Bondi’s confirmation, the matter now goes to the Senate floor for a final vote.
Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a judiciary committee member, also opposed Bondi.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Lawyers’ Committee and our partners vow to challenge this unconstitutional law in court. We will not stand by while the rights of immigrants and communities of color are trampled for political gain.”
- Bianca Sierra Wolff, executive director at Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, in a statement.
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