Gov. Gavin Newsom accuses EPA head of ‘abandoning’ climate goals
NEWSOM: EPA HEAD ‘BETRAYS’ CLIMATE MISSION
Hours before decamping to New York for Climate Week, Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a complaint to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday, accusing Administrator Lee Zeldin of “betraying” the agency’s mission to ameliorate the effects of climate change.
“The EPA proposal to reverse the scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare is not just putting politics over evidence, it is bad policy, a dereliction of duty, a moral abdication, and a betrayal of the very mission entrusted to you,” Newsom wrote. “The Clean Air Act could not be clearer: EPA has an affirmative duty to protect public health and welfare from air pollutants, including greenhouse gases.”
Earlier this month, Zeldin said large polluters would no longer be required to report their greenhouse gas output, claiming the rule was “burdensome” and “costly.” He claimed it would save businesses $2.4 billion.
“By siding with polluters over science, EPA is telling wildfire victims to ignore the flames, flood victims to ignore the rising water, and parents of asthmatic children to ignore the dirty air that chokes their respiratory systems and takes their breath away. That is not leadership — it is an insult,” Newsom said.
While in New York, Newsom will announce a new climate partnership with Brazil, which will host COP30, an annual international climate summit, in the city of Belém in November. He will also meet with several leaders from the U.K., Australia and European Union who will be in town for the UN General Assembly, according to his office.
Outgoing California Air Resources Board chair Liane Randolph, Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, Attorney General Rob Bonta and climate activist/actor Jane Fonda are also scheduled to speak during Climate Week. In 2023, Newsom announced California would begin requiring big businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions every year.
NEWSOM SIGNS BILL TO STAVE OFF ‘DYING’ LEGAL WEED INDUSTRY
Gov. Gavin Newsom reversed a recently-implemented 25% tax rate on legal cannabis, a move that advocates and Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, said would help prop up the “dying” industry.
Newsom said Monday that he had signed Haney’s Assembly Bill 564, which rolls back the new 25% excise tax that went into effect in July, and lowers it to 15% until 2028. The industry has struggled to adapt since voters agreed to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016, due to overproduction and plummeting prices.
Haney said in a statement that his bill will help “level the playing field” by lowering the tax and discouraging customers from seeking cannabis in states with lower taxes or on the black market: “It (AB 564) protects California jobs, keeps small businesses open, and ensures that our legal cannabis market can grow and thrive the way voters intended.”
Brian Camire, the general counsel for the website Weedmaps, which shows users where to find legal dispensaries, said the bill was a “lifeline” for the industry: “This rollback of a 25 percent hike in existing taxes will bring greater stability to a faltering market and disincentivize bad actors that undermine legitimate players.”
SCHIFF ACCUSES TRUMP OF POLITICAL RETALIATION, ‘WEAPONIZING’ DOJ
Via David Lightman...
“There’s no hiding the political retaliation and weaponization. It’s all out in the open.”
That’s a tweet from Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., responding to President Donald Trump’s pushing Attorney General Pam Bondi to get moving on prosecuting Schiff.
Trump in a social media post this weekend said he had reviewed recent statements about Schiff and others he wanted to investigate, but found them saying “They’re all guilty as hell but nothing is going to be done.
“We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me (5 times!) OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” he wrote (caps are his).
Trump and his allies have been battling Schiff for years. As a House member, he led the successful 2019 bid to impeach Trump and has been a relentless critic. Trump alleges Schiff committed mortgage fraud by seeking tax credits on two homes. Schiff vehemently denies anything improper.
In a weekend interview with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, he cited the resignation under pressure of the U.S. attorney for Eastern Virginia for not bringing a mortgage fraud case against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Justice Department has reportedly looked into the allegations but has not brought charges, and James’ attorneys have denied any wrongdoing.
James has long been a particular source of outrage for Trump, in part because of a case she filed that resulted in a finding of fraud and a huge penalty. A New York appellate court last month tossed out the penalty.
Trump is “basically out in the open pressuring his Attorney General, sending a message to other U.S. attorneys out there that if they don’t do his will, they don’t do his bidding and bring meritless cases against his enemies, they could be fired. And this is unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Schiff said.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“BECAUSE OF HIS HORRIFIC MUSIC, CALIFORNIA WILL INDEFINITELY SUSPEND KID ROCK FROM PERFORMING IN THE GOLDEN STATE. YOU’RE WELCOME! — GCN”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom, satirically, on X, referring to the country rocker and Trump rally mainstay, Kid Rock
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