Plutocracy Comes Home To Roost
Gavin Newsom Abandons His Climate Commitments To Favor His Billionaire Contributors
Well, well, well, what a surprise: not. Last year, when he single-handedly defeated Proposition 30 but falsely claiming it was a handout to Lyft, Gavin Newsom claimed it was unnecessary because of the state’s investments in clean energy. This was also false, since under its own estimates, the state would be nearly 1 million chargers short of necessary for adequate EV infrastructure.
And now, Newsom has decided in his budget proposal to institute “trigger cuts” to climate and transportation programs based upon a deficit that everyone saw was coming. The cuts:
are largely concentrated on climate and transportation: Zero-emission vehicle credits and infrastructure programs are set to receive $2.5 billion less from the general fund in the coming years, with about half of those reductions offset with money from fees on major greenhouse gas emitters. The plan proposes to pull back $2 billion from local rail projects and $350 million from housing programs.
“Why climate and transportation? Because of the magnitudes of those budgets,” Newsom said.
This wouldn’t be a problem had Proposition 30 passed. But Newsom had to satisfy his billionaire contributors. I am sure that they are very happy.
Note to national Democrats: when putting together a Presidential bench, Newsom should be at the end of it. He cannot be trusted.
Reader Comments
One Reply to “Plutocracy Comes Home To Roost”
Comments are closed.
About Jonathan
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic – Land Use, the Environment and Loc…
READ more
Just out of curiosity, what do you want him to cut instead? (I can’t vote for him anymore for other reasons. I think he tries to do a good job though.)
To me, it seems like we could cut the whole HSR thing. It seems like we could do something better with that money, since it’s not ever really going to be that useful, afaict. And then, maybe an oil extraction tax would be good, though, only for a few years I guess.