Gavin Newsom on Energy & Oil S.F. Mayor; former Gov. cand.

California finally ended its use of any coal-fired power

Climate risk is fundamentally financial risk

NEWSOM: Standing in for my kids and grandkids, for our economic future. Climate risk is fundamentally financial risk. It's a cost of living issue. It's also about competitiveness. China is going to clean our clock. They're dominating in the automobile industry, number one exporter into Mexico. GM sold out to the Trump administration and literally is trying to recreate the past, as these guys are sprinting to the future. It's not just about electric vehicles. It's about the technology stack. They're dominating in batteries. China is producing three times more automobiles than the US. And they are dominating the supply chains and manufacturing. This is a real crisis in the making. It's not just about the hots getting hotter and the dries getting drier. And so that's going to be my focus, financial risk, cost of living and competitiveness.

A clean future isn't only desirable, it's achievable

We need to be fighting polluters, not bolstering them

We will write the playbook on confronting climate change

New cars & trucks in California to be zero-emission by 2035

California leads the way on green energy

Supports tradable emissions permits for greenhouse gases.

Modernize Environmental Policies
National environmental policies, mostly developed in the 1970s, have been remarkably successful in improving the quality of our air and water. But we face a new set of environmental challenges for which the old strategy of centralized, command-and-control regulation is no longer effective.

The old regime of prohibitions and fines levied on polluters is not well equipped to tackle problems such as climate change, contamination of water from such sources as farm and suburban runoff, loss of open lands, and sprawl. Without relaxing our determination to maintain and enforce mandatory national standards for environmental quality, it is time to create more effective, efficient, and flexible ways of achieving those standards.

For example, a system of tradable emissions permits would give factories, power plants, and other sources of air pollution and greenhouse gases a powerful incentive not only to meet but to exceed environmental standards. Decisions about solving local environmental problems should be shifted from Washington to communities, without weakening national standards. Finally, to empower citizens and communities to make sound decisions, government should invest in improving the quality and availability of information about environmental conditions.

Goals for 2010
• Create a domestic emissions trading system to reduce greenhouse gases by 10 percent.
• Promote innovative agreements for community and regional partnerships to achieve national environmental goals and standards through local strategies.
• End government subsidies for sprawl.