Newsom promised 'giant leaps' on climate. Will they happen?

You probably weren’t surprised to read that President Trump, visiting California amid historic fires, denied the scientific reality of climate change, making the ludicrous claim: “It will start getting cooler, you just watch.” You probably were equally unsurprised to read that Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the scientific reality, calling the wildfire calamity a “climate damn emergency.” The thing is, we’ve reached a point in human history where talk is cheap. Newsom said he had directed two of his top environmental officials, Jared Blumenfeld and Wade Crowfoot, to review the state’s current climate strategies “and accelerate all of them, across the board.” “While we’re leading the nation in low-carbon green growth, as we’ve led the nation in our efforts to decarbonize our economy, we’re going to have to do more, and we’re going to have to fast-track our efforts,” Newsom told reporters as he stood among charred trees in Oroville. Blumenfeld described several ideas that were being discussed by the governor’s task force on jobs recovery, including financing mechanisms to promote electric cars, a “climate justice corps” jobs program to put Californians back to work on conservation projects, and strategies to promote working from home even after the pandemic ends. Newsom’s press secretary, Jesse Melgar, told me via email that officials are “hard at work implementing the state’s ambitious climate policy portfolio,” and that additional efforts “are being explored and more action to address the effects of climate change will be announced in the coming weeks.” Similarly, spokespeople for the agencies told me they don’t have any specifics yet.