Every burned town is tragic. But Newsom needs to lead with science, not sentiment, no matter how much he says he believes that the fires would have been even worse had the helicopters been there.
California had a record number of wildfires in 2018, as its forests burned into the ground, leaving some communities cut off from the rest of the state. The National Weather Service says these fires were partly caused by climate change — but the only way to truly figure out what caused the fires is to investigate them, something Newsom has so far declined to do. That decision is costing Newsom hundreds of millions of dollars.
Even though he’s been repeatedly rebuked and called out on his own policies, Newsom continues to push for building more homes and spending tens of millions of dollars on a “green” energy plan, which would be more expensive than the “clean” and “green” alternative that he previously proposed.
The state had to divert money from its rainy day fund to cover these costs. Newsom, after promising $40 billion stimulus money, promised money for his green energy plan, but then failed to follow up with a bill to fund the green energy projects on time.
California should stop wasting money on these false “solutions” and focus on fixing the problem.
Newsom has spent over three times the amount of money per capita in San Francisco and Los Angeles in 2018 compared to other states and cities, as well as twice the amount of money per capita in Houston, Atlanta, and Dallas. So even if Newsom doesn’t know what caused the state’s wildfires and that his “solutions” aren’t working, those facts alone mean the policies he’s pushing aren’t likely contributing to the problem.
Newsom told CNN he wants to build more solar and wind power. But California only gets 19 percent of its energy from sources that don’t emit greenhouse gases like oil or coal.
The state’s top climate scientist recently told CNN that it would be cheaper to build solar and wind power than to rely on “clean” sources like nuclear, natural gas, and coal. There are other examples of Newsom’s green energy plan that would be more expensive than the �