Gavin Newsom

Governor Gavin Newsom’s plate was full in 2021, leading the nation’s most populous state amid the second year of the pandemic and a vicious recall campaign. While the State Legislature failed to pass major climate policy for the third straight year, the Governor still has a responsibility to use his executive powers to take decisive and immediate action on climate. We didn’t necessarily see the Governor use his executive powers in 2021 in the same way we saw him do so the previous year. In 2021, the Governor directed CalGEM (the agency that regulates oil and gas) to phase out fracking permits, announced an agreement to build out new offshore wind energy, and highlighted new regulations proposed by CalGEM to address the dangers of oil drilling in neighborhoods. While important, none of these actions were carried out as executive orders, which carry more weight and can be used to make immediate policy changes on urgent issues. There was an important opportunity to make up for the lack of Legislative action on climate that the Governor fell short of taking full advantage of in 2021. As a result, his score dropped from 87% in 2020 to 82% for 2021.

Climate action is a team sport. Governor Newsom and the Legislature need to work together to make sure urgent climate legislation gets over the finish line. This will take real climate courage. The time to act on climate was yesterday, so there’s a real need for them to move quickly and make up for lost time by going big on climate action and reclaiming California’s place as a leader on climate policy. The Governor’s actions need to match his words.

One notable win for climate action in 2021 was that the Governor signed a state budget that included $15 billion in climate investments to be allocated over several years. And in January of 2022, the Governor proposed a budget that would build on that by proposing another $22 billion in investments towards climate action. We are excited to see the growing urgency of the climate crisis reflected in the state budget and are hopeful we will see the same urgency reflected this year in the Governor’s use of executive actions and work with the Legislature to ensure that major climate legislation passes.