Letter from Sacramento: A Real Opportunity To Address The Climate Crisis

I spoke recently with a legislative staffer who has worked in the capitol for nearly five years. She informed me that she has received more calls and emails from constituents about California’s budget process this year than ever before. I’m not surprised.

Our collective experience during the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the key role that the government can play in improving people’s lives — and the hurt our leaders impose when they fail to fund programs that meet people’s needs, or fail to advance equity and justice. Over the last fifteen months, we’ve tracked the debate over stimulus checks, unemployment benefits, and industry bailouts closely, because our wellbeing has depended on the outcome.

But far from being an anomaly, our experience this year is really the norm. The ease with which we can access the healthcare system, pursue higher education, and obtain childcare, among many issues, is always profoundly shaped by the decisions our leaders make in allocating our taxpayer dollars.

In California this year, these decisions carry more weight than ever, as our state is working with a historic budget surplus and a wave of federal dollars. Earlier this month, our state passed a historic $264 billion shell budget, but due to our state’s complicated budget process, many of the critical spending decisions have yet to be made.

Lawmakers will continue negotiations in the coming weeks — and the stakes for Californians, especially when it comes to the climate crisis, could not be higher.

We have a very real opportunity this year to make a long-lasting investment in clean energy technologies that will pay dividends for decades to come. By following through with funding for key climate programs, we can put thousands of families in clean electric vehicles, build out our state’s electric car charging infrastructure, take polluting diesel trucks off our streets, and fund utility debt repayment programs that will ensure that families aren't left in the dark this summer during periods of extreme heat.

While we won’t know the final funding numbers for weeks, the legislature’s shell budget from earlier this month, which provides a blueprint, allocated $16 billion for climate programs. As our state heads into wildfire season this year amidst record drought, we are counting on leaders to hold the line on this urgently-needed investment — and as always, it is essential that the communities most impacted by fossil fuel pollution, and most vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, be first in line to benefit from our state’s climate investments.

Critical negotiations about our climate future aren’t just playing out in California right now — they are also happening on the national stage, as legislators consider an infrastructure package and broader spending bill that could provide a historic investment in climate solutions, resiliency, and jobs.

There are reasons to be hopeful, but the powerful forces working to strip these legislative efforts of their climate provisions are out in full force. Your voice is needed to ensure that they do not succeed—I urge you to call your legislators, both state and federal, in support of funding strong climate measures.

Sincerely,