California has been long period itself as
an environmental trailblazer. It was the first state to set its own vehicle
emission rules and the first to outlaw plastic shopping bags.
In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat,
went so far as to seek a ban on the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.
Standing in front of several electric cars, he warned automakers against being
on “the wrong side of history.”
So it surprised environmentalists this year
when Newsom and Democratic lawmakers began backtracking on signature
green initiatives. They rebuked the state’s coastal preservation commission for
regulatory overreach
and rolled back
the landmark California Environmental Quality Act, better known as CEQA, to address
the state’s severe housing shortage.
Then, to environmentalists, came the
unthinkable: pushing legislation to keep oil refineries open and make oil
drilling easier.
“It’s a complete 180,” said Hollin
Kretzmann, a lawyer at the Climate Law Institute, part of the nonprofit Center for
Biological Diversity, which focuses on protecting endangered species.
Even in liberal California, Democrats say
they have been stung
by their party’s tailspin after last year’s
losses in national elections. They understand that voters are frustrated with
the high cost of living in California, and they are trying to show that they are doing
something about it.
If they gain traction by tilting
toward pocketbook issues, even at the expense of long-held environmental orthodoxy,
it could provide lessons to Democrats nationally even if it angers activists
locally.
Gas prices have long been higher in
California than elsewhere—they are about 45% higher than the national average
at the moment—but lawmakers are worried that costs could skyrocket
if they don’t help the oil industry immediately. And the transition to electric
vehicles has not advanced
to a point where drivers –or politicians---can ignore prices at the pump( "At the pump" (在幫浦處/在加油站) 最常見的意思是指在加油站，也就是「在給汽車加油的地方」。).
“Climate leadership is not $10-gallon gas—we
need California to be an
inspiration(榜樣) and not a cautionary
tale(負面教材),” said Assembly member Cottie
Petrie -Norris, a Democrat from Orange Country who chairs the energy committee in
the state Assembly. “For decades, there were policymakers and advocates who
somehow thought we could set really high goals and wave a magic wand and deliver on them.”
“We are all out of magic wands(沒有靈丹妙藥),” she said.
(Soumya Kar Lamang la)
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