Before we let Democratic legislators get on their high horses about the Trump administration’s obliteration of California’s climate goals via its elimination of the federal electric vehicle mandate, let’s look at one statistic that should put matters in perspective.
Between 2003 and 2019, California reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 13 percent thanks to billions of dollars in spending and myriad mandates designed to shift energy use to electric generation. Yet 2020’s wildfires “caused twice the amount of greenhouse gas emissions” that were saved over those sixteen years, according to a University of Chicago report. Fires are obliterating any savings from our state’s high-profile move away from fossil fuels.
