California is gearing up for a high-stakes clash with President-elect Donald Trump over environmental coverage and immigration—and it’s occurring earlier than Trump is even sworn into workplace.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a daring warning asserting he would intervene if the Trump administration rolls again the federal tax credit score for electrical automobile rebates. If the credit score is eliminated, Newsom pledged to supply a state-funded $7,500 rebate for electrical automobile patrons in California.
“[Z]ero-emission autos are right here to remain,” Newsom mentioned in a press release. “We are going to intervene if the Trump administration eliminates the federal tax credit score, doubling down on our dedication to scrub air and inexperienced jobs in California. We’re not turning again on a clear transportation future—we’re going to make it extra inexpensive for folks to drive autos that don’t pollute.”
BREAK
California’s environmental transformation has been nothing in need of exceptional.
Los Angeles was as soon as shrouded in a thick haze of smog, and the state struggled with harmful air quality into the late twentieth century. Following the creation of the California Air Sources Board and the Federal Air High quality Act, each in 1967, the state started to dramatically enhance its air high quality. And now California is a national leader within the combat in opposition to local weather change. It just lately reached its goal of 100 days with 100% carbon-free, renewable electrical energy for at the least part of every day.
The state hit one other milestone this yr, with greater than 2 million zero-emission autos sold within the state.
“This milestone comes somewhat over two years after California eclipsed the 1 million ZEV gross sales mark,” Newsom’s workplace said in a press launch.
However the combat isn’t nearly clear vehicles.
California Legal professional Normal Rob Bonta is making ready for a authorized showdown with Trump over immigration insurance policies, together with Trump’s deliberate mass deportations.
In a current interview with The Nation, Bonta made it clear the state will take each out there step to guard its immigrant communities—it doesn’t matter what the Trump administration throws at them.
“I’ve been making ready and readying for this doable second for months, and in some circumstances years, relying on the subject,” mentioned Bonta, including, “They wish to do what they need, when they need, how they need it, even when it violates the Structure or a federal statute.”
Bonta’s workforce can also be apprehensive about “the hurt that will probably be visited on Individuals, together with Californians, that would be the results of illegal exercise and, within the immigration house, xenophobia, racism, discrimination, fearmongering, scapegoating,” he mentioned.
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has backed plans to withhold federal funding from states that buck mass deportations. Trump himself has additionally claimed to weaponize the military in opposition to states that thwart his immigration insurance policies.
Fox Information host Mark Levin steered to Homan that federal funding “ought to be slashed” to states functioning as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants.
“To me, you’ve bought a strong weapon amongst others, which is ‘Okay, no federal funds,’ increase,” mentioned Levin.
“And that’s going to occur, I assure it. President Trump will try this,” Homan advised the Fox Information host on Sunday.
California has the most immigrants of any state within the nation. And Trump’s feedback have unsurprisingly frightened many within the state.
“I fear about what’s going to occur to my children,” Chanthon Bun, a California resident, former convict, and Cambodian refugee, told CalMatters. “It’s such as you’re not even right here. Your thoughts is in such worry that you could’t even get pleasure from respiration.”
The California regulation was carried out throughout Trump’s first administration. “Sanctuary states” prohibited native regulation enforcement from transferring immigration circumstances to federal border enforcement, the place the person would probably be deported.
As Daily Kos reported, Homan is setting his goal on Los Angeles particularly.
“If I gotta ship twice as many officers to LA as a result of we’re not getting any help, then that is what we’ll do,” Homan said final week. “We bought a mandate. President Trump is critical about this. I am critical about it. That is gonna occur with or with out you.”
Bonta, nevertheless, is simply as critical about protecting California’s immigrant residents. He has vowed to make use of the total weight of the California Division of Justice to dam any illegal federal actions.
“As the truth of a second Trump administration takes maintain, I do know there may be quite a lot of worry, disappointment, anxiousness, and panic—particularly amongst our immigrant communities,” Bonta mentioned in an e-mail assertion on Sunday. He added that “the California Division of Justice is able to shield and defend our immigrant communities from any illegal motion that Trump takes.”
California is gearing up for a fierce battle on a number of fronts. As Newsom, Bonta, and different state leaders put together to combat in opposition to federal overreach, the Golden State is able to defend its values—whether or not it’s clear air or immigrant rights—it doesn’t matter what comes subsequent.
