California’s move is an unmistakable sign that the wave of climate lawsuits against Big Oil will keep growing and that these polluters’ days of escaping accountability for their lies are numbered.” Jake Johnson Sep 16, 2023 13
Source: ‘A Watershed Moment’: California Sues Big Oil Over Decades of Climate Destruction
In remarks that emphasized racial disparities and the risk of executing innocent people, Newsom described his decision as the culmination of “a 40-year journey” that began when he was just a child. His grandfather introduced him to Pete Pianezzi, who came close to receiving the death penalty in 1940 after being set up by the mob. Pianezzi was eventually pardoned in 1981, at the age of 79. But wrongful convictions remain a profound danger. “You had someone just last year that was released from death row after serving 26 years in San Quentin,” he said, referring to the case of Vicente Benavides, exonerated in April 2018.
A raging debate has broken out about whether a state the size of California can go completely green.
Source: Can California Really Go 100 Percent Renewable Energy? | KQED Science
California could officially leave the union by 2019.
Source: Soon There Could Be Only 49 States in the United States
Brown says challenge is to ‘build for the future, not steal from it’ after balancing a $26bn deficit and creating a rainy-day fund to gird against future shortfalls
Democrat Jerry Brown, who turned around California’s finances after years of deficits, vowed to keep a tight rein on spending as he was sworn in on Monday for a record fourth term at the helm of the nation’s most populous state.
Brown, currently serving a second stint as governor, first served two terms from 1975 to 1983 and then returned to the governorship in 2011. He easily defeated his Republican challenger, Neel Kashkari, to win re-election in November.
Brown, the 76-year-old son of the late California governor Edmund G “Pat” Brown, has forcefully steered the heavily Democratic state on a centrist path since voters returned him to the governorship.
“We are at a crossroads,” Brown said in his inaugural address. “With big and important new programs now launched and the budget carefully balanced, the challenge is to build for the future, not steal from it, to live within our means and to keep California ever golden and creative, as our forebears have shown and our descendents would expect.”
California faced a budget deficit of $26bn when Brown was elected in 2010, following a national recession that hit the state’s economy hard and came after years of fiscal woes in California. He enters his fourth term with a balanced budget.
In November, California residents voted to enshrine a rainy-day fund in the state’s constitution, a plan backed by Brown that aims to ensure the state’s financial stability after years of boom-and-bust budgets.
This year, California will set aside $2.8bn in the fund, Brown said during his speech, to applause from lawmakers.
Brown also pledged to improve the state’s environment for the next 15 years by cutting petroleum use and increasing electricity derived from renewable sources to 50%.
The Assembly Republican leader, Kristin Olsen, said the governor has failed to present a comprehensive plan for job growth and education, and she expressed doubts about a project to build the nation’s first high-speed rail line in California.
A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for Tuesday, and Republicans have derided the project, which is estimated to eventually cost $68bn.
“While Governor Brown is still off chasing trains, we still have real needs in California,” Olsen said.
Brown sought his party’s presidential nomination in 1992, refusing to take donations larger than $100 and ultimately losing out to Bill Clinton.
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