Five-Point Climate Platform

Climate change is the existential crisis of our lifetime.  I am running on a bold climate change platform that includes ending our reliance on fossil fuels, climate adaptability, preserving our open lands and coastal waters, and bringing a clean energy economy to California.  I am the only candidate in the race to take a pledge to accept no fossil fuels or corporate PAC money. In order to lead on climate change, we MUST begin holding our elected officials to account for the money they take to get elected.

My 5-point climate platform is centered around:

1. Climate justice, centering the communities that are most impacted by the brunt of a warming climate. 
   1. Researching the environmental impact of and investing in climate adaptability plans for working-class and low-income families now will save the state billions of dollars later, including market incentives and access/resources for these communities to weatherize, protect, and solarize their homes and communities.
   2. Prioritize setbacks that will automatically improve the lives of frontline communities.

   3. Enforce SB1137, which was supposed to have stopped new oil drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, schools, parks, and healthcare facilities. CalGEM has approved hundreds of permits to rework existing oil and gas wells and continue dangerous operations within setback zones, including hundreds just this year, the majority of which are within protected zones.

   4. We must bring labor to the climate movement, and cannot leave behind fossil fuels workers from the coming green energy economy. Unionizing clean energy jobs, ensuring workers are trained for the transition, and ensuring equal if not better-paying jobs.
   5. Eliminating our reliance on foreign oil is a human rights issue. Our reliance on fossil fuels continues to fund oppressive governments across the world. 
2. EVs will not solve the climate crisis, and recognizing the intersection of housing, transportation, and climate policy
   1. We need to update and modernize our electric grid which is ill-prepared for the electric economy.
   2. Corporations are the worst polluters in the state. Corporate disclosure of carbon emissions just became law. Now let’s consider placing a carbon tax on corporate emissions to fund clean energy projects and fast-track our transition to zero-emissions. 
   3. Solar canopies and roadways, EV charging ports and stations, further market incentives for solar panels for residential and commercial buildings, transitioning the state fleet from gas to electric vehicles, and electrifying all public schools and buildings. 
   4. Investment in rail and buses. On top of transitioning the state fleet to EVs, we need to commuters off the roads and into alternatives. Right now, the Irvine/Tustin Railway corridor is amongst the busiest in the state. Let’s invest in high-speed rail, build infill housing development along this railway corridor, as well as invest in bus infrastructure in order to get people near transportation to and from their homes and work. 
   5. Development of mixed-density, mixed-use, and social housing near transportation hubs, schools, and commercial districts.
3. Protect our open lands and coastal waters
   1. Sea level rise threatens our coastal communities, with homes sliding into the bluffs and taking out train tracks. In Crystal Cove State Beach, homes have already been redtagged and residents moved inland using eminent domain. We are not actively preparing to move away from the coast. Sea walls are a good option for some portions of the coastline, but run the risk of destroying beaches and drowning them. The wave action when it hits a sea wall excavates the sand away from the beach and blocks the natural sources of sand from the beach.
   2. Retaining walls for bluffs.
   3. Codifying our state’s 30 by 30 plan to conserve 30% of our open lands and coastal waters by 2030
4. Eliminating our state’s reliance on fossil fuels
   1. Build out our solar and wind infrastructure
   2. Create market incentives for EVs, solar panels, and electric appliances/heat pumps to replace gas appliances, HVACs, and water heaters
   3. End fossil fuel subsidies
   4. Divest from fossil fuels investments
   5. Have big oil pay the cost of cleaning up orphaned wells, and stop the illegal permitting of reworking existing wells by CalGEM
   6. Fight back against efforts by the California Public Utilities Commission to make it harder for renters and schools to transition to solar.
   7. Ban new oil drilling permits in California and a ban on fracking and cyclic steam injection.
5. Water management
   1. Recycle more water/Capture stormwater runoff/store more water in reservoirs/recharge groundwater basins (including widening bottlenecks)
   2. Transform California agriculture, which is currently using up about 80% of the state’s developed water. Growers could opt for crops grown during the rainy season and breed more drought-tolerant varieties of the most water-intensive crops, as well as leave crop residues in fields and reduce tillage to allow soil to retain more water. The state should actively subsidize more efficient irrigation systems and not leave the cost to farmers. We should monitor and place caps on water extractions.
   3. Market incentives for consumers to transition from lawns to eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives (not astroturf, which is not sustainable).