Gavin Newsom went to Munich to complain about Trump, and to run an alternative foreign policy, signing a memorandum of understanding on climate change with the left-wing British government Monday.
Trump did not take kindly to that, declaring that everything Newsom touches turns to “garbage,” and noting that it was “inappropriate” for a governor to be conducting diplomacy.
Newsom may have been playacting in preparation for the 2028 presidential primary. But his irritation is real when it comes to Trump’s knockout punch to Obama-era climate regulations, announced last week.
Trump, standing alongside EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, repealed the so-called “endangerment finding,” the 2009 ruling that’s been used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars, factories and power plants for over 15 years.
The California governor called the repeal “doubling down on stupid.” But he has the most to lose, because if he doubles down on renewables, energy prices between the Golden State and the rest of the U.S. will widen even further, leaving Californians in the dust.
That’s what happened in the UK after Parliament passed the Climate Change Act in 2008. With binding carbon budgets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Brits complain of slow growth, low wages, and higher energy prices and taxes.
Newsom also inked a new partnership with Ukraine focusing on “economic recovery, innovation, and resilience.” No mention of renewables. When you’re in a war zone, you need solid fossil fuels and nuclear tech, not solar panels, wind, and empty reservoirs.
Thanks to Trump and Zeldin, American taxpayers will save over $1 trillion by scrapping federal emission standards for cars, and further trillions by ending emissions standards for power plants and appliances.
Plus, America will strike a blow at China and pull ahead of Europe by ending American reliance on Chinese-made wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles.
Here’s the deal: Climate change is real. But a strong economy is what people need to deal with it.
Want air conditioning when it’s scorching? Central heating when it’s freezing? You need money in your pocket — and that’s exactly what this rollback delivers.
Moving energy intensive manufacturing to China, where products are made with dirtier, coal-fired power plants, doesn’t reduce emissions. It simply shifts them from one part of the globe to another.
Zeldin’s EPA concluded there’s no legal basis for the endangerment finding, meaning the Clean Air Act never gave the agency authority to set emission standards for greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. It also found that Obama’s 2009 finding exceeded the EPA’s authority to combat “air pollution.”
Real pollutants like carbon monoxide, lead and sulfur dioxide? Those are still regulated.
The Obama rules, disastrous for American consumers, raised transportation and electricity costs while handing economic power to China — the world’s main supplier for renewable energy and EV components.
China makes 70 percent of the world’s wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles that feed the “Net Zero” climate change policy machine.
And the Obama rules did little for the planet. According to the UN’s own climate models, these costly regulations would lower global temperatures by less than two-tenths of one degree Celsius by 2100.
Climate activists love to ignore the economic fallout of their policies. They push government officials to take “action in the name of science” without considering cost-effectiveness or what’s actually best for society when prosperity and growth matter.
Remember when Paris Agreement supporters promised that if the West led on emissions cuts, other countries would follow? Well, Europe and America are cutting emissions — but China and India aren’t following suit.
If environmentalists want someone to attack, they should save their ire for China, which keeps pumping out emissions to produce our renewables.
And Africa shows environmentalists’ hypocrisy. The continent wants what we have: cheap food, electricity and jobs. But international organizations won’t lend for fossil fuel projects.
For the climate change movement, which Newsom has embraced, poverty is preferable to emissions. Even Bill Gates admitted that last year when he publicly changed his views on Net Zero, saying there were more urgent priorities.
Trump’s move could spark a worldwide rethink, as the costs of American production decline, and manufacturing comes home. The economic and social costs of strict emission standards are too high to ignore.
Rolling back the endangerment finding restores economic stability and legal clarity. It saves Americans trillions, and ensures that regulations follow what Congress intended, rather than raising costs for Americans while giving leverage to China.
Trump and Zeldin’s regulatory rollback mark a pivotal moment in environmental policy — one that puts the interests of everyday Americans and the strength of the U.S. economy front and center, and ahead of China.
That’s exactly what California needs, and Newsom should be applauding Trump — not trying to undermine him, and America, on the world stage.
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, former deputy assistant for research and technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation, is a distinguished fellow at the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
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