What They’re Reading: Tom Steyer’s climate politics are focused on lowering prices
“He says California voters’ top concern is affordability, and the fastest way to lower their bills is by embracing clean energy,” wrote the New York Times
CALIFORNIA – In case you missed it, Tom Steyer spoke with The New York Times’ David Gelles about how Steyer’s message of affordability directly ties into his climate goals. For decades, Steyer has been at the forefront of advancing climate progress and making polluters pay. Now as a candidate for governor, he’s meeting voters where they are: gas prices, utility bills, and home prices, and arguing that clean energy plays a clear part in the solution to it all.
Steyer spoke to Gelles about how his affordability messaging and climate mission are one in the same: “the fastest way to lower their bills is by embracing clean energy.”
The following are excerpts from the piece, which can be read here:
At a moment when few politicians are speaking out about climate change, Tom Steyer has thrust the issue to the center of the California governor’s race.
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His green message has been rooted in economics more than than romantic environmentalism, which marks a larger shift in climate politics.
He says California voters’ top concern is affordability, and the fastest way to lower their bills is by embracing clean energy.
Steyer has a raft of policy proposals he says would help, including overhauling utilities, offering more generous state tax credits for electric vehicle purchases, expanding bond financing for clean energy projects and making it easier to build and add renewable power sources to the grid.
California has historically been a climate leader in developing regulations, but it’s notoriously hard to build clean energy projects in the state and its electricity prices are among the highest in the nation. In a chaotic race, Steyer’s focus on climate, and a hefty dose of his own money, has placed him among the top Democratic candidates in most polls. The state’s nonpartisan primary is June 2, and the top two finishers will advance to the fall’s general election.
I called Steyer yesterday and asked him about the campaign, the Trump administration and his former hedge fund’s investment in coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Your rivals are trying to make the race a referendum on billionaires like yourself, but you’re trying to make it a referendum on climate. Is that connecting with voters?
The issue that’s going to resonate with voters is affordability, and it just turns out that at this point in the energy transition, doing the right thing is cheaper.
Even before Iran, it was very obvious which way the world was going. Solar and wind don’t have to go through the Strait of Hormuz.
But now, anyone who’s not a blind fool knows that fossil fuels are expensive and untrustworthy. Therefore, all around the world, the rate at which people are buying solar panels is soaring.
It’s hard to build large-scale clean energy projects in California. So what are you actually proposing that would allow Californians to have rapid access to these technologies?
What I’m saying is we’re going to have local competition. We’re going to put solar on the flat roofs. We’re going to use batteries that are going to allow local grids and micro grids. We can do it pretty damn fast. I also said I would triple the tax credit for E.V.s. Let’s get people into E.V.s.
You’ve also proposed breaking up PG&E, California’s biggest utility.
They are a legal monopoly that is preventing us from adopting cheap, clean energy and batteries. They’re charging us twice as much for electricity as the national average. Farmers in the Central Valley pay three times as much to move water for irrigation as the farmers in Texas. That’s crazy.
Your 2024 book, “Cheaper, Faster, Better,” argued that it made economic sense to build renewables. But the Trump administration is making it harder to build wind and solar. Does your argument still hold?
Take a look around the world and you’ll notice how much electricity is being built in Africa, in Pakistan, in Asia. People are building solar panels left, right, and center. Chinese E.V.s are cheaper, but we’re not allowed to buy them.
The Trump administration is trying to support their oil and gas cronies, absolutely. But it’s not going to work. The only thing it can do is ruin the United States and make us unable to compete around the world.
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If you are governor, you will have to work with the Trump administration. Do you see a path toward a more moderate, collaborative approach with the president?
He has been trying to hurt Californians all the time. He is not paying our FEMA bills. He’s throwing people off Medi-Cal. He is spending our money in a war halfway around the world and driving up our gasoline prices. He is sending in ICE agents to terrorize our citizens.
I’m going to stand up for the people of California. If he is treating us fairly, I am more than happy to cooperate with him. If he’s treating us unfairly, I intend to stand for California. If he tries to cheat in the election, I intend to stand up for free elections. If he tries interfering in the economy, I stand up for free competition.
California has historically been a leader on climate issues, but that’s gotten harder in recent years. Does the state still have the ability to lead on climate?
We should make decisions based on the economics and the science, and the economics and the science dictate moving toward clean sustainable energy that’s cheaper.
I’m a business person. These businesses are exploding all over the world. Why not here? We are the people who come up with the technology, lets us build and succeed and hire a whole bunch of people and show we can do it. I just want us to have a chance for California to lead the world.
Read the entire piece here.
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