• Gov. Gavin Newsom recently visited Lake Oroville to highlight efforts to advance long-term water resilience and bolster the state’s drought response. Though storms returned to Northern California, the small amounts of rain and snowfall will not make a significant dent in the water deficit the state faces, according to the governor’s office. “With the climate crisis threatening communities across the West, we must double down on our work to build water resilience in our communities for the long haul,” Newsom said in a statement. Dry conditions—resulting from extreme weather—impact multiple aspects of state operations, including increased fire risk and reduced energy production capacity. The state invested $5.2 billion over three years to support the immediate drought response and build water resilience statewide, and Newsom’s proposing $2 billion more. The budget includes funding to secure and expand water supplies, develop drought contingency planning and land repurposing projects, support drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, and improve water supply security and quality. “All of us must do our part to tackle the intensifying drought conditions felt across the state. We’re investing critical resources to battle the drought’s impacts on our communities and ecosystems and finding innovative solutions to deal with these new realities,” Newsom said.
• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California) announced $6.7 million in federal funding for California forest restoration projects—which is critical to reducing the risk of severe wildfires, according to an April 18 statement. In addition to decreasing wildfire risk, these landscape restoration activities add native plants and eradicate invasive species. The Dinkey Collaborative—a 154,000-acre project in the Sierra National Forest that has experienced high tree mortalities in the southern region—is one of the projects receiving $757,000 in funding. The funds are part of the U.S. Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program and were made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations, according to the statement. “Wildfires are a near-constant threat for California, and some of the best tools to combat that risk are large-scale forest restoration programs that remove dead and dying trees and restore native vegetation,” Feinstein said in the statement. “I thank the Biden administration for providing these funds and will continue to work with USDA and the Forest Service to increase the scale and frequency of forest restoration projects. These restoration projects are also the focus of my bill, the Wildfire Emergency Act, which has received a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and I expect to advance out of committee in the coming months.”
• Gov. Gavin Newsom renewed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to advance an ongoing collaboration between California and China to protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions and air pollution, and promote clean energy development, according to an April 18 statement. Newsom and China’s Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu signed the MOU in a virtual meeting, joined by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and senior climate officials from California and China. “California is a global leader in combating the climate crisis while growing our economy, but we can’t tackle this existential challenge alone,” Newsom said in the statement. “Today’s MOU deepens California’s strong climate and clean energy ties with China, bolstering our efforts to expand clean transportation, achieve carbon neutrality, and accelerate nature-based climate solutions.” The MOU outlines continued exchanges between California and China on the implementation of emissions trading systems, expanding markets for clean transportation—including zero emission vehicles—and reducing air pollution. It also includes a new focus on strategies to achieve carbon neutrality, and renews a prior version signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018.
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2022.