Gov. Gavin Newsom signs 40 climate change bills; calls Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “a disgrace” for flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard

Calling out his red-state rivals, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday signed a package of 40 bills to deepen California’s commitment to fight climate change barely a week after a record heat wave sent temperatures soaring to 116 degrees and strained the state’s power grid.

The new laws, cheered by environmental groups, require that 90% of the state’s retail electricity sales come from renewable energy and zero-carbon sources such as solar, wind, hydro power and nuclear by the end of 2035 — up from the current level of 59%.

They also ban new oil and gas drilling within 3,200 feet of schools, homes, apartments, parks and businesses that are open to the public. And they set goals for making the state carbon neutral by 2045, along with expanding electric vehicles and boosting projects that capture carbon from industry.

During a bill-signing ceremony at Mare Island in Vallejo, next to an electric vehicle charging station with oil refineries in the backdrop, Newsom cast the issue as a debate over the past versus the future.

“For all the people who are selling stupid on FOX (News) and doubling down on stupid every single night, trying to recreate the 19th century, here we are leapfrogging and moving ahead,” Newsom said.

He noted that during a record heatwave that gripped the Western United States at the beginning of this month, more than 1,000 high-temperature records were broken in California. Although the state declared “Flex Alerts” asking people to cut electricity use as air conditioning demand soared to keep the grid from overloading, there were no rolling blackouts ordered in California.

Newsom contrasted that with Texas, where 4.5 million people lost power over three days last year, leading to at least 246 deaths during winter storms.

“The deniers and the doubters — all that anger — these guys are spewing every night,” Newsom said. “Think about the state of Texas, the first five months of this year, talk about spewing, 22.9 million tons of coal they spewed in the first five months of this year compared to California, with 18,000 tons. And they are talking to us about keeping our lights on? Three full days they couldn’t keep their lights on last year, with all that coal and gas.”

In recent months Newsom, who has a double-digit lead in the polls heading into his November re-election effort against Republican Brian Dahle, has been increasingly aggressive debating and provoking Republican governors such as Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida, leading to speculation Newsom may be angling for a presidential run.

Asked by a reporter Friday about DeSantis’ decision to fly two planeloads of Venezuelan migrants earlier this week to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, a wealthy, largely Democratic community, without warning local officials there first, Newsom noted that he has asked U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate whether any laws had been broken.

“He’s got kids,” Newsom said of DeSantis. “I’ve got kids. You saw those young girls with backpacks. No older than his children, my children. Being used as political pawns. And now he’s using it to fundraise. To raise money. It’s disgraceful. He’s a disgrace. What these governors are doing is disgraceful and it needs to stop.”

DeSantis said the flights to Martha’s Vineyard were part of an effort to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey similarly have sent thousands of migrants on buses to New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in recent months.

Earlier this week, Newsom also spent $100,000 from his re-election campaign funds to rent billboards in seven states that have moved to ban or severely restrict abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this summer. The billboards, in Republican-led Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina and South Dakota, direct people to a California website that offers legal advice and help with abortion services, abortion.ca.gov.

“Need an abortion?” reads one billboard. “California is here to help.”

Newsom said Friday that he plans to continue the campaign to contrast California with “anti-freedom” states.

“A young girl could be raped by her father and be forced to carry her own sister in Ron DeSantis’ Florida,” Newsom said. “And they lay claim to freedom?”

The environmental bills Newsom signed Friday were cheered by conservation groups.

“California is lighting the way to a bright future powered by renewable energy, including solar, wind and battery storage,” said Laura Deehan, state director of Environment California. “The solutions are all around us. The sun sends more power to the earth in a single hour than the entire globe needs in a year. The winds blow so hard and so fast off our coast that offshore wind alone could more than meet our state’s energy needs. And thanks in no small part to California innovators, the technology to save energy and catch the sun and the wind to power our lives is already here.”

Oil industry officials, however, said the new laws would lead to higher prices.