Written by Michael Palomba
Gov. Gavin Newsom calmly signed new legislation while sitting in the rubble of what used to be Fleming Sheep Camp in Lassen County. And while, for a change, he was signing a good piece of legislation, he appeared totally unphased by the destruction surrounding him.
Twitter users posted some photos that captured Newsom’s rather upbeat demeanor, and some even took the time to have a little fun with it.
–@GavinNewsom: "I spent close to 30 minutes on the phone w the President yesterday specific to the wildfires here in CA…specifically talked about Butte County and some of the recovery efforts from the CampFire. He reinforced his commitment to our effort, and we were grateful.’’ pic.twitter.com/9EDotMIB7V
— Carla ‘Bluechecked’ Marinucci (@cmarinucci) September 11, 2020
https://twitter.com/BeatriceofEste/status/1304528097493102593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The problem here is that these fires are preventable, but not all of the proper measures are being taken to prevent them. Instead, Democrats like Newsom have been using the fires to push their climate change agenda.
“The debate is over in terms of climate change. If you don’t believe that, just come to the state of California,” said Newsom. “We’re going to have to fast track our efforts in terms of meeting our [clean energy] goals much sooner.” He said he has asked key administration officials to “go down that list [of climate change initiatives] and to dust off our current processes and accelerate them across the board.”
While climate change is certainly a factor, poor forest management practices are also to blame. President Trump has pointed this out several times since 2018, but not much has changed.
“I said you’ve got to clean your floors, you got to clean your forests. They have many, many years of leaves and broken trees. And they’re like, so flammable. You touch them and it goes up,” said President Trump. “I’ve been telling them this now for three years but they don’t want to listen… but they have massive fires again, in California.”
Newsom did mention poor forest management practices as a contributing factor, however he did not talk about “fast tracking” any efforts or “meeting our goals much sooner” regarding them as he did for climate change.
“I am not going to say that the forest management practices in California over the last 100 years have been ideal,” Newsom said. “Not for one second. But there’s something else going on, not just bad past practices.”
It’s clear that Gov. Newsom isn’t as passionate about forest management because it doesn’t fit his agenda and it assigns blame to the state rather than President Trump, capitalism, or some other scapegoat. It’s a lot easier to blame others than it is to accept blame, and Newsom is certainly taking the easier route.
The blame game and climate alarmism need to end. Over the years, these fires have burned millions of acres, destroyed homes, and claimed too many lives. Rather than pushing extreme climate change measures that will further degrade quality of life in California, Newsom and state lawmakers need to create a top notch forest management plan that will eliminate the fuel these fires thrive on before they even begin.
California can walk and chew gum at the same time. We should be able to practice common sense climate change measures while adequately maintaining our forests at the same time.
