It’s the environment, stupid.
Governor Jerry Brown may as well have just said it in his State of the State speech on January 18th. In answering the question, “How do we chart a bold, bright future for California?,” Brown believes we get there by protecting the environment, reducing our dependence on dirty energy and building a clean energy future.
In articulating his vision, Brown conjured up the “old” California that was built on extracting gold from the Sierras — often with devastating consequences for wild lands and species — and then argued that the Golden State’s future depends far more on mining the collective creativity and brainpower of its people, including those leading the clean technology revolution.
Of the eight goals Brown said Californians could achieve if we work together, four of them were specifically about the environment: “build renewable energy; reduce pollution and greenhouse gasses; launch the nation’s only high-speed rail system; reach agreement on a plan to fix the Delta.” And his first goal, stimulate jobs, depends heavily on achieving the environmental goals.
Environmental advocates expected the governor to mention his plans for increasing California’s use of clean, renewable energy, building high-speed rail and fixing California’s complex water challenges. But the amount of time and detail he devoted to environmental themes in his annual speech was stunning.
Of course, the governor also spoke at length about California’s budget woes and his proposed budget cuts and tax initiatives. No surprises there. But then he turned his attention to what comes after this painful phase of cuts and taxes. And his vision for California was one where the Golden State continues to do great things — where we build great things that inspire our neighbors to follow our example.
Brown focused much of this bold, visionary speech on arguing why California should launch the first high-speed rail project in the nation. But first, he talked about another area where our state has famously led the nation: in climate policy and clean technology innovation.
Governor Brown didn’t mince his words when talking about why we must reduce our reliance on polluting fossil fuels. As noted by bloggers at Climate Watch, he didn’t avoid the words “climate change.” Instead, he made the compelling argument that we must continue to increase our energy efficiency and transition to cleaner sources of energy to protect our health, stop climate change and stimulate our economy:
Already California is leading the nation in creating jobs in renewable energy and the design and construction of more efficient buildings and new technologies. Our state keeps demanding more efficient structures, cars, machines and electric devices. We do that because we understand that fossil fuels, particularly foreign oil, create ever rising costs to our economy and to our health. It is true that the renewable energy sector is small relative to the overall economy but it pays good wages and will only grow bigger as oil prices increase and the effects of climate change become more obvious and expensive.
I have set a goal of 20,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. You have laid the foundation by adopting the requirement that one third of our electricity come from renewable sources by that date. This morning I can tell you we are on track to meet that goal and substantially exceed it. In the last two years alone, California has permitted over 16,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal energy projects.
In the beginning of the computer industry, jobs were numbered in the thousands. Now they are in the millions. The same thing will happen with green jobs. And California is positioned perfectly to reap the economic benefits that will inevitably flow.
California also leads the nation in cleaning up the air, encouraging electric vehicles and reducing pollution and greenhouse gases. Our vehicle emissions standards–which have always set the pace–now have been adopted by the federal government for the rest of the country.
Under AB 32, California has stepped out and crafted a bold plan to deal with climate change and foreign oil dependency. The plan will require less carbon in our fuels, more efficient technologies across a broad swath of businesses and a carefully designed cap and trade system that uses market incentives instead of prescriptive mandates.
As a result, California is attracting billions of dollars in clean tech venture capital investments. In 2011, almost 40% of such investments were made in California, making our state not only the leader in the nation but in the world.
The governor concluded this segment of his speech by saying he was committed to continuing these programs and to building on them.
He then moved into the portion of his remarks destined to make headlines: why Californians need high speed rail:
Just as bold is our plan to build a high-speed rail system, connecting the Northern and Southern parts of our state. This is not a new idea. As governor the last time, I signed legislation to study the concept. Now thirty years later, we are within weeks of a revised business plan that will enable us to begin initial construction before the year is out.
President Obama strongly supports the project and has provided the majority of funds for this first phase. It is now your decision to evaluate the plan and decide what action to take. Without any hesitation, I urge your approval.
If you believe that California will continue to grow, as I do, and that millions more people will be living in our state, this is a wise investment. Building new runways and expanding our airports and highways is the only alternative. That is not cheaper and will face even more political opposition.
Those who believe that California is in decline will naturally shrink back from such a strenuous undertaking. I understand that feeling but I don’t share it, because I know this state and the spirit of the people who choose to live here. California is still the Gold Mountain that Chinese immigrants in 1848 came across the Pacific to find. The wealth is different, derived as it is, not from mining the Sierras but from the creative imagination of those who invent and build and generate the ideas that drive our economy forward.
Critics of the high-speed rail project abound as they often do when something of this magnitude is proposed. During the 1930’s, The Central Valley Water Project was called a “fantastic dream” that “will not work.” The Master Plan for the Interstate Highway System in 1939 was derided as “new Deal jitterbug economics.” In 1966, then Mayor Johnson of Berkeley called BART a “billion dollar potential fiasco.” Similarly, the Panama Canal was for years thought to be impractical and Benjamin Disraeli himself said of the Suez Canal: “totally impossible to be carried out.” The critics were wrong then and they’re wrong now.
A long career of environmental leadership and public service has led Jerry Brown to this critical point, where he knows that California’s future is not only inextricably linked to protecting our air, water and land, but also to continuing to dream up big solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. That’s what California’s landmark climate and clean energy policies have been about, and it’s what high-speed rail is about.
California’s cutting-edge environmental policies and projects, the elected leaders who champion them, and educated voters who continue to support both are all necessary ingredients in the recipe for our state’s success.
Read the governor’s entire prepared State of the State remarks here.
