California Governor Candidates Debate Climate Change and Environmental Policies

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And Mr. Bianco, many Californians, like Emma, believe climate change is real and already impacting the states. And my question is, do you believe climate change is happening? And as governor, how would you approach California's current environmental policies? You have one minute. [00:00:16] Speaker 2: Well, unfortunately for her, there are no other states in the country that are doing what California is because they looked at us and they said, hey, they're destroying their state. We're not going to do that. That is the reason why we can no longer afford to live in California. Do I believe in climate change? Of course we can say that temperatures are increasing. We've been threatened since I was a little kid of being in an ice age, of California being non-existent because the oceans were going to rise. It's not going to happen. Am I naive enough to believe that human beings can affect it? No. What California has done in the last 30 years in climate change and taking care of the environment with CO2 and everything that they're doing, was eliminated with the Palisades fire? We have to be realistic about what we are doing, how we are going to compensate for the Earth's environment changing and stop destroying California with unbelievable excessive regulations that are truly environmental activist-related that are destroying our state's ability to do everything, including housing. [00:01:22] Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Bianco. Mr. Hilton, as advisor of then Prime Minister David Cameron, you're credited as the mastermind of his green campaign. But you said if elected, you would dismantle California's climate policy. So I'll ask you, do you believe in climate change? You have one minute. [00:01:38] Speaker 3: Yeah, and we need to have common sense on climate change, not ideology that ends up being counterproductive and exactly as Chad said, hurting every small business and family and everyone in California. I'm an environmentalist. We love our beautiful natural landscapes, our climate here in California. We've got to protect that. Clean air, clean water. Of course, that's right. But look at some of the things that we're doing in the name of climate change. The wildfires that occurred in the Sierras in 2020 because the forests weren't managed properly, the CO2 emissions from that one year of mega wildfires wiped out all the savings from climate policy in the previous 20 years. Look at what's going on with our gas prices, the highest in the country, because instead of getting oil and gas from our own oil production here in California, we are shipping it 7,500 miles in giant super tankers spewing out carbon emissions. In the name of climate, we are increasing carbon emissions. We need some common sense here. [00:02:39] Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Hilton. Mr. Mahan, California households face rising utility bills while the state pushes for more electricity to power the state. How do you make clean energy transition affordable? You have one minute. [00:02:52] Speaker 4: Yeah, this is the key question. It's why I find it such a head-scratcher that Steve Hilton talks about protecting the environment and then his housing plan is let's just build out as far as we can. That's going to be great for the climate, for fire risk, for our daily commutes. It's going to be just wonderful. Have you actually traveled across California? [00:03:09] Speaker 2: And thank you for admitting why we don't build houses. [00:03:12] Speaker 4: I hope I get this extra time. Probably why when he got pushed out of government in Britain, he said the country was ungovernable. I'm looking forward to what he does in California. I'm going to correct them. So there's a lot of talk on this stage. I've actually taken action. I held our utility, PG&E, accountable for harnessing the investment of big tech companies to hold them accountable for paying for grid upgrades. So if they want to build a new R&D lab or data center, we ensure that they pay the full cost of modernizing the grid. And we can be even smarter. Right now in the middle of the day, California dumps extra solar. I get extra time, I hope, because I got interrupted about ten times. This is the insanity of our current policies. In the middle of the day, the cost of power because of abundant solar drops to zero. We pay Arizona to take our extra power. What we should be doing is paying EV owners to charge in the middle of the day, plug in at night, and power the grid. We need smarter policies that don't put the burden of achieving our climate goals on the backs of working families. [00:04:21] Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Hilton, I'm going to give you 30 seconds to respond. [00:04:25] Speaker 3: Look, I don't know if you know how many EVs are on the roads in California, the proportion. The idea that that's going to kick our power. [00:04:36] Speaker 4: Actually, half of the vehicles purchased in Santa Clara County are EVs. [00:04:39] Speaker 3: You actually know the number, Matt, statewide. Yeah, how many, Steve? Do you know? About a million. No, the percentage of our vehicles on the roads. Ten percent. Yeah, and growing. It's seven percent, and he wants to power our power grid with that. It's a lot of batteries, Steve. This is what you get. Tell me the math on the batteries. Thank you, Mr. Hilton, we need to move on. It's what you get from ideologues, who are not practical. [00:05:01] Speaker 4: It's actually called innovation, Steve, innovation. [00:05:04] Speaker 3: Gentlemen, thank you very much. You don't have common sense, but don't understand how to make things work. [00:05:09] Speaker 5: I'm going to move on to Ms. Porter. Ms. Porter. Should California introduce climate impact standards specifically for AI and cloud computing infrastructure, similar to building or vehicle emission standards? [00:05:25] Speaker 6: We should have climate standards for everything we're building. Building has climate effects. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't build. If you're building green energy, that has climate effects, but they're net positive, in my opinion. So it is important to look ahead, to get ahead of things that are coming into our economy, and to try to have climate thoughts about it. We need to think of it. This is going to take a lot more energy, which we know it will. Electric vehicles are also projected to take a lot more energy in the future. We need to be putting more green energy and more battery storage and grid transmission in the ground. So, yes, it's absolutely important. Look, if you're going to pollute, if what you're going to do is going to pollute, it's going to take water, it's going to use energy, then you should be prepared to pay for it. That proposed costs should come out of your profits, not out of California families' pocketbooks. I just want to use my remaining nine seconds. What is Mr. Becerra's revenue plan? [00:06:26] Speaker 7: Sure. [00:06:26] Speaker 5: I am actually moving to Mr. Becerra next. No, excuse me. And I will come to you, Mr. Becerra. [00:06:32] Speaker 8: Because the last one, I got 30 seconds. I will come back to you. [00:06:36] Speaker 5: Mr. Becerra, I was about to ask you how you plan to regulate AI energy throughout the state and the specific steps, but I also invite you to respond to Ms. Porter's question. [00:06:47] Speaker 7: So I get a minute to respond to the question and 30 seconds to respond to Ms. Porter? [00:06:51] Speaker 5: Let's start with a minute. [00:06:52] Speaker 7: Okay. So I'll respond to your question, and if you give me 30 seconds, I'll respond to Katie's question. [00:06:57] Speaker 5: You already have a look for it. [00:06:58] Speaker 7: So on artificial intelligence, we want to make sure that when artificial intelligence is based here, and it should be based here, because this is the home of artificial intelligence, that it is doing more than just taking care of its own needs. It is helping take care of the needs of communities that are in California, because it is an industry that is going to offer us great opportunity. At the same time, we want to make sure we're offering the protections that our families need, our children, our workers. We have to make sure that as we harness AI, we do it before AI harnesses us. And so that means taking advantage of working with them to establish a clear set of rules on how they will operate. They will provide resources to have the infrastructure that they need, but also expand that to provide the California people with a little extra. And we'll do this without imposing the type of regulation that would move them over to places like China. [00:07:52] Speaker 5: Mr. Becerra, you have 30 seconds to respond to Ms. Porter, and then we will come to Mr. Villaragosa. [00:07:57] Speaker 7: Absolutely. As the only person who's actually done tax policy, because I sat on the Ways and Means Committee for 20 years in the House of Representatives, I can tell you what we will do, Katie. We will make sure that we change the tax code so we don't just tax doctors and nurses and firefighters and teachers at rates that are higher than billionaires like Tom Steyer. What we will do is make sure that everyone pays their fair share. That won't be so difficult. If you look at the governor's budget from today, in fact, he actually calls for getting rid of some of the corporate welfare loopholes that are allowing corporations to pay less. We have the resources to go out and create the revenue we need, and we'll make sure that everyone is paying their fair share. [00:08:37] Speaker 5: We'll make sure. Thank you, Mr. Becerra. I defer to my colleague. [00:08:40] Speaker 7: May I say I want to talk about climate. [00:08:42] Speaker 9: I'm the person on this stage who's worked on climate. Mr. Sark, we'll get to you. So I'm not going to let this go without speaking. I was told that I get the next thing. Mr. Sark, we'll get to you in a moment. Mr. Sark, I'll get to you in a moment. I have a nuanced pause. One second first. [00:08:53] Speaker 10: You can respond too, but let me ask you a question first. What is the biggest environmental challenge right now facing California, and what steps would you take to alleviate it? You have a minute. [00:09:03] Speaker 8: First of all, let me speak to the record, everybody. When I was Speaker of the Assembly, 100% environmental record, I'm the author of the Karl Moyer Act, which was the biggest effort to clean up the air since the Clean Air Act until AB 32 and SB 32. When I was mayor, I said, dream with me. We'd make LA the greenest, biggest city in the country. We went number one American city reducing carbon emissions, number five in the world. Reduce our water consumption in 1970 levels when we had a million less people, and the port, the biggest port in this state, the biggest in the country, is the greenest port in the world. But folks, anybody that thinks that the climate deniers have a policy that works, or the ones that believe we're just going to go all renewables, that's not going to work. We need an all-of-the-above energy policy. Almost anybody that knows anything about this knows that, and we haven't spoken to it. We've built 167,000 charging stations in the last 10 years. We need 2 million in the next 10 years. And if we built it, we don't have the grid or the generation. So we have to build again. Thank you, Mr. Villarosa. [00:10:11] Speaker 10: And all of the above energy policy. Thank you. Mr. Steyer, California water use and allocation have been debated for decades with little built. Name one of the major water infrastructure projects that you would personally fight to break ground on within your first term. You have one minute. [00:10:28] Speaker 9: Well, let me say this. When I look at water, I look at the ways that we're going to capture water, and I will do all the things to capture water. We're going to have to store water, and we're going to have to use it much more specifically than we do now. It's not going to be the huge projects you're talking about. It's going to be the kinds of things that Los Angeles does, all those things plus reuse. But I want to talk about climate, because that's the big question on this stage, and no one is talking about it smartly. Look, this is about costs. The cost of clean energy is much lower than the cost of fossil fuel energy. The big risk for California is falling behind the rest of the world who are moving to clean energy, renewable energy, and electric vehicles as fast as they possibly can. This war in Iran only points out how much more expensive and untrustworthy fossil fuel energy is. And let me say this. Javier Becerra has been taking money from these big oil companies. He's been saying we need them. He's been voting for drilling more in California. That is the exact wrong thing to do. We should be moving with the times, leading the electricity revolution. [00:11:33] Speaker 10: Mr. Becerra, would you like to respond? You have 30 seconds. [00:11:35] Speaker 7: Sure, Tom. Just look at my record. When I was attorney general, I sued the fossil fuel companies over and over. When I was attorney general, I took on Donald Trump, who tried to eliminate California's clean car standards, and we beat him. When I was attorney general, I sued oil companies who were trying to monopolize an industry, and we beat them. I will stand on my record. I won't have to talk about inflated promises, because I could show people what I've done when I was AG, and what I will do as governor to make sure that we continue to move towards a transition to clean energy. [00:12:07] Speaker 9: Look, I have been fighting the oil companies for 15 years, and I've never lost. Javier Becerra is taking money from them, and he is doing their bit. [00:12:16] Speaker 10: Gentlemen, let's move on here. We're going to do a quick lightning round question here. It's a yes or no question. We're going to start with Mr. Hilton. As governor, would you increase drilling off the coast of California? Yes or no? Yes, we have to lower gas prices. Thank you. Mr. Steyer? No way. Ms. Porter? [00:12:38] Speaker 6: No. [00:12:40] Speaker 10: Mr. Bianco? Yes. Mr. Villaragosa? No. Mr. Becerra? [00:12:44] Speaker 6: Absolutely not. [00:12:45] Speaker 10: Mr. Mahan? [00:12:46] Speaker 6: No. [00:12:47] Speaker ?: Thank you.