By: The Editorial Board – wsj.com – January 13, 2024

Gov. Newsom tilts at carbon emissions, not fire mitigation.

The theory is that climate change caused two especially wet winters in California in 2023 and 2024. This led to lush vegetation growth. Perhaps you recall the ebullient stories about the blooming desert and wildflower explosion. But in recent months, the theory goes, climate change has also caused a dry spell that has turned that vegetation into tinder for fires. Ergo, “hydroclimate whiplash.”

So climate change explains wet and dry seasons, which follows the progressive line that climate change is responsible for every natural disaster except for perhaps earthquakes. In today’s climate orthodoxy, bad weather is always man-made.

This ignores that California’s climate has long been variable with dry years following wet ones. The nearby chart from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment shows precipitation in the state going back 130 or so years. There are wet and dry spells. The last couple of decades have had more dry years, but then so did the 1910s and 1920s when carbon emissions were far less than they are today.

The climate is changing, and human activity affects the climate. But variable rain and snowfall patterns in California are to be expected. Fires will occur as a result. Rather than blame the climate for wildfires, the obligation of public officials should be to prepare for them and, when they inevitably occur, mitigate the damage.

It’s on that score that Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Legislature in Sacramento, and the mayors of Los Angeles have failed. And, judging by the budget Mr. Newsom introduced on Friday, the Governor wants to keep on failing. His proposal skimps on wildfire prevention while boosting spending on Medicaid, green energy and payoffs to the teachers’ unions.

The last year’s stock market surge is giving California a revenue windfall from capital gains, and the state’s expected budget deficit has vanished. Mr. Newsom has $16.5 billion more to play with than he had anticipated.

Yet his budget for the coming fiscal year cuts the CAL FIRE’s “resource management” program by half from 2023 to $466.5 million. He plans instead to pay for $325 million in spending on wildfire and forest resilience with a $10 billion “climate bond” that voters approved in November. This is intended to free up general fund revenue for other spending.

Other climate bond spending includes $36 million for “sequestering carbon and reducing emissions” from ranches and farms; $47 million for “expansion of green streets, parks and school yards”; $80 million for “climate action through nature-based solutions” to “improve equitable access to nature”; $190 million for parks “in the state’s most disadvantaged communities”; and $228 million for port upgrades to support offshore wind generation.

None of this spending will mitigate future fires, droughts or floods or have any impact on global temperatures. In any case, Democrats have other political priorities than preventing fires or better managing its scarce water resources. Mr. Newsom’s budget increases general fund spending on Health and Human Services (mainly Medicaid) by $9.7 billion and failing K-12 schools by $4 billion compared to last year. His budget last year included $2.6 billion for “forest and wildfire resilience”—far less than the $14.7 billion provisioned for zero-emission vehicles and “clean energy.”

Despite their fervent belief that climate change will have catastrophic consequences, Democrats in California perennially underinvest in water storage and land management. Then when catastrophic fires, water shortages or floods happen, Democrats blame climate change as if there is nothing they could do about any of it. What the state really needs is a political climate change.

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Source: California’s Wildfire Climate Excuse – WSJ