California Governor Gavin Newsom was recently called out on the House floor by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), who exposed the lack of initiative toward improving the state’s wildfire resiliency. LaMalfa argued that Newsom has learned nothing in recent years when it comes to protecting Californians from the risk of wildfires.
LaMalfa pointed out that Newsom had previously been confronted on wildfires by President Donald Trump under his first administration. “Our Governor Gavin Newsom has been up there to see those fires, especially the Paradise one, when President Trump came to Paradise and visited to see the devastation. So at the time, President Trump asked him and others, what are you doing to clear the land in such a way that makes it less fire-prone to, you know, to rake the forest floor,” he said.
Suggesting the California governor has not taken any substantive action, he said, “So the question is, as Governor Newsom goes out on site and waves his arms and tells us it’s someone else’s fault, then what has he learned in the last six years?” He added, “And more importantly, what has he applied since he had this photo op in paradise as the new governor of California. It looks like not much, not much action.”
The California Republican pointed out that the promises made in California have not been kept. Certain promises are made to be aggressive on land management in California yet and certain claims are made, but the actual numbers are 1/5 of the amount claimed that had been treated, that had been the work that had been done in California.”
Pressing Newsom as to what will be done, he continued, “So what are we going to do? What is Newsom going to do?” LaMalfa proceeded to shut down the narrative that climate change is the culprit. “Well, he wants to claim it on climate change. And so we see time and time again, we’re hearing about climate change, we’re hearing about carbon dioxide. Well, here’s the same chart I show, often on this floor, carbon dioxide represents 0.04% of the atmosphere that’s barely changed.”
Furthermore, LaMalfa pointed out tangible examples of California leadership failing to maintain infrastructure. “So what are we doing to make things more fire resilient in Southern California, this is a reservoir, the San Anest reservoir, just up the hill from Pacific Palisades. The portion on the right here is what it looks like more or less when it’s full. Here’s what it looks like. Presently, it’s empty. It’s been empty since last February. They’ve been fooling around for nearly a year, supposedly repairing the cover over the thing,” he said.
Concluding his statement, LaMalfa called for competent action to be taken in his state. “So the general time is owner, are you going to help? Are you going to be a detriment? And just go on camera and blame everybody else and blame the president? We need real work done to make fire conditions much safer in California,” he said.
"*" indicates required fields
Watch a clip from the Representative’s speech below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.