At the recent United Nations meetings on climate change, all the world’s major governments were represented. The chair, the prime minister of Fiji, opened the session by giving the floor to the government that “is now the global leader in enacting forward-thinking policies.” He then invited the representative from the government of California to take the floor. The federal Environmental Protection Agency representative spoke only later, after the delegations from Europe, Asia, and a smattering of Latin American and African countries.
How did California come to lead the nation? As a start, one in nine Americans lives here, drawn perhaps to the open skies, to the sun, palm trees, mountains, and ocean. And despite — or perhaps because of — the natural beauty that surrounds us, California’s workers are among the most productive in the nation. The sum product of our labor is a staggering $2.5 trillion per year. California contributes more to the U.S. gross domestic product than any other state. If it were a country, California would be the fifth largest economy in the world.
And size does matter. When Donald Trump, with his tiny little hands and the stroke of one pen, tried to make good on his campaign promise to loosen automobile emissions standards, he found that due to the great state of California, he couldn’t. Why? Because California answered back, “Fine, you can lower federal standards but that means nothing to us — ours will hold.” Car manufacturers in Detroit scratched their heads at this quagmire and then realized that the lower federal standard would mean nothing to them. It would be cost prohibitive to make cars to two standards, one for California consumers, whom they can’t afford to lose, and one for the rest of the country. So the higher standards held — nationwide. When Donald Trump said he was cutting climate change research funds for the satellites that scientists are sending up to monitor precise changes in air, land, and sea temperatures, the governor of California said, in so many words, “No worries, bozo. We’ll send up the satellites.” Jerry Brown can say that because he has deep pockets. Funded by Californians, the annual state budget of $170 billion is more than that of many entire countries, including Indonesia and Denmark.