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Amid budget shortfall, lobbyists push for multibillion-dollar climate bond

News Feed
Monday, June 10, 2024

Dozens of environmental groups, renewable energy companies, labor unions, water agencies and social justice advocates are lobbying state lawmakers to place a multibillion dollar climate bond on the November ballot.Sacramento lawmakers have been bombarded with ads and pitches in support of a ballot proposal that would have the state borrow as much as $10 billion to fund projects related to the environment and climate change.“Time to GO ALL IN on a Climate Bond,” says the ad from WateReuse California, a trade association advocating for projects that would recycle treated sewage and storm runoff into drinking water.“Invest in California’s Ports to Advance Offshore Wind,” says an ad by the companies that want to build giant wind turbines off the coast.The jockeying by the lobbyists to get their priorities into the proposed climate bond measure intensified after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed spending $54 billion on climate in 2022 but then cut that funding to close recent massive budget deficits.If approved by lawmakers, voters would decide in November if they want the state to borrow the money and pay it back over the decades with interest.“The science and the economics clearly show that prompt climate investments will save Californians money and maximize the effectiveness of adaptation options intended to benefit people and nature,” said Jos Hill at the Pew Charitable Trusts. The nonprofit is part of a coalition of 170 groups, including those advocating for environmental justice and sustainable farming, that is lobbying for the bond.Negotiations are ongoing in closed-door meetings, but details emerged recently when two spreadsheets of the proposed spending, one for an Assembly bill known as AB 1567 and the other for the Senate’s SB 867, were obtained by the news organization Politico.The two plans, which would be combined into a single ballot measure, include money for wildlife and land protection, safe drinking water, shoring up the coast from erosion and wildfire prevention.They also include hundreds of millions of dollars for projects that would benefit private industry, including some green energy companies that are already benefiting from the gush of federal money aimed at mitigating global warming coming from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.A final decision of whether to include a climate bond on the ballot must be made by June 27. The proposal is competing with plans to borrow money for other issues, including school construction. And lawmakers have said they don’t want to overwhelm voters with too many pleas to take on more debt.Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella and the author of AB 1567, told The Times this week that negotiators were favoring a climate bond that would borrow $9 billion.Both the Assembly and Senate plans include hundreds of millions of dollars to build facilities at California ports to support the development of offshore wind farms.“The conversation is,” said Garcia, “how do we support infrastructure at the ports that can help offshore wind get off the ground?”And $100 million or more, according to the spread sheets, would go to building electric transmission lines needed to connect green energy to the grid. Already Pacific Gas & Electric and the two other big electric companies have recently hiked electric bills to pay for building and maintaining transmission lines.Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat and author of SB 867, said the numbers in the spreadsheets should not be counted on, including the amounts for electric transmission, because negotiations were continuing.“This is public money,” Allen said. “This is not about making life easier for utilities.”Governments often take out long-term debt to pay for infrastructure projects that are expensive to build but will last for decades. Yet some of the planned climate bond spending, according to the spreadsheets, would go to operate day-to-day programs that could long be over when the bonds are finally paid off.For instance, the Assembly spreadsheet has $500 million going to “workforce development” or the training of people to work in the field of clean energy.Garcia said that many items in the spreadsheet had been changed in the negotiations, but he declined to give more details.Allen said the focus was on long-term investment. “The key thing with a bond is ensuring that you’re focused on investments that truly have a long-term benefit because you are going to be asking people 25 years from now to pay for the investments that we’re putting in place this decade. So that’s got to be a guiding principle.”Earlier this year, Sacramento legislators had proposals to place tens of billions of dollars of bonds on the November ballot, funding efforts including stopping fentanyl overdoses and building affordable housing. But those plans were crushed in March when a $6.4-billion bond measure promoted by Newsom to help homeless and mentally ill people got 50.18% of the vote, just barely enough to win approval.The measure, known as Proposition 1, will pay for new homes and treatment places for mentally ill people, and cost the state $310 million a year for the next 30 years.Legislators are now debating what additional proposed bonds are most likely to pass on the November ballot. They are also considering the state’s debt service ratio, which is the percentage of the general fund that must go to pay down the debt.A large jump in the debt service ratio could harm the state’s credit rating. Currently California’s credit rating falls in the middle of the pack among the 50 states. Texas and Florida are among the better rated states, while Illinois and New Jersey are among those with lower ratings.David Crane, a lecturer at Stanford and the president of Govern for California, pointed out that required payments on bonds that the state has already issued, as well as mandatory payments for employee pension obligations and retiree health insurance, “crowd out spending on other programs.”“If they are going to add to that burden with another bond,” he said, “they should make sure the money is well spent.”In a February report, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said the Newsom administration had been spending unprecedented amounts of money on climate and the environment but said there was little information on how effective it had been.“The lack of such information,” the report said, was hampering “longer-term decisions, such as... which programs should be prioritized for future funding.”It is already clear that groups maneuvering for a share of the proposed bond money will not get all they have requested.In California, where fights over water supplies have been ongoing for decades, lobbyists representing water agencies across the state are asking legislators for two-thirds of the proceeds.Among their requests are $1 billion for water recycling and desalination projects, $500 million for water quality and clean drinking water upgrades, $950 million for flood protection and $700 million to improve dam safety.“For California to be prepared for longer droughts and be prepared for extreme precipitation events, the state needs to invest more in water infrastructure funding, and general obligation bonds are a good way to help fund infrastructure,” said Cindy Tuck, deputy executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.“The cost of these projects are not going down,” Tuck said. “With inflation, the costs are going up. So it really makes sense to invest now in water.” Newsletter Toward a more sustainable California Get Boiling Point, our newsletter exploring climate change, energy and the environment, and become part of the conversation — and the solution. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Sacramento lawmakers have been bombarded with ads and pitches in support of a ballot proposal that would have the state borrow as much as $10 billion.

Dozens of environmental groups, renewable energy companies, labor unions, water agencies and social justice advocates are lobbying state lawmakers to place a multibillion dollar climate bond on the November ballot.

Sacramento lawmakers have been bombarded with ads and pitches in support of a ballot proposal that would have the state borrow as much as $10 billion to fund projects related to the environment and climate change.

“Time to GO ALL IN on a Climate Bond,” says the ad from WateReuse California, a trade association advocating for projects that would recycle treated sewage and storm runoff into drinking water.

“Invest in California’s Ports to Advance Offshore Wind,” says an ad by the companies that want to build giant wind turbines off the coast.

The jockeying by the lobbyists to get their priorities into the proposed climate bond measure intensified after Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed spending $54 billion on climate in 2022 but then cut that funding to close recent massive budget deficits.

If approved by lawmakers, voters would decide in November if they want the state to borrow the money and pay it back over the decades with interest.

“The science and the economics clearly show that prompt climate investments will save Californians money and maximize the effectiveness of adaptation options intended to benefit people and nature,” said Jos Hill at the Pew Charitable Trusts. The nonprofit is part of a coalition of 170 groups, including those advocating for environmental justice and sustainable farming, that is lobbying for the bond.

Negotiations are ongoing in closed-door meetings, but details emerged recently when two spreadsheets of the proposed spending, one for an Assembly bill known as AB 1567 and the other for the Senate’s SB 867, were obtained by the news organization Politico.

The two plans, which would be combined into a single ballot measure, include money for wildlife and land protection, safe drinking water, shoring up the coast from erosion and wildfire prevention.

They also include hundreds of millions of dollars for projects that would benefit private industry, including some green energy companies that are already benefiting from the gush of federal money aimed at mitigating global warming coming from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

A final decision of whether to include a climate bond on the ballot must be made by June 27. The proposal is competing with plans to borrow money for other issues, including school construction. And lawmakers have said they don’t want to overwhelm voters with too many pleas to take on more debt.

Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, a Democrat from Coachella and the author of AB 1567, told The Times this week that negotiators were favoring a climate bond that would borrow $9 billion.

Both the Assembly and Senate plans include hundreds of millions of dollars to build facilities at California ports to support the development of offshore wind farms.

“The conversation is,” said Garcia, “how do we support infrastructure at the ports that can help offshore wind get off the ground?”

And $100 million or more, according to the spread sheets, would go to building electric transmission lines needed to connect green energy to the grid. Already Pacific Gas & Electric and the two other big electric companies have recently hiked electric bills to pay for building and maintaining transmission lines.

Sen. Ben Allen, a Santa Monica Democrat and author of SB 867, said the numbers in the spreadsheets should not be counted on, including the amounts for electric transmission, because negotiations were continuing.

“This is public money,” Allen said. “This is not about making life easier for utilities.”

Governments often take out long-term debt to pay for infrastructure projects that are expensive to build but will last for decades. Yet some of the planned climate bond spending, according to the spreadsheets, would go to operate day-to-day programs that could long be over when the bonds are finally paid off.

For instance, the Assembly spreadsheet has $500 million going to “workforce development” or the training of people to work in the field of clean energy.

Garcia said that many items in the spreadsheet had been changed in the negotiations, but he declined to give more details.

Allen said the focus was on long-term investment. “The key thing with a bond is ensuring that you’re focused on investments that truly have a long-term benefit because you are going to be asking people 25 years from now to pay for the investments that we’re putting in place this decade. So that’s got to be a guiding principle.”

Earlier this year, Sacramento legislators had proposals to place tens of billions of dollars of bonds on the November ballot, funding efforts including stopping fentanyl overdoses and building affordable housing. But those plans were crushed in March when a $6.4-billion bond measure promoted by Newsom to help homeless and mentally ill people got 50.18% of the vote, just barely enough to win approval.

The measure, known as Proposition 1, will pay for new homes and treatment places for mentally ill people, and cost the state $310 million a year for the next 30 years.

Legislators are now debating what additional proposed bonds are most likely to pass on the November ballot. They are also considering the state’s debt service ratio, which is the percentage of the general fund that must go to pay down the debt.

A large jump in the debt service ratio could harm the state’s credit rating. Currently California’s credit rating falls in the middle of the pack among the 50 states. Texas and Florida are among the better rated states, while Illinois and New Jersey are among those with lower ratings.

David Crane, a lecturer at Stanford and the president of Govern for California, pointed out that required payments on bonds that the state has already issued, as well as mandatory payments for employee pension obligations and retiree health insurance, “crowd out spending on other programs.”

“If they are going to add to that burden with another bond,” he said, “they should make sure the money is well spent.”

In a February report, the Legislative Analyst’s Office said the Newsom administration had been spending unprecedented amounts of money on climate and the environment but said there was little information on how effective it had been.

“The lack of such information,” the report said, was hampering “longer-term decisions, such as... which programs should be prioritized for future funding.”

It is already clear that groups maneuvering for a share of the proposed bond money will not get all they have requested.

In California, where fights over water supplies have been ongoing for decades, lobbyists representing water agencies across the state are asking legislators for two-thirds of the proceeds.

Among their requests are $1 billion for water recycling and desalination projects, $500 million for water quality and clean drinking water upgrades, $950 million for flood protection and $700 million to improve dam safety.

“For California to be prepared for longer droughts and be prepared for extreme precipitation events, the state needs to invest more in water infrastructure funding, and general obligation bonds are a good way to help fund infrastructure,” said Cindy Tuck, deputy executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

“The cost of these projects are not going down,” Tuck said. “With inflation, the costs are going up. So it really makes sense to invest now in water.”

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That’s two lives, the next generation,” she said. “And if we can’t learn lessons to save the newborn, the unborn and the mom, how are we in society going to do anything?” She knew doulas could be more effective in that work, due to the close relationships they develop with their patients and the time they spend with them. They also conduct home visits and are able to understand more holistically what may be impacting a pregnant person’s health.  Nationally, doulas are being recognized for their additive care, with many states passing legislation in recent years to cover their services under Medicaid in order to improve birth outcomes, particularly for women of color.  Read Next ‘How did we miss this for so long?’: The link between extreme heat and preterm birth Virginia Gewin As part of their training with the project, the doulas work with their clients to gauge their preparedness, said Louis, who helped develop the assessment tool. 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But I think that’s going to be a huge barrier.” While figuring out some of the logistical and financial obstacles will be difficult, Holder believes the training they are providing doulas is crucial to the health of pregnant people in a state where climate change is wreaking havoc.  “I would really love to see this program fully tested and expanded and incorporated in general medical care,” she said. “This is the new environment we live in.” This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The birth of the climate doula on Nov 16, 2025.

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At the halfway point of annual United Nations climate negotiations in Brazil, it appears the talks may do more than just focus on implementing past promises, as some observers had expected

Throw that out the window.The urgency of climate change is causing some negotiators to push for more big-picture action — on weak plans to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases, on too little money to help nations wracked by climate change, on putting teeth into phasing out coal, oil and gas. Because of that pressure to do more — including from Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — the diplomat chairing the talks said Saturday he'll consider a big-picture, end-of-negotiations communiqué, sometimes known as a decision or cover text.“I think things have changed, which is a very good thing,” said veteran observer Jean Su of the Center for Biological Diversity. “So I think there’s momentum that we will get some type of decision text, and our hope is that in particular there’s going to be some commitment on phasing out fossil fuels.”“I would say that what’s at stake now is probably higher than the last several COPs because you’re looking at an ambition gap,″ said former Philippine negotiator Jasper Inventor, international program director at Greenpeace International. “There’s a lot of expectation, there’s a lot of excitement here, but there’s also a lot of political signals that’s been sent by President Lula.”“We’re at the middle of the COP, and at the middle of COP is usually where the negotiators stare each other eye-to-eye. It’s almost like a staring contest,” Inventor said. “But next week, this is where the negotiations need to happen, where political decisions are made by the ministers.”Because this process stems from the Paris climate Agreement, which is mostly voluntary, these end statements grab headlines and set global tone but have limited power. The last few COP end statements have made still-unfulfilled pledges for rich countries to give money to poor nations to cope with climate change and the world to phase out fossil fuels.Key among those issues is the idea of telling nations to go back to the drawing board on what experts consider inadequate climate-fighting plans submitted this year.In the 2015 Paris agreement, which is being celebrated here on its 10th anniversary, nations are supposed to have submitted climate-fighting, emissions-curbing plans every five years. So far 116 of 193 countries have filed theirs this year, but what they promised isn’t much. United Nations and Climate Action Tracker, a group of scientists, calculates that these new pledges barely reduced future projections for Earth's warming.Even if the world does all it promises, Earth would be about seven-tenths of a degree Celsius (1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above the Paris goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, the groups estimated.So small island nations, led by Palau, asked that this conference confront the gap between what’s planned in national pledges and what’s needed to keep the world from hitting the temperature danger zone.That's not on the agenda for these talks. Nor are specific details on how to fulfill last year’s pledge by rich nations to provide $300 billion annually in climate financial aid.So when nations early on wanted to address these issues, COP President André Corrêa do Lago, a veteran Brazilian diplomat, set up special small confabs to try to decide if the controversial topics should be discussed. On Saturday, the conference punted the issue to the incoming ministers.“The parties will decide how they want to proceed,” do Lago said at a Saturday evening news conference. Given what countries are saying and past history that usually means a final end-of-COP message to the world, several experts said. In a casual exchange with a reporter about how the conference is going, COP President do Lago said: “Eh, could be better but not as bad it could be.” Momentum to phase out fossil fuels U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, the former German foreign minister who has been to 10 of these sessions, told The Associated Press Saturday morning before the evening's session that she saw “new momentum” in Belem.“We can fight the climate crisis only together if we commit to a strong mitigation target,” she said. “This means also transitioning away from fossil fuels, investing into renewable energy.”Two years ago in Dubai, the world agreed to “transition away from fossil fuels,” but last year no mention of that was made and there've been no details on how or when to do this. Baerbock hailed as crucial Lula's call during the Leaders' Summit last week for “a road map for humanity to overcome, in a just and planned way, its dependence on fossil fuels, reverse deforestation, and mobilize the resources needed to do so.”“I think what we have before us are the ingredients of a potential high-ambition package for the outcome of this conference,” Iskander Erzini Vernoit, executive director of the Moroccan IMAL Initiative for Climate and Development, said. Getting Indigenous voices heard Indigenous groups breached and blockaded the venue twice this week with demands to be further included in the U.N. talks, despite this conference’s promotion as the “Indigenous Peoples’ COP.” The COP so far “was a testament that unfortunately, for Indigenous peoples to be heard, they actually need to be disruptive,” said Aya Khourshid, an Egyptian-Palestinian member of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, a group of Indigenous people from around the world.Indigenous people are putting a lot of energy “to be in this space but to not necessarily be given a platform or voice at the decision table with the ministers and those who are in power,” said Whaia, a Ngāti Kahungunu Wisdom Keeper. “There's an imbalance here at COP30," she said. “There's the privileged and the not-so lucky who don't get a say on what's actually going on in their own home.”The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.This story was produced as part of the 2025 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organized by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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