Newsom tells world leaders Trump’s retreat on the environment will mean economic harm

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom told world leaders Friday that President Trump’s withdrawal from efforts to combat climate change would decimate the U.S. auto industry and cede future economic viability to China and other countries embarking on the transition to renewable energy.

Newsom, attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, urged diplomats, business leaders and political advocates to forcefully oppose Trump’s global bullying and his loyalty to the oil and coal industry. California’s governor says the Trump administration’s massive rollbacks on environmental protections will be short-lived.

“Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years,” Newsom said during a Friday morning panel discussion on climate action. “California is a stable and reliable partner in this area.”

Newsom’s comments follow the Trump administration’s repeal of endangerment findings and all federal vehicle emissions regulations. The danger conclusion is the US government’s 2009 assertion that pollution caused by global warming poses a threat to human health and the environment.

Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the finding constituted regulatory overreach, imposing heavy burdens on automakers, limiting consumer choice and leading to higher costs for Americans. Its repeal marked “the greatest act of deregulation in the history of the United States of America,” he said.

Scientists and experts were quick to condemn the action, saying it contradicts established science and would put more people at risk. Independent researchers around the world have long concluded that greenhouse gases released by burning gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels are warming the planet and worsening weather disasters.

The move will also threaten the United States’ position as a leader in the global transition to clean energy, as countries like China advance electric vehicle production and invest in renewable energy such as solar, batteries and wind power, experts said.

Newsom’s trip to Germany is just his latest international jaunt in recent months as he positions himself to lead the Democratic Party’s opposition to Trump and the Republican-led Congress, and prepare for a possible bid for the White House in 2028. Last month, Newsom traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in November to the U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil — mocking and condemning Trump’s climate policy. Greenland, international trade and the environment.

When asked how he would restore the world’s trust in the United States if he became president, Newsom dodged. Instead, he offered a campaign-style soliloquy about California’s success in promoting Tesla and the nation’s other major electric vehicle makers, as well as its role as a magnet for industries spending billions of dollars on research and development for the world’s transition from carbon-based economies.

The aim of the Munich conference was to open a dialogue between world leaders on global, military, economic and environmental security. Along with Friday’s debate on climate action, Newsom is scheduled to appear Saturday at a live forum on transatlantic cooperation.

Andrew Forrest, executive chairman of Australia-based mining giant Fortescue, said on a panel Friday that his company is proof that even the world’s biggest energy-intensive companies can thrive without relying on the carbon-based fuels that have powered industries for more than a century. Fortescue, which buys diesel fuel from countries around the world, will move to a “green grid” this decade, saving the company $1 billion a year, he said.

“The science is absolutely clear, as is the economics. I am, and my company Fortescue, the industrial proof that going to renewable energy is great economics, great business, and if you abandon it, then ultimately you will be sorted by your shareholders or by your voters at the ballot box,” Forrest said.

Newsom said California has also shown the world what can be done with innovative government policies that include electric vehicles and the transition to a non-carbon-based economy, and continues to do so despite attacks and regressive mandates imposed by the Trump administration.

“This is about economic prosperity and competitiveness, and that’s why I’m so furious at what Donald Trump did,” Newsom said. “Remember, Tesla exists for one reason: the California regulatory market, which created the incentives, structure and certainty that allowed Elon Musk and others to invest and build this capacity. We will not walk away from that.”

California has led the nation in promoting electric vehicles. For more than 50 years, the state has benefited from the EPA’s unique authority to set tailpipe emissions standards stricter than those of the federal government, which is considered essential to the state’s efforts to resolve its notorious smog and air quality problems. This authority, which the Trump administration decided to repeal, was also the basis of California’s plan to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

The administration again targeted electric vehicles in its Thursday announcement.

“The forced transition to electric vehicles is eliminated,” Zeldin said. “Automakers will no longer be forced to reorient their fleets toward electric vehicles, vehicles that still remain unsold at dealerships across America. »

But efforts to end the energy transition may be too little, too late, said Hannah Safford, former director of transportation and resilience in the White House Office of Climate Policy during the Biden administration.

“Electric cars are more cost effective for people, more and more models are becoming available, and the administration can’t necessarily stop that from happening,” said Safford, who is now associate director for climate and environment at the Federation of American Scientists.

Some automakers and trade groups nevertheless supported the EPA’s decision, as did fossil fuel industry groups and those oriented toward free markets and regulatory reform. Among them were the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America, which praised the administration for its “efforts to reform and streamline regulations governing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ford, which has invested in electric vehicles and recently completed a $30,000 electric truck prototype, said in a statement to the Times that it appreciated the EPA’s decision “to address the imbalance between current emissions standards and consumer choice.”

Toyota, meanwhile, is deferring to a statement from Alliance for Automotive Innovation President John Bozzella, who similarly said that “automotive emissions regulations finalized under the previous administration are extremely difficult for automakers to implement given current market demand for electric vehicles.”