Let me fill you in on what the state Legislature accomplished. We set new, ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and made climate-friendly solutions more affordable so every Californian can be a part of the fight against climate change.

First, the Legislature put its money where its mouth is. Last year’s state budget committed nearly $54 billion over the next five years to fight climate change. There is money to accelerate investments in zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) to make cars, trucks and buses more affordable, make the state’s electricity grid more reliable, help prevent wildfires and mitigate the impact of the state’s historic drought – and so much more.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new budget proposes to reduce some of this funding, but it still maintains $48 billion, or 89%, of these investments. As the new chair of the budget subcommittee that oversees energy and natural resources, I will fight to preserve and increase as many of these investments as possible.

California also refined and set major new goals. The landmark AB 1279 (Muratsuchi) creates a legally binding target to achieve net zero emissions by 2045 in all of California. My SB 1203, better known as “California Zero,” requires the state to develop a plan for getting its 24,000 buildings and structures, vehicle fleet, and electricity usage to net zero GHG emissions by 2035.

We’re pushing for more and better electrical vehicle charging stations. The budget set aside over $600 million over the next several years to build out the state’s charging infrastructure and AB 2061 (Ting) requires the state to set standards to ensure drivers are getting what they pay for.

Thousands of more Californians will be able to have climate-friendly homes because of work at the state and federal level. Heat pumps that provide GHG-free heating and air conditioning, electric hot water heaters and other home appliances that replace their natural gas counterparts will reduce our carbon footprint. My SB 1112 will let many people pay for these  climate-friendly improvements and others via an interest-free payment on their monthly utility bill, similar to how many people pay for their mobile phone as part of their monthly phone bill.

The plastic waste crisis has been well-documented and last year, the Legislature passed and the governor signed the most comprehensive measure in the nation to help tackle it. SB 54 (Allen) sets ambitious environmental mandates to ensure single-use plastic packaging and plastic food-related items can be recycled or composted within 10 years. It also calls for a 25% cut in the amount of plastic-covered material sold in California.

Finally, the governor issued an executive order pledging California will conserve 30% of the state’s land and waters by 2030 – better known as “30-by-30.” Given studies showing conservation efforts could soak up a significant amount of the carbon dioxide that has built up over the past 175 years, it’s clear efforts like “30 by 30” will play a major role in our battle against climate change.

The progress we made battling climate change in 2022 was indeed historic and will provide other states and countries with a model on how to best fight climate change. But we have so much more work to do. We need to be just as productive for years to come if we are going to win this fight. I truly believe California is up to the challenge.

Josh Becker D-San Mateo, represents District 13 in the California Senate. He is chair of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy.

Yet it’s almost always perceived as being too expensive for the average consumer — though with today’s prices, it is clearly cheaper to use clean technology. I believe we are at a unique point in time to make a clean energy transformation.

For example, if I drive round trip from the Bay Area to Sacramento in an electric car, the cost is $11 compared with $50 to fuel a gas-powered car. How do we help all Californians afford electric vehicles and other clean technology?

There is good news: Forty-two new EV models are coming out for 2023, providing more choices across the price spectrum for everyone. The new state budget invests more than $6 billion to accelerate our transition to electric vehicles with $76 million set aside to help low-income consumers buy EVs through Clean Cars for All and other equity programs. We also are working on laws to make charging infrastructure more equitable and reliable, efforts bolstered by $383 million in federal funds in our budget that are prioritized for infrastructure in underserved areas.

We also must consider that as California warms, more people will need to cool their homes. Our family house had no air conditioning when we moved in 20 years ago, and extremely hot days were rare. Now there are many more extremely hot days. This summer, we installed a high-efficiency heat pump that runs on electricity and provides greenhouse-gas-free heating and air conditioning with the same system.

California needs to help lower the upfront cost for these technologies as well, so they are accessible to more people. I introduced a bill this year to help unlock financing for building decarbonization. The legislation follows my bill signed into law last year to ease the path for electrification so property owners can more readily retrofit their homes and buildings to accommodate clean energy appliances. The goal behind both measures is to help California achieve 1 million electric buildings and drive down greenhouse gas emissions from our built environment. Menlo Park is helping lead the way on a local level with its new public-private partnership to electrify thousands of homes and buildings. They’ll start in Belle Haven, one of the city’s most climate-impacted communities.

With all these developments, our state government must also “walk the talk” in our operations — a move that will help bring down the cost of clean energy technologies for everyone. I have legislation to make that possible by requiring our government operations to target net-zero carbon emissions by 2035. The bill is part of the legislative package championed by Senate Pro Tem Toni Atkins and the Climate Working Group she convened to firmly push the needle on climate action.

The dozen bills in the Senate climate package will drive adoption of clean technologies, bring down costs and speed our move to a 100% clean grid. They are critical to our future as Californians, and we are fast approaching the final month for legislative action on these measures. This will not be easy. Already some strong climate action bills, such as one to have the state divest from fossil fuels, have been defeated in the Legislature. I hope you join us in our efforts to ensure that all Californians can benefit from the clean energy transformation. Please contact my office if you’d like to help. Let’s make sure we harness our collective will to take full advantage of this unique opportunity.

Josh Becker represents the 13th Senate District in the California Legislature. 

Yet outside the glitter of Silicon Valley and the state’s major urban hubs, there’s a major divide we must confront: California’s rural communities and their 2.2 million residents are largely shut out of the tech economy and its benefits because they lack access to broadband.

Our state ranks eighth in urban access to 25/3 mbps broadband, but a distant 16th in rural areas. For fiber broadband (100/100) — the fastest and most reliable technology — California ranks 30th in urban access and an abysmal 46th in rural fiber access at just 10.7%. Our neighbors in Oregon have double the percentage of rural residents with fiber broadband. In North Dakota, rural fiber access is eight times higher.

We see the stark consequences of this divide in our state. Sen. Lena Gonzalez represents a district that includes some of the most advanced aerospace companies in the world and is also home to many historically underserved communities in Southeast Los Angeles. Sen. Josh Becker represents a district that includes Silicon Valley, a global hub for technology and innovation that stretches to rural communities on the coast.

These places — roughly just an hour from where firms are receiving billions of investment for cutting-edge tech and aerospace — are stuck with outdated services such as dial-up and DSL or minimally wired broadband that doesn’t allow for remote work, telehealth or virtual learning, let alone the digital entrepreneurship our state prides itself on.

In California, we’ve worked hard over the past year to position ourselves to close the digital divide so we can engage the untapped innovative potential in our rural and under-resourced communities. Broadband is the gateway to our tech economy. We must provide this access to every Californian, no matter where they live, if we truly want to bridge the digital chasm that has barred so many of our neighbors from opportunity and success.

Fortunately, the state now has a chance to take real action. With the passage of the American Rescue Plan earlier this year, California is slated to use $6 billion to improve broadband connectivity and affordability. The task before us now is to make sure we use this opportunity right.

To us, that means investing in fiber infrastructure that brings gigabit-speed connectivity to every Californian home, school and business. There’s lots of talk of different internet technologies, such as satellites or fixed wireless, that may appear to be faster or cheaper. But we believe we owe it to our residents to make the best long-term investment, one that’s adaptable to changing technology: Fiber provides the fastest speeds, lowest latency, and easiest potential for upgrades, all with the added benefit that it can save money in the long run.

The state Legislature recently passed SB 4, which we authored to update California’s only broadband infrastructure subsidy program to provide grants for local governments and nonprofits to build fiber networks in California’s unserved and underserved areas — a much needed reform. And now, Gov. Gavin Newsom has the chance to sign it into law.

With our collective knowledge of California communities and best practices in rural development nationwide, we already know that we’ll need to empower community stakeholders. Their involvement will ensure equitable deployment and utilization of the broadband that is built. For now, the need is clear, the funding is available, and the time to act is right before us. Let’s start building a more connected future.

Josh Becker represents the 13th District in the California Senate. Lena Gonzalez represents the 33rd District in the California Senate. 

Many of our neighbors have suffered tremendously during the pandemic and struggled to meet basic needs, like rent and food. At the same time, our innovation economy, California companies and their employees have benefited tremendously. With their success, they powered our state budget from a projected $50 billion deficit to a $75 billion surplus.

This provides a historic opportunity to come together and use our surplus to meet these needs. We should use it not only to immediately aid those who have been suffering, but also to create a springboard to economic mobility that will bridge the gaps that have caused the growing economic inequality in our country.

I’ve been proud of our efforts in the Legislature to meet the immediate needs of people in our community and across the state: keeping people in their homes with $2.6 billion to help renters and landlords, more than $2 billion to help our small businesses keep their doors open, and direct stimulus payments to Californians. I hear from residents how much these programs are helping them.

As we respond to this crucial moment, let’s also be visionary. Let’s use this opportunity to lay the foundation for more Californians to become higher wage-earners permanently and to increase their own financial security through hard work and determination, just as the American Dream has always promised.

We should make higher education available without the massive student loan debt that holds graduates back from thriving in the middle class. The current surplus gives us the opportunity to dramatically expand Cal Grants and the Middle Class Scholarship to help community college students and ensure CSU and UC students can graduate without being burdened by debt. Yet another step to reduce income inequality.

We should also use the surplus to prepare our youth for jobs of the future and pay for rapid reskilling of the workforce, including retraining for green jobs. I’m authoring legislation to help our community colleges, support innovative workforce models for the 21st century, and boost education funding and advocacy for programs like MESA to increase pathways and apprenticeships in STEM fields. These changes will open the door for more low-income Californians to have a place in the booming tech economy.

Lastly, we should invest heavily in our children, early childhood education, and childcare to build our kids a foundation for future success and enable working parents to support their families.

Let’s start with infants. A Baby Bond would put money into a publicly funded trust account for every child at birth — with more for lower-income families. An analysis by Naomi Zewde at CUNY shows this proposal can dramatically reduce wealth disparities. It’s exciting to see Gov. Gavin Newsom propose a version of this in his revised budget.

Early childhood education is proven to promote success in school and moving up the economic ladder. Other states like Oklahoma have stepped up to provide universal preschool. California should do the same to create lasting benefits for individuals, families and our state.

Affordable, reliable childcare is another key to success. A paper I co-authored with experts from Stanford showed that $1 invested in childcare funding rapidly generates almost $2 in economic growth in local and regional businesses. As the pandemic has shown, the lack of childcare creates its own burdens, most of them falling heavily on working moms. They have fallen out of the workforce at unprecedented rates, resulting in 160,000 fewer women in the workforce in December 2020 alone. As women have struggled to work while managing children in remote learning, they’ve made huge sacrifices in their economic stability to care for their kids in the absence of affordable childcare.

This pandemic has reminded us that we are all connected. Let’s use our surplus to help hard-working Californians striving to make their American Dreams a reality and create an “everyone economy.” If we do, we all will reap the rewards of reduced poverty and increased economic vitality.

Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, represents California’s 13th Senate District in the California Legislature.

The rest of the country looks to California for climate leadership, even as we struggle to reach our 2030 climate goals. The good news is we can continue to lead in California. To do this, we must be both strategic and bold to address the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our state: More than 60% comes from buildings, electricity generation and transportation.

As a newly elected state senator, I’m excited to get to work. Here are some ideas:

Fourteen years ago, California set a goal of 1 million solar roofs, a milestone reached in 2018. I propose making it possible for us to soon have at least 1 million electric buildings to more deeply slash our use of fossil fuels and the emissions they produce. To do so we must create electric-ready homes and other buildings by lowering barriers that make it hard to switch to electric models when major appliances and equipment — like a home’s furnace or water heater — need replacing. This will speed our transition from natural gas.

To further drive our grid toward 100% clean energy, we should establish a 24/7 Clean Energy Standard that spurs companies to invest in diverse clean energy sources, energy storage and flexible loads so clean energy can be delivered whenever we need it, not just when the sun shines or the wind blows.

To speed our switch to cleaner cars, we can help people, especially those with lower incomes, buy low-emission cars and retire the oldest, dirtiest ones.

Our state government must lead the way. We should set a net zero target for state government operations by 2035 and ensure our state uses its buying power to expand markets for electric vehicles, electric heating, and lower-carbon concrete, steel and other commodities.

A key theme of my campaign was “Prioritize Climate Now.”  Climate change won’t stop on its own any more than COVID-19 has. Battling the crisis will be hard work, but to emerge from the coronavirus recession, work is exactly what we need. We can put people to work building wind and solar farms, a resilient grid, energy storage systems, electric HVAC systems and water heaters, and so much more. We need people building new electric homes, retrofitting buildings to install electric appliances, and making all buildings more energy efficient. The group Rewiring America estimates that building a cleaner future will create 25 million net new jobs nationwide at the peak of this transition, with 5 million of those jobs sustained long term. A serious climate program can be seriously good for putting people back to work.

The best news is when we get there — when we’ve switched from burning dirty stuff we dug out of the ground to using clean, renewable energy — our quality of life and the environment sustaining us will be so much better than today. We’ll have stopped fueling climate change, we’ll breathe cleaner air and save money on energy costs. Electric cars are already cheaper to drive than gas-powered cars, and electric heating is far more energy-efficient than gas furnaces. Neither pollute our air when powered by clean electricity. What are we waiting for? Let’s go.

Josh Becker represents the 13th District in the California Senate. 

Our Peninsula communities, which gave the world lasers, microprocessors and open-heart surgery, must now lead the world forward on climate change. Blessed as we are with more than our share of the world’s financial, intellectual, and creative capital, we have an urgent responsibility to lead the world forward on climate change. Few places so precisely intersect urgent necessity and proven capacity for invention.

Several weeks ago, I released a comprehensive plan to combat climate change, which was the product of a months-long collaborative process between my campaign and 75 local and national climate leaders, from Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey to legendary San Mateo County environmentalist Lennie Roberts. The plan calls for: achieving carbon neutrality in state agencies by 2030, the greening of our transportation system, a green civilian conservation corps, aggressive energy targets for new buildings, and incentives to develop and deploy technologies and natural systems to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

My plan includes creating a multi-million-dollar prize for outstanding innovations in climate science. This isn’t simply a question of adjusting profit margins and helping with startup costs; the goal is to create a prize with real prestige to make California an active partner in cutting edge climate research, and to save our own communities from the worst effects of climate change.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory just issued a report outlining how California can achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 by taking actions that also reduce wildfire risk, clean our air and water and bring investments throughout the state. The report outlined the technology and policy innovations that are needed to achieve these goals, including incentivizing some of the negative emissions technologies and natural practices I have included in my plan. While well-researched reports are necessary, they alone are not sufficient to solve our crisis.

Addressing the climate crisis will require cooperation between all sectors of the economy and corners of the world. As Californians we can help create the incentives and organizing principles for addressing climate change globally. For decades we set the American standards for emission and changed the way cars were produced nationwide. Our words and actions exert tremendous moral and economic gravity.   Sacramento has plenty of Democrats that are “good votes” on climate change. That is not enough.  The San Francisco Peninsula can and should be the number one climate innovation leader in the world. Our next state senator must be able to bring forth our best ideas, galvanize our full capacity for invention and innovation, and provide climate leadership.

I’m a collaborator and problem solver and have worked for decades with Gov. Gavin Newsom and his environmental team.  That is one of the reasons that Newsom and current state Sen. Jerry Hill are supporting me in this race. I am passionate about solving climate change and working with local leaders in the Bay Area to bring our best solutions to Sacramento.  Climate change is our greatest existential challenge, but it could provide our area with a real opportunity to lead not only California, but also the world, into a more livable future.

Josh Becker is a candidate for State Senate District 13, which ranges from South San Francisco to Sunnyvale.  Daniel Yost contributed and is a lawyer who counsels climate innovators and served as mayor of Woodside.

Trump’s EPA announced last week that it’s revoking the waiver under the federal Clean Air Act that allows California and other states to set tailpipe pollution standards and require that automakers stock a certain percent of electric vehicles at dealerships.

The tailpipe standards protect climate, health and air quality, and save money at the pump, for more than 118 million people in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Ten states, representing 30% of the U.S. auto market, follow California’s requirement for automakers to supply electric vehicles. This requirement ensures those states get the greatest selection of electric vehicles at the lowest prices.

Revoking California’s clean cars waiver goes beyond the states that follow California today. The revocation strips all states of their authority under the Clean Air Act to control vehicle pollution and to require automakers to stock electric vehicles within their own borders.

This move marks a sharp break with the last four decades, during which states have had the authority under the Clean Air Act to adopt stronger tailpipe pollution standards than those set by the federal government — an example of cooperative federalism that was notably supported by President Ronald Reagan.

Next, Trump plans to roll back federal clean car standards – a move that’s estimated to cost American consumers an additional $460 billion in gasoline costs.

These attacks on state clean car standards are widely opposed. Maintaining state authority to protect local communities from pollution has strong support from mayors, governors and attorneys general who want to stop the Trump administration from trampling on their rights, including in states like Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, and North Carolina. Automakers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a majority of consumers, environmentalists, and public health groups want the administration to work with states so we can continue to clean up our air and save families money at the pump.

Recently 24 bipartisan governors representing 52% of Americans signed onto the Nation’s Clean Car Promise supporting state authority on strong clean car standards. Canada and U.S. clean car states – representing more than 50 percent of the North American auto market – have banded together in an agreement to ensure North Americans have access to clean, efficient vehicles that cut pollution and keep industry in both countries competitive – no matter what the Trump administration does.

Seventeen of the world’s largest automakers wrote to the Trump administration that rolling back clean car standards will lower their profits and create ‘untenable’ instability that could kill jobs in one of the nation’s most important manufacturing sectors.

Four automakers representing 30% of the U.S. auto market made their own deal with states for stronger tailpipe pollution standards than what Trump is proposing. These automakers know they’re capable of achieving the cleaner car standards, and that by doing so they’ll be better positioned to stay competitive in a growing global market for clean cars.

The transportation sector is the largest source of the carbon pollution that contributes to climate change and threatens public health. Clean car standards are the best policies we have on the books to fight climate change and protect public health.

We must fight this backwards move on climate action. Every state leader in this country should stand and fight for the right of states to adopt stronger than federal clean car standards, protecting our health and saving drivers money. Once it’s gone, we may never get it back.

Josh Becker founded Cleantech for Obama. He serves on the Board of Menlo Spark and is a candidate for the District 13 seat in the California Senate. Janelle London serves on the Environmental Quality Commission for the city of Menlo Park, and is the co-executive director of Coltura.

The legislation is supported by the Children’s Defense Fund, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the California Medical Association.  But Sen. Durazo is facing extraordinarily well-funded special interest opposition.  And without the help of individual Californians, her effort could fail.  Shame on us if we don’t help.

Here are the scientific and medical facts:

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports: “There is a wealth of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effects of chlorpyrifos exposure to developing fetuses, infants, children, and pregnant women.”

The Center for Environmental Research and Children’s Health, UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health found that children exposed to chlorpyrifos while their mothers were pregnant were associated with poorer intellectual development in 7-year-old children.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency scientists estimated in 2016 that exposure to chlorpyrifos on food is 140 times higher for children than what the agency deems safe.

One of the most compelling arguments Gov. Gavin Newsom makes in support of his proposed expansion of early childhood education is how it improves brain development.  Would it not be ironic for the Legislature to approve that proposal while allowing continued use of a chemical proven to do the exact opposite?

I’ve been working on reducing toxic chemicals that damage the health of our communities for 30 years since we passed the Toxics Use Reduction Act in Massachusetts. The special interest opponents are following the old tobacco industry game plan: deny the independent science, pay for science that protects the status quo, and tell us that there isn’t an effective substitute available.

What the opposition doesn’t mention is that Raid bug killer contained chlorpyrifos, but now it doesn’t.  And it still works.  When the maker of Raid, S. C. Johnson and Son was confronted with the scientific evidence about the brain damaging impact of chlorpyrifos, they simply removed it.  Are the pesticide companies telling us they can’t?

What they say instead is that they’ll be careful.  A ban isn’t necessary.  That sounds like the NRA’s argument against banning assault weapons.

SB 458 is before the Senate Health Committee.  The Democratic senators who serve are good people.  They don’t need us attacking them.  They need us supporting them for doing the right thing.

I am mobilizing everyone I know to email or call each of the senators on the health committee.  It’s not hard.  It will help.  And you can do it today.

Here are their email addresses and their telephone numbers: Sen.Richard Pan, 916-651-4006, senator.pan@senate.ca.gov; Sen. Susan Rubio, 916-651-4022, senator.rubio@senate.ca.gov; Sen.  William Monning, 916-651-4017, senator.monning@senate.ca.gov; Sen.Holly Mitchell, 916-651-4030, senator.mitchell@senate.ca.gov; Sen. Connie Leyva. 916-651-4020, senator.leyva@senate.ca.gov; Sen. Melissa Hurtado, 916-651-4014, senator.hurtado@senate.ca.gov; and Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, 916-651-4024, senator.durazo@senate.ca.gov.

Menlo Park entrepreneur Josh Becker served for five years on Gov. Jerry Brown’s California State Workforce Development Board. He is a candidate for the 13th District seat in the California Senate.