The president of California’s public utilities commission is recruiting federal environmental regulators to take up work in the Golden State.
California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) President Michael Picker will be lingering around EPA and DOE headquarters Wednesday to entice officials to abandon Washington, D.C. He said officials should consider going to California because of the Trump administration’s supposed animosity to climate regulations.
“On climate action, there’s a dark cloud hanging over Washington right now,” Picker said in a press statement Wednesday. “My message is simple: Come West, California is hiring.”
His goal is to encourage jilted federal officials to relocate to California to continue their work on climate change and clean energy.
California’s relationship with President Donald Trump is strained, namely because of the latter’s skeptical position on climate change and his temporary immigration ban. The state, which voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a wide margin, is setting itself up as the anti-Trump state.
Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, said he would request California lawmakers bypass Washington, D.C., and instead work directly with other countries to strengthen some of the most stringent environmental policies in the world.
“California can make a significant contribution to advancing the cause of dealing with climate change, irrespective of what goes on in Washington,” Brown told reporters last December.
The governor made similar comments earlier that month when he said the state would launch its own climate-reading satellites if Trump pulled funding for NASA’s climate research program.
Picker’s department, for its part, has engaged in a series of sops to the Obama administration, especially on issues addressing renewable energy.
The commission gave a massive federally-supported solar thermal power plant more time to ramp up the amount of energy it produces, but refused to disclose the amount of taxpayer money required to keep the Obama-era program online.
The PUC’s Office of Ratepayer Advocates stood with other consumer groups last year that argued “customers should no longer pay for costs associated” with Ivanpah, a solar power company given a longer time to comply with California’s green energy mandate, according to a PUC decision.
CPUC also recently gave Southern California Edison (SCE) authorization to begin installing a treasure trove of government-funded electric vehicle charging stations throughout Southern California.
SCE will absorb the $22 million cost of installing the stations through its Charge Ready Program, a publicly funded program seeking to expand EV charging stations throughout Southern California.
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