Gov. Gavin Newsom
UCSB’s Associated Students Senate have just passed a critical resolution aligning ourselves with a statewide campaign calling on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to stop issuing any new approvals for fossil fuel projects, drop existing fossil fuel production and roll out strong 3200-feet health and safety buffers — or setbacks — to end neighborhood oil drilling.
UCSB now joins UC Berkeley as the second UC campus to endorse this campaign as well as the San Diego Unified School District, the San Diego City Council and the Sweetwater School District. These resolutions are part of a youth-led, statewide initiative to demonstrate support for the climate leadership that young people are requiring Gov. Newsom to exercise in the face of the climate crisis.
This legislature at the collegiate level makes it clear that students want decisive climate action from the governor and demand that he protects our future.
Working alongside UCSB Associated Students Sen. April Zhang and CA Youth Vs. Big Oil, a youth-led network of climate environmental justice organizations, I had the honor to serve as the student sponsor for the resolution. I was ecstatic to see our student representatives vote in favor to support our demands.
As young people in California, we are quite literally watching our futures go up in smoke, and our political leaders are failing to act with anything like the urgency required of them. Big Oil has made it clear that it will stop at nothing to delay climate action and continue to profit from the climate crisis and polluting communities.
We need leaders like Gov. Newsom to stand up for us and help lead the fight against these greedy fossil fuel tycoons. We need Gov. Newsom to take up the demands of the resolution, and to initiate California’s just transition away from fossil fuels.
Gov. Newsom must take decisive action to be a true climate leader and ensure an equitable future for all. California has the fifth largest economy in the world and has immense resources that could kickstart the action so desperately needed to combat the climate crisis.
With the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s most recent and most dire report it could not be clearer that climate change is a “code red for humanity.”
In California, we are already experiencing its consequences with worsening fire seasons and drought that devastate communities all over the state. These extreme weather events are made worse by climate change, which itself is fueled by the burning of fossil fuels.
The climate crisis is something that is here and that will only continue to worsen if we refuse to act as the task before us demands.
But this future is not inevitable. There is still time to avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis but only if our leaders act now. To get there, we need Gov. Newsom to show urgent and unprecedented climate leadership, which all starts with a phase out of, and just transition away from, fossil fuels. This transition must empower communities with their own autonomy to make decisions about how they get their energy and to ensure safe places to grow, learn, develop and play.
While grassroots organizers throughout California have been mobilizing against the hegemony of fossil fuels and making significant progress, efforts continue to be stalled or overturned by wealthy companies representing a narrow set of select interest groups.
A report last week found Big Oil spent at least $4 million lobbying California politicians to delay action on climate and pollution in the first quarter of 2022. We need statewide climate leadership to hold large and powerful polluters accountable.
Gov. Newsom has already made some progress. He announced a ban on fracking by 2024, a commitment to phasing out fossil fuels entirely by 2045, and an end to new fossil fuel permits within 3200 feet of homes, schools, hospitals and other sensitive sites.
However, we need him to do much more, much faster. He must commit to ending all new fossil fuel permits, not just fracking permits. He must accelerate the phaseout timeline to align with climate science. And he must ensure that 3200-foot setbacks cover both new and existing oil drilling. That’s why these resolutions come at such a critical time. All of us need to show massive public support for Gov. Newsom taking more decisive action
We need Newsom to do even more to protect public health and to stave off more drastic climate change so communities that have been suffering can enjoy their rights to clean air, clean environments, and save places to live. We need Gov. Newsom to stand up for our communities who have been unserved and underserved.
We need Gov. Newsom to realize a future that moves beyond fossil fuels without leaving anyone behind. Will you hear us, Gov. Newsom? We are counting on you and the future is too, now is the time to act!
Gov. Newsom, “Stop, drop, roll for our communities and our climate!”
Kat Lane
Third-year UCSB environmental studies student
