California’s Greenhouse Gas Reductions Wiped Out by Wildfires that are Fueled by Supposedly “Green Policies”

October 24, 2022

When it comes to radical environmental policies, California has been on the extreme left for a few decades now. They’ve rammed through extreme policies to push renewable energy sources and even end the sale of the combustion engine vehicles by 2035 – all in the name of climate change. However, all the greenhouse gas reductions they’ve made from these policies have been wiped out by the recent massive wildfires that are also fueled by the same green policies. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes, “Two decades of greenhouse gas emission reductions in California went up in smoke in 2020—literally. So finds a new study on Golden State wildfire emissions that highlights the folly of Sacramento’s climate priorities. University of California researchers calculated that wildfire emissions in 2020 alone were two times higher than the state’s greenhouse gas reductions from 2003 to 2019. That’s in a single year. Incredibly, wildfires in 2020 were the state’s second largest source of CO2 emissions after transportation and generated double the greenhouse gases of all the state’s power plants.” 

Ironically, and tragically for the California families who have lost so much in these fires, it is the same radical green policies that are making the fires significantly worse. The Journal continues, “While utilities rushed to meet state renewable energy mandates—one reason California’s electric rates are double those in neighboring states—tree-trimming and burying power lines were a low priority. Some of the state’s most destructive wildfires were caused by utility power lines and equipment.” 

So, what does California have to show for its decades of extreme climate policies? Historic wildfires and very little when it comes to greenhouse gas reductions.