While standing in front of the Giant Forest as ash rained down around him, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a multi-billion dollar bill for wildfire response and prevention.
Following the destruction of the KNP Complex Fire in Sequoia National Park, Newsom signed a $15 billion climate package on Thursday to combat the climate crisis and tackle future catastrophic wildfires.
"Six out of the seven largest wildfires have occurred just since 2020, it’s just remarkable what’s happened in these last few years," Newsom said somberly. "The track we’re on, our kids are going to inherit a world with eight degree higher temperatures than they have today."
To protect National Parks and forests from a rapidly changing climate, Newsom said that the answer lies in resiliency. "That’s what this bill begins to do, not just to climate proof, but to future proof California to make us more resilient and make us more capable of addressing these extremes, extreme heat, extreme drought," he said.
Going forward, California will begin to implement more controlled burns across the state to ensure that forests are prepared for future wildfires. Beyond that, Newsom called on the federal government to increase funding for wildfire prevention, explaining that state legislators only have control over 3% of California forests while the federal government exercises authority over 57%.
The main goals of the bill are to combat wildfires, support immediate drought action, race forward on ZEV goals and build a more resilient future.
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