Climate change, electric vehicles and Delta tunnel among the focuses of gubernatorial candidate forum
The divide between Democrats’ environmental ideals and California voters’ concerns about affordability, particularly gasoline prices, was on full display Wednesday at an environmental policy forum among some of the state’s leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates.
Democrats have questioned the economic impact Californians could face due to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s goal of transitioning the state to zero-emission vehicles, a policy that would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks by 2035. The Trump administration has sought to nullify the policy by overriding California’s strict emissions standards as well as canceling federal tax credits for the purchase of such vehicles.
“It is absolutely true that it is not affordable for many people today to choose an electric vehicle,” said former Rep. Katie Porter of Irvine. “The reality is that an electric vehicle often costs $8,000 or $10,000 more, especially given the expiration of federal subsidies and Trump’s cuts. If we want people to choose electric vehicles, we have to close that gap.”
Both Porter and rival Democratic candidate Xavier Becerra, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under former President Biden, said that as governor, they would focus on making low-emission vehicles more affordable and practical. Porter said the cost of buying a zero-emission car should be comparable to gasoline-powered cars, and Becerra said California should have enough charging stations so drivers “don’t have to worry about getting to their destination.”
“We know our future is in clean energy and making our environment as clean as possible,” Becerra said. “We must make it affordable for families”
Porter and Becerra joined two other Democrats in the 2026 California gubernatorial race — former hedge fund founder Tom Steyer, an environmental advocate, and Dublin Rep. Eric Swalwell — at a Pasadena event hosted by California Environmental Voters, the UC Berkeley Center for Law, Energy and the Environment, the Climate Center Action Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. Democrats largely agreed on issues like combating climate change, accelerating the transition to clean energy and protecting California’s water resources.
The coalition invited the six candidates who received the most support in recent opinion polls. Republicans did not respond to invitations to participate in the forum moderated by Riverside County sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News commentator Steve Hilton, Sammy Roth, author of Climate-Colored Goggles on Substack, and Louise Bedsworth, executive director of the UC Berkeley center.
Newsom, who has acknowledged that he is considering running for president in 2028, is in the final year of his second term as governor and is barred from running again.
The state’s high cost of living, including high gas prices, remains a political vulnerability for Democrats who support California’s progressive environmental agenda.
In another contentious issue facing the state, most Democratic candidates on Wednesday distanced themselves from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel, a major and controversial proposal to move water to Southern California and the Central Valley. Although it has appeared in various versions, the concept dates back to Governor Jerry Brown’s debut as governor of California more than four decades ago.
Despite Newsom’s efforts to expedite the project, the project has been stalled due to environmental reviews and lawsuits. That hit another legal hurdle this month when a state appeals court rejected the state’s plan to fund the 45-mile tunnel.
Swalwell, Porter, and Steyer argued that faster and cheaper ways existed to collect and distribute water to California’s thirsty regions.
“We need to move much faster than the Delta tunnel can move in terms of solving our water problems,” Steyer said, adding that data and technology could be used to distribute water to farms more efficiently.
Swalwell stated that he did not support the project “in its current form” and suggested covering “400 kilometers of aqueducts” with solar panels.
During Wednesday’s forum, Becerra also made a gaffe when discussing rooftop solar programs for Californians using what some considered a slur about Jewish people.
“We have to go after the shy ones,” Becerra said. “When we talk about rooftop solar, we know there are people out there to defraud families, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen so they can enjoy the benefits of solar.”
After the incident, a spokesperson for the Becerra campaign stated that the term was not considered derogatory like other anti-Semitic slurs and had been used routinely in recent years.
“Secretary Becerra never knew that word was offensive and certainly did not intend to disrespect anyone,” a campaign spokesman said. “He was talking about protecting the hardest-working, lowest-paid Californians who are often taken advantage of by unscrupulous actors.”
