Newsom tells world leaders Trump’s retreat on the environment will mean economic harm

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom told world leaders Friday that President Trump’s retreat from efforts to combat climate change will destroy the U.S. auto industry and hand future economic sustainability to China and other countries embracing the transition to renewable energy.

Appearing at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Newsom called on diplomats, business leaders and policy advocates to strongly oppose Trump’s global bullying and dependence on the oil and coal industry. California’s governor says the Trump administration’s major rollbacks on environmental protection will be short-lived.

“Donald Trump is temporary. He’ll be gone in three years,” Newsom said during a panel discussion on climate action Friday morning. “California is a stable and reliable partner in this area.”

Newsom’s comments follow the Trump administration’s finding of danger and repeal of all federal vehicle emissions regulations. The hazard finding is the U.S. government’s 2009 declaration that planet-warming pollution poses a threat to human health and the environment.

Lee Zeldin, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said the finding amounted to regulatory overreach, placing heavy burdens on automakers, restricting consumer choice and leading to higher costs for Americans. He said the repeal of the law was “the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States.”

Scientists and experts condemned the action, saying it contradicted established science and would put more people in danger. Independent researchers around the world have long concluded that greenhouse gases released by burning gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels are warming the planet and worsening weather disasters.

Experts said this move would also threaten the United States’ leading position in the global clean energy transition, highlighting the investments of countries such as China in electric vehicle production and renewable energy such as solar, battery and wind.

Newsom’s trip to Germany is just one of his last international trips in recent months as he positions himself to lead the Democratic Party’s opposition to Trump and the Republican-led Congress, seeding a possible run for the White House in 2028. Newsom traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month and to the UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil, in November, where he mocked and condemned Trump’s policies on Greenland, international trade and the environment.

Newsom sidestepped when asked how he would restore the world’s trust in the United States if he became president. Instead, he delivered a campaign-like monologue touting California’s success in promoting Tesla and the nation’s other leading electric vehicle manufacturers as well as being a magnet for industries spending billions of dollars on research and development for the global transition from carbon-based economies.

The purpose of the Munich conference was to initiate dialogue among world leaders on global security, military, economic and environmental issues. In addition to Friday’s climate action debate, Newsom is scheduled to participate in a livestreamed forum on transatlantic cooperation on Saturday.

Andrew Forrest, executive chairman of Australia-based mining giant Fortescue, said during a panel discussion on Friday that his company is proof that even the world’s biggest energy consumers can thrive without relying on the carbon-based fuels that have driven industries for more than a century. He said Fortescue, which buys diesel fuel from countries around the world, would transition to a “green grid” this decade, saving the company a billion dollars a year.

“The science is absolutely clear, but so are the economics. I and my company, Fortescue, are industrial-level proof that moving to renewable energy is great economics, great business, and if you give up on that, then you’ll end up being weeded out by your shareholders or your voters at the ballot box,” Forrest said.

Newsom said California has also shown the world what can be done with innovative government policies that embrace electric vehicles and the transition to a non-carbon-based economy, and continues to do so despite attacks and reactionary mandates imposed by the Trump administration.

“This is about economic prosperity and competitiveness, and that’s why I’m so angry about what Donald Trump has done,” Newsom said. “Remember, Tesla is in business for one reason only: California’s regulatory market, which created the incentives, structure and certainty that allowed Elon Musk and others to invest and build that capacity. We’re not moving away from that.”

California has led the nation in moving toward electric vehicles. For more than 50 years, the state has had unique authority from the EPA to set tailpipe emissions standards that are stricter than the federal government; this was critical to efforts to solve the state’s notorious smog and air quality problems. The same mandate that the Trump administration moved to rescind also formed the basis of California’s plan. Ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

The administration again targeted electric vehicles in its announcement on Thursday.

“The mandatory transition to electric vehicles has been eliminated,” Zeldin said. “Automakers will no longer be pressured to shift their fleets to electric vehicles—vehicles still sitting unsold at dealerships across America.”

But efforts to halt the energy transition may be too little, too late, said Hannah Safford, former director of transportation and resiliency in the White House Office of Climate Policy under the Biden administration.

“Electric cars make more economic sense for people, more models are becoming available, and the administration can’t necessarily stop that,” said Safford, who is now deputy director for climate and environment at the Federation of American Scientists.

Still, some automakers and trade groups supported the EPA’s decision, as did fossil fuel industry groups and those committed to free markets and regulatory reform. Among them was the Independent Petroleum Assn. He praised the American administration for its “efforts to reform and streamline regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ford, which has invested in electric vehicles and recently completed a prototype30,000 electric trucksIn a statement to The Times, he said he appreciated the EPA’s move “to address the imbalance between current emissions standards and consumer preferences.”

Toyota, meanwhile, deferred to a statement from John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, who similarly said that “automotive emissions regulations finalized under the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers given the market’s current demand for electric vehicles.”