EXECUTIVE ORDER B-30-15

WHEREAS climate change poses an ever-growing threat to the well-being, public health, natural resources, economy, and the environment of California, including loss of snowpack, drought, sea level rise, more frequent and intense wildfires, heat waves, more severe smog, and harm to natural and working lands, and these effects are already being felt in the state; and

[The real threat to California and all Californians is Governor Brown and his cadre of corrupt and self-serving progressive socialist democrats whose corruption and perversion of science is the proximate cause of the state’s ills. The very same people who fight against dams and demand that 500 million gallons of fresh potable water be flushed to the see to protect a small fish known as the Delta Smelt; who has survived droughts when the Delta was little more than a mud flat. Thus crippling a large portion of California’s premier agriculture business.

As for intense wildfires, these are attributable to state conservation policies that demand unionized firefighters knock-down wildfires when they are nature’s mechanism for clearing the undergrowth and providing for the renewal of life rather than choking the environment. Yes, they get worse as public policy prevents burning. Yes, they get more costly because zoning and building codes allow more and more people to build in hazardous areas; not to mention the ever-rising costs of union labor without a corresponding increase in productivity.]

WHEREAS the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded in its Fifth Assessment Report, issued in 2014, that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia" and that "continued emission of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and long-lasting changes in all components of the climate system, increasing the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems;" and

[The IPCC is a corrupt United Nations group comprised of politicians and bureaucrats who are attempting to stage manage the global climate issue for the purposes of implementing a UN agenda that sees the United Nations being given legal powers that supersedes the sovereignty of its member nations and provides a method of global taxation that securely fund’s UN activities without having to rely on contributions from member nations. What the IPCC and the climate activists cannot explain is why, in the face of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, the mean global climate has remained unchanged for 18+ years. There is no heat signature in the middle layers of the atmosphere and the models have been falsified as being incomplete and using suspiciously faulty and statistically-manipulated data which differs drastically from the data from the remote sensing (satellite) program.]

WHEREAS projections of climate change show that, even under the best-case scenario for global emission reductions, additional climate change impacts are inevitable, and these impacts pose tremendous risks to the state's people, agriculture, economy, infrastructure and the environment; and

[Yes, we have heard that repeatedly, and from the same political activist sources. While climate change is inevitable, we should be looking at promoting our state’s resiliency and adopting more appropriate zoning and building codes.]

WHEREAS climate change will disproportionately affect the state's most vulnerable citizens; and

[Consider that the state’s environmental policies are driving up energy costs, food costs, and destroying our economy has a disproportionate effect on the state’s most vulnerable citizens. As is allowing illegal aliens to destroy the state’s financial, educational, employment, medical, and social infrastructure. Thus importing poverty, illiteracy, low job skills, disease, and crime to create even more vulnerable citizens. Not that common sense is part of the climate change agenda or state planning process.]

WHEREAS building on decades of successful actions to reduce pollution and increase energy efficiency the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 placed California at the forefront of global and national efforts to reduce the threat of climate change; and

[California is enacting symbolism that creates a distinction without a difference. Without the cooperation of other states that will voluntarily cripple their economies and disadvantage their citizens, you will find more and more productive individuals and companies moving out of California to other tax- and cost-friendly havens. Or see California’s top fat cat liberals talk about paying their fair share of taxes while playing offshore games to hide their taxes from California’s tax authorities.]

WHEREAS the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius or less by 2050 as necessary to avoid potentially catastrophic climate change impacts, and remaining below this threshold requires accelerated reductions of greenhouse gas emissions; and

[Again, with the corrupt IPCC, and its crazy interpretation of science based solely on computer models that are controlled by climate activists whose livelihood, reputations, and fortunes are dependent on political funding. Recent studies have shown that the climate is not as sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions as previously thought, and that the beneficial effects of a higher level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is rarely mentioned.]

WHEREAS California has established greenhouse gas emission reduction targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and further reduce such emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050; and

[Nothing will satisfy the progressive socialist democrats – even a roll-back to pre-industrial levels. The Earth has been hotter, colder, with more atmospheric carbon dioxide and less atmospheric carbon dioxide; and that was before the industrial revolution. The most significant greenhouse gas is water vapor and yet you only hear about carbon dioxide. Why? Because by controlling carbon and carbon dioxide, you can control the production, storage, and use of energy – which in turn controls our economy. Control over our economy is the real agenda item and the progressives could give a fig at how we arrive at those ends, the means, fair or foul, being immaterial to justifying the ends.]

WHEREAS setting an interim target of emission reductions for 2030 is necessary to guide regulatory policy and investments in California in the midterm, and put California on the most cost-effective path for long term emission reductions; and

[Guiding regulatory policy is a code phrase for controlling our economy. Specifying the use of unsustainable, uneconomical, and unreliable green energy to drive up costs, lower energy use, and cripple our economy. Jerry Brown’s vision wants to limit our mobility by limiting our vehicle use to shorter ranges. To have us live like Europeans or New Yorkers in dense population centers that can be “serviced” more efficiently. Yeah, like a bull services a cow. Even today, the corrupt politicians are demanding new taxes to compensate for the loss of revenue as vehicles became more energy efficient and residents curtailed their driving. Thus, any savings that would accrue to residents is shifted to the corrupt politicians in higher taxes.]

WHEREAS all agencies with jurisdiction over sources of greenhouse gas emissions will need to continue to develop and implement emissions reduction programs to reach the state's 2050 target and attain a level of emissions necessary to avoid dangerous climate change; and

[Agencies headed by political appointees who do very little for their six figure salaries. Agencies who have been caught faking scientific results. Agencies that refuse to disclose their scientific findings. Agencies whose bureaucrats know that more regulations means more bureaucrats and more money for this privileged political class.]

WHEREAS taking climate change into account in planning and decision making will help the state make more informed decisions and avoid high costs in the future.

[The state does not act on an “informed” basis, they act on political whims and the demands of the unions and special interests that contribute to the campaigns of corrupt politicians and provide voter turn-out in elections. It is all about power and money – with politics being little more than a control mechanism.]

NOW, THEREFORE, I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, in accordance with the authority vested in me by the Constitution and statutes of the State of California, in particular Government Code sections 8567 and 8571 of the California Government Code, do hereby issue this Executive Order, effective immediately

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT:

1.A new interim statewide greenhouse gas emission reduction target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 is established in order to ensure California meets its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

2.All state agencies with jurisdiction over sources of greenhouse gas emissions shall implement measures, pursuant to statutory authority, to achieve reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to meet the 2030 and 2050 greenhouse gas emissions reductions targets.

3.The California Air Resources Board shall update the Climate Change Scoping Plan to express the 2030 target in terms of million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

4.The California Natural Resources Agency shall update every three years the state's climate adaptation strategy, Safeguarding California, and ensure that its provisions are fully implemented. The Safeguarding California plan will:

     -   Identify vulnerabilities to climate change by sector and regions, including, at a minimum, the following sectors: water, energy, transportation, public health, agriculture, emergency services, forestry, biodiversity and habitat, and ocean and coastal resources;

     -   Outline primary risks to residents, property, communities and natural systems from these vulnerabilities, and identify priority actions needed to reduce these risks; and

     -   Identify a lead agency or group of agencies to lead adaptation efforts in each sector. 

5.Each sector lead will be responsible to:

     -   Prepare an implementation plan by September 2015 to outline the actions that will be taken as identified in Safeguarding California, and

     -   Report back to the California Natural Resources Agency by June 2016 on actions taken.

6.State agencies shall take climate change into account in their planning and investment decisions, and employ full life-cycle cost accounting to evaluate and compare infrastructure investments and alternatives.

7.State agencies' planning and investment shall be guided by the following principles

     -   Priority should be given to actions that both build climate preparedness and reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

     -   Where possible, flexible and adaptive approaches should be taken to prepare for uncertain climate impacts;

     -   Actions should protect the state's most vulnerable populations; and

     -   Natural infrastructure solutions should be prioritized.

8.The state's Five-Year Infrastructure Plan will take current and future climate change impacts into account in all infrastructure projects

9.The Governor's Office of Planning and Research will establish a technical, advisory group to help state agencies incorporate climate change impacts into planning and investment decisions.

10.The state will continue its rigorous climate change research program focused on understanding the impacts of climate change and how best to prepare and adapt to such impacts.

This Executive Order is not intended to create, and does not, create any rights or benefits, whether substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity, against the State of California, its agencies, departments, entities, officers, employees, or any other person.

I FURTHER DIRECT that as soon as hereafter possible, this Order be filed in the Office of the Secretary of State and that widespread publicity and notice be given to this Order.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 29th day of April 2015.
______________________________
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.
Governor of California

Source: Office of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.