Unfortunately, San Diego is vulnerable to some of the worst consequences of the climate crisis - droughts, wildfires, floods, and rising sea levels. We must not only work to curb the climate crisis but also prepare for its effects. I'm working to do that.
El Niño is a natural climate pattern and human-driven global warming makes it more intense. We must rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reduce the worst effects of global warming. I’ve introduced and passed several bills to reduce our emissions while maintaining a flourishing economy, including the USEIT Act and the POWER ON Act. Both are now law.
Last month, I reintroduced legislation to develop an organized federal response to climate hazards. My bipartisan and bicameral National Coordination on Adaptation and Resilience for Security (NCARS) Act would streamline resources, improve coordination, and hold agencies accountable so we can better prepare for and respond to the growing climate threats our communities face.
The power outages during a storm in Texas in 2021 were so severe partially because our power grid is too old and slow to keep up with these urgent spikes in demand, and we don’t have enough power lines to move energy from where it’s produced to where it’s needed. Currently our regulatory and permitting processes cause significant delays to clean energy, infrastructure, and even nature restoration projects. I am leading the fight to pass comprehensive reforms to streamline the review process for good projects while maintaining sound environmental analysis and community input. I just introduced the Certainty in Litigation for Electric Asset Reliability (CLEAR) Act to accelerate the review process for large energy infrastructure projects and establish clear rules for stalled transmission projects. This bill would ensure hundreds of transmission projects in California that were approved as far back as 2000 can finally move out of the permitting process and get into the ground.
Sadly, our best efforts to address the climate crisis are hindered by President Trump’s anti-science, anti-climate agenda that makes it nearly impossible to build the renewable energy we need. President Trump and Republicans' "Big Beautiful Bill" wiped out many clean energy investments for wind and solar projects, as well as batteries for energy storage. That means many of the projects that were already in process thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act were cancelled leading to less energy supply and higher prices. A 2025 order gave Interior Secretary Doug Burgum sole authority to approve or reject all new wind and solar energy projects, even for the most routine activities and even after energy companies have cleared all the other regulatory red tape.
I introduced the bipartisan Create Expedited Reviews to Transform American Infrastructure Now (CERTAIN) Act. The bill would ensure fairness, certainty, and transparency in the permitting process through enforceable accountability measures, stronger coordination between agencies, and fully staffed agencies. Critically, the bill would protect lawfully issued permits from being taken away arbitrarily or through political interference, giving developers, investors, and workers the certainty they rely on to build the energy projects we desperately need.
