Newsom tells world leaders that Trump’s environmental backsliding will mean economic damage

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gavin Newsom told world leaders on Friday that President Trump’s withdrawal from efforts to combat climate change will destroy the US auto industry and provide future economic power to China and other countries that are embracing the transition to renewable energy.

Newsom, appearing at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, called on diplomats, business leaders and policy advocates to stand firm against Trump’s aggressive global and oil-and-coal industry vindication. California’s governor said the Trump administration’s biggest pushback on environmental protections will be short-lived.

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

Newsom’s comments come in the wake of the Trump administration’s rollback of crash detection and all federal vehicle emissions regulations. The findings undermine the US government’s 2009 assertion that global warming pollution poses a threat to human health and the environment.

Environmental Protection Agency Director Lee Zeldin said the findings were excessive regulations, placing heavy burdens on automakers, limiting consumer choice and resulting in higher costs for Americans. Its repeal marked “the single largest act of repeal in the history of the United States of America,” he said.

Scientists and experts were quick to criticize the move, saying it goes against established science and will put many people at risk. 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 fueling climate disasters.

The move would threaten the US’s position as a leader in the global clean energy transition, with countries like China leading the way in electric vehicle production and investment in renewables such as solar, batteries and wind, experts say.

Newsom’s trip to Germany is his latest international event in recent months as he positions himself to lead the opposition to Trump and the Republican-led Congress, as well as a chance to run for the White House in 2028. Last month Newsom attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and in November he attended the UN climate conference in Belém, criticizing international trade policies in Greenland, Brazil.

When asked how he would restore the country’s confidence in the United States if he were to become president, Newsom watered down. Instead he gave a campaign-like monologue about California’s success in promoting Tesla and other leading electric car manufacturers in the country and becoming a magnet for industries spending billions of dollars on research and development for the global transition away from a carbon-based economy.

The purpose of the Munich conference was to open a dialogue between world leaders on global security, military, economic and environmental issues. Along with Friday’s discussion on climate action, Newsom is scheduled to appear at a live forum on transatlantic cooperation on Saturday.

Andrew Forrest, chief executive of Australia-based mining company Fortescue, said during a panel discussion on Friday that his company is proof that even the world’s largest energy-consuming companies can thrive without relying on carbon-based fuels that have powered industries for over a century. Fortescue, which buys diesel fuel from countries around the world, will switch to a “green grid” this decade, saving the company a billion dollars a year, he said.

“The science is clear, but so are the economics. I, along with my company Fortescue, are industrial-level proof that renewables are good economics, good business, and if you abandon it, then in the end, you will be sorted by your shareholders or your voters at the ballot box,” said Forrest.

Newsom said California has once again shown the world what can be done with new federal policies that embrace electric vehicles and transition to a carbon-free economy, and continues to do so despite attacks and retroactive orders from the Trump administration.

“This is about economic prosperity and competition, and that’s why I’m so upset about what Donald Trump has done,” Newsom said. “Remember, Tesla exists for one reason – the California regulatory market, which created the incentives and 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 the push for EVs. For more than 50 years, the state has enjoyed the EPA’s unique authority to set stricter emissions standards than the federal government, which is considered critical to the country’s efforts to address its smog and air quality problems. The mandate, which the Trump administration has since rescinded, was also the basis of California’s plan to ban sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

The administration also pointed to electric vehicles in its announcement on Thursday.

“The forced transition to electric vehicles is over,” Zeldin said. “Car manufacturers will no longer be pressured to convert their vehicles to electric vehicles, with vehicles still sitting unsold in dealerships across America.”

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

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

Still, some automakers and trade groups support the EPA’s decision, as do gasoline industry groups and those who favor free markets and regulatory reform. Among them was the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America, commending the administration for its “efforts to reform and simplify regulations governing greenhouse gas emissions.”

Ford, which has invested in electric cars and recently completed a $30,000 electric truck prototype, said in a statement to The Times that it welcomes the EPA’s move to “address the imbalance between current emissions standards and consumer choice.”

Meanwhile, Toyota retracted a statement by the president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, John Bozzella, who said the same that “the vehicle emission regulations finalized in the previous administration are too difficult for automakers to pass given the current demand of the EVs market.”