When the pope calls, Newsom answers

With help from Camille von Kaenel and Alex Nieves

CLIMATE CLERGY: Honestly, we’ve been at a bit of a loss to find a compelling take on Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s trip to the Vatican this week to talk climate change.

Newsom, along with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, delivered a classic climate stump speech this morning at Pope Francis’ climate resiliency summit, complete with catchphrases (“proof point,” “forgive me,” “localism is determinative”) and a new section blasting former President Donald Trump for asking oil executives for $1 billion in campaign donations (“Open corruption. A billion dollars to pollute our states, to pollute our country and to pollute this planet and to roll back progress.”)

Sure, the pope is a climate champion unlike any other religious leader — he’s bigger than the Dalai Lama. But the political returns just seem so meager. Why fly 6,000 miles to preach to the literal choir?

We talked to Notre Dame political professor David Campbell, author of “Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics,” who said it makes sense for blue-state leaders like Newsom, Hochul and Healey to kiss the ring.

Despite the fact that U.S. Catholics lean slightly Republican on net, they remain a potent Democratic bloc. Catholics make up about 20 percent of the country’s population, closer to 30 percent in the blue states the three governors represent, and most of them, especially left-leaning Catholics, really like the pope.

“What [Newsom’s] getting from this is the opportunity to lean into an issue that is popular on the left by associating himself with someone who has widespread appeal and can also help with ensuring that he doesn’t alienate the more religious folks within the Democratic coalition,” he said.

It’s not a perfect fit. Pope Francis is decidedly not a fan of carbon markets, while Newsom gave the state’s cap-and-trade program a shoutout in today’s speech. The pope also takes a pretty dim view of contemporary capitalism writ large, while Newsom never passes up an opportunity to tout California’s position as the world’s fifth-largest economy and its “green growth future.”

Regardless of one’s views on cap and trade, the overall focus on climate could resonate particularly with Latino Catholics in California, who make up over 60 percent of the state’s Catholic population, lean Democratic, and are among the groups most concerned about climate change, according to a Pew Research Center study.

But it’s unlikely that Newsom’s visit with the pope would convince a significant number of conservative Catholics to change their views on climate, Campbell said.

“Research shows that people increasingly put their politics ahead of their religion,” he said. “But it could lead to small changes here and there, and in American politics, it’s all about the margins.”

It may come down to this: “When you get a call, or at least an invitation from the pope, it’s wise to accept it,” Newsom said on a Tuesday press call ahead of the trip. — BB

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THE SUSPENSE IS... Killing not quite as many bills as we anticipated (about 25 percent of the Senate’s 595 bills and 35 percent of the Assembly’s 668, courtesy of our teammates at California Playbook PM). But still a lot!

Some notable deaths:

Wildfire: Lawmakers who are talking a big game on wildfire insurance this year have their work cut out for them because Sen. Josh Becker’s SB 1060, the most substantive reform attempt so far and one that drew industry opposition, got basically gutted. The bill would have required insurance underwriters to take wildfire mitigation efforts into account; after a committee amendment, that is optional, according to Becker’s office.

Plastics: The American Beverage Association, led in California by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas’ brother Rick Rivas, notched its first big win under the new regime: the death of Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s AB 2762, which would have required beverage manufacturers to increasingly use and sell refillable bottles instead of single-use or non-recyclable ones. (Another bill ABA opposed — Assemblymember Steve Bennett’s AB 2648 to restrict state agencies from buying single-use plastic bottles — made it through today relatively unscathed.)

Highway funding: RIP to Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s effort to overhaul how California thinks about highway spending, AB 2535, which would have required the California Air Resources Board and Department of Housing and Community Development to develop guidance on how the state can reduce the impacts of highway widening on already polluted communities. That proposal was already a weakened version of the original bill, which would have banned funds through the state’s Trade Corridor Enhancement Program from going to projects that add lanes or expand capacity in those communities.

Utility bills: Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin’s AB 1999, a proposal to add a 2028 sunset date to the California Public Utilities Commission’s new $24 utility bill charge, landed with a thud a day after facing extensive criticism in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee.

And Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi’s AB 2329 to create a state fund to support electrification and offset the costs of high rates through things like rebates also got held. Bill co-sponsor Citizen’s Climate Lobby said it would look to “insert some of these concepts into whatever cap and trade extension gets discussed, probably next session.” — CvK, BB, AN

FOR YOUR EARS: Alex went on POLITICO’s Energy podcast to talk about why California Republicans are breaking with Trump on EVs. Give it a listen!

TURN IT UP: Turns out fish don’t like disco. And that’s a good thing.

This spring, most steelhead approaching a curtain of bubbles and flashing lights state water officials placed across a slough in the southern Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta turned away, according to research the Department of Water Resources presented to the California Water Commission on Wednesday.

Instead of continuing further into the Delta, where they could get caught in a system of pumps and pipes the state uses to send water south to cities and farms, the fish followed the Sacramento River out into the ocean to live another day.

Some of their cousins weren’t so lucky: State and federal officials met and exceeded their incidental take limits for both winter-run salmon and Sacramento-basin steelhead, respectively, at their pumps in the Delta in late March. Scientists are still doing genetic testing to figure out exactly where those unlucky fish came from.

But early results suggest the bioacoustic barrier — affectionately termed “disco lights” by staff — could be a powerful tool in preventing fish from making a wrong turn into the pumps. — CvK

— The Biden administration’s political calculus for putting tariffs on Chinese climate technology.

— California banned salmon fishing in rivers for the second year in a row, just as it did for the ocean.

— Remember when Ecuador voted to ban oil drilling in the Yasuní Biosphere Reserve and California Democrats and Republicans cheered for their own different reasons? Now, birds there have dropped by half, and climate change is the common suspect.

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