Schwarzenegger tells environmentalists dismayed by Trump to ‘stop whining' and get to work
The new U.S. administration has taken an ax to Biden-era environmental ambitions, rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an 'American energy dominance' agenda.
Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011.
He said Tuesday he keeps hearing from environmentalists and policy experts lately who ask, 'What is the point of fighting for a clean environment when the government of the United States says climate change is a hoax and coal and oil is the future?'
Schwarzenegger told the Austrian World Summit in Vienna, an event he helps organize, that he responds: 'Stop whining and get to work.'
He pointed to examples of local and regional governments and companies taking action, including his own administration in California, and argued 70% of pollution is reduced at the local or state level.
'Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts (up) solar roofs,' he said.
'You can't just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn't agree with you,' he said, adding that attacking the president is 'not my style' and he doesn't criticize any president when outside the U.S.
'I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom,' Schwarzenegger said. 'The only way we win the people's hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.'
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Politico
16 hours ago
- Politico
Can YIMBYs win without Scott Wiener?
BIG SHOES — Activists with the pro-housing YIMBY movement have scored win after win at the California Legislature in recent years. But they could soon face a conundrum: What happens when state Sen. Scott Wiener isn't around? Wiener, in tandem with Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, has been the tip of the spear, pushing through a host of aggressive bills to turbocharge housing construction. Most notably, Wiener and Wicks championed a proposal this year to bypass environmental reviews for new housing in urban areas — the biggest reform to the landmark California Environmental Quality Act in a generation. His time at the state Capitol is winding down, however. Wiener recently opened a campaign committee to run for San Francisco's congressional seat currently held by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. There are a lot of 'ifs' surrounding Wiener's political aspirations. Pelosi, who's represented the city in the House since 1987, hasn't ruled out running for another term in 2026. Wiener's fundraising committee is ostensibly earmarked for a 2028 campaign, but he could easily transfer it to a 2026 run. And Wiener's campaign has been ambiguous lately about whether he would consider running against Pelosi. All of that said, activists with the YIMBY — 'Yes in My Back Yard' — or Abundance movement are grappling with the reality that their champion legislator may soon depart. At stake is whether those groups will have the legislative muscle to continue pushing through efforts to solve the housing shortage by slashing state and local regulations. More lawmakers aligned with the YIMBY movement have been elected in recent years, but it's unclear who among them has the skills to be a cudgel in the Senate like Wiener. 'The honest answer is, 'We'll know in time,'' said Todd David, political director for Abundant SF and a member of Wiener's inner circle of advisers. 'Senator Wiener has loomed so large on this issue. The question is, 'How long will it take for some of these (new) legislators to come into their own?'' Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action, said she's not sweating Wiener's eventual exit. She said the group's success reforming CEQA and passing other pro-housing legislation is a reflection of the movement's grassroots, with YIMBY chapters that have canvassed and raised money to help elect lawmakers. 'There's going to be elected officials that want to claim that mantle,' Foote said. She listed a handful of new-ish legislators who are YIMBY-friendly: Sens. Jesse Arreguín and Christopher Cabaldon and Assemblymembers Juan Carrillo, Lori Wilson, David Alvarez and Nick Schultz. Wicks won't be forced out due to term limits until 2030. Wiener told Playbook he's not worried about the plight of housing bills after he's gone: 'Listen, we're all replaceable. We all have expiration dates,' he said. 'There are various members in both houses who are deeply committed to housing, so I'm confident the work will continue.' But YIMBY advocates have another problem, too — one that is cropping up before Wiener leaves Sacramento, and regardless of when he runs for Congress. Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón, one of the chamber's biggest environmental champions and a lukewarm supporter of housing legislation, is widely expected to remove Wiener as chair of the powerful budget committee (this year's CEQA reforms advanced through budget bills). Moreover, the YIMBY movement has faced sharp criticism in recent months from some labor union leaders and environmentalists, who argue the effort to streamline construction has undermined other priorities, such as protections for workers and wildlife habitats. California Labor Federation leader Lorena Gonzalez, a fierce opponent of recent YIMBY legislation, said a sizable group of Democratic lawmakers are uncomfortable as pro-housing groups take bigger regulation-cutting swings. She predicted that discomfort will grow regardless of Wiener's plans. 'The (YIMBY) movement has moved the bar … it finally got to a point where lawmakers were like, 'Hold up, I didn't sign up for that,'' Gonzalez said. 'It's a natural reaction to people opening their eyes.' GOOD MORNING. Happy Tuesday. Thanks for waking up with Playbook. Like what you're reading? Sign up to get California Playbook in your inbox, and forward it to a friend. You can also text us at 916-562-0685 — save it as 'CA Playbook' in your contacts. Or drop us a line at dgardiner@ and bjones@ or on X — @DustinGardiner and @jonesblakej. WHERE'S GAVIN? Nothing official announced. 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Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Despite new sales tax to reduce homelessness, LAHSA cuts back an effective path to housing
When people walked into the Downtown Women's Center in Skid Row seeking help, the organization often turned to a lifeline. The center enrolled people in a temporary housing subsidy designed to help homeless individuals pay rent for a limited time while they get back on their feet. Lately, that's not an option. In April, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, citing budget cuts, directed the center and other service providers across the county to stop accepting new participants into the so-called time-limited subsidies, or TLS, a crucial program little known outside the world of homeless services. "We are constantly asked 'When's that going to open up again?" said Downtown Women's Center Chief Executive Amy Turk . "And we're like, 'We don't know.'" The change is likely to ripple throughout the L.A. County homeless service system, according to providers and LAHSA. With one pathway to housing cut off, people are likely to stay longer in shelters. With fewer spots at shelters, people are likely to stay longer on the street. "It's going to bottleneck," said Sasha Morozov, regional director for the homeless service provider known as PATH. She called that likelihood "heartbreaking" given the time and investment the region has made to house people. "We've worked so hard." Service providers and LAHSA have said they view time-limited subsidies as crucial and have pointed to their use in helping reduce the number of unhoused people in two consecutive years. One provider even called them a "superhighway out of homelessness." "It's really been key to how we've been able to move as many folks through our system and into permanent housing," said Nathaniel VerGow, LAHSA's deputy chief programs officer. The ramping down of the subsidies comes after voters in November approved Measure A, a sales tax increase that proponents said could generate as much as a billion dollars a year to address the homelessness crisis. But much of that new money is flowing to build new affordable housing — rather than homeless services — and given a slowdown in the economy the county is actually expected to collect less sales tax revenue for homeless services this fiscal year. Some providers are already seeing the impact of the diminishing time-limited subsidies. Katie Hill, chief executive of Union Station Homeless Services, said the lack of subsidy funds caused her organization to pull back several months before the April announcement and so far has had to turn away more than 700 homeless families seeking a place to sleep as its interim beds remain full. At LA Family Housing, Kimberly Roberts, chief programs officer, said the nonprofit previously moved about 50 households a month from its shelters to permanent housing using TLS, freeing up 50 interim beds in the process. "Right now we cannot do that," she said. "The decision to not invest more resources or add more dollars means there will be more people on the streets. It means there will be more encampments." The time-limited subsidy program works like this: LAHSA receives money from the federal, state and county governments, then contracts with nonprofits and a private company that enroll homeless people and pay landlords. The subsidies are supposed to max out at two years, during which the nonprofits help individuals work to afford housing without the limited subsidy, either by helping them find a job or enrolling them in a program that provides more permanent support. LAHSA said it directed providers to stop enrolling new participants because of government budget cuts that have affected a variety of its programs, not only time-limited subsidies. These cuts do not stem from the Trump administration's slashing of social programs or from the county's plans to eventually transfer tens of millions of dollars from LAHSA to a new county agency, but rather funding reductions the state made amid budget constraints, as well as the expiration of one-time grants. The county has not cut its own funding to the subsidies but has trimmed other homeless service programs. For time-limited subsidies, LAHSA has reported it has $46 million less to spend this fiscal year, compared with last. More cuts are expected in the next fiscal year, starting in July 2026. For now, people currently enrolled in time-limited subsidies are unaffected and LAHSA said it's employing a "ramp down" strategy to deal with reduced funding. As people's time-limited subsidies naturally expire this year, service providers will probably not be able to enroll new participants. Because LAHSA is trying to reduce the overall time-limited numbers from 7,700 last fiscal year to 2,500 by the end of this fiscal year, the agency in a June report said it "will be rare if not impossible" for new people to be enrolled any time soon. In recent years, taxpayers have spent billions to tackle homelessness in L.A. County and there has been growing frustration among some elected officials over how the money has been spent and whether it's going to the right place to meaningfully reduce the number of people on the streets and in shelters. In 2024, LAHSA reported the overall number of homeless people in the county dipped slightly and declined by 4% this year, but there's still more than 72,000 living in shelters or on the streets. Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman said time-limited subsidies are important in part because they can be cost-effective and reduce the overall public investment needed to reduce homelessness. "Not everyone needs a permanent home funded by the government for their entire lives," she said in an interview. In recent years, the councilwoman has pushed to increase efficiency in the TLS program, which she had characterized as underutilized. She said there has since been improvement and hopes more money can be found, but is "hugely concerned" about the TLS cuts now rolling out, especially because other funding reductions loom. Another specialty homeless housing subsidy — this one at the federal level — is set to expire in 2026. The Trump administration also wants to make further cuts to the country's main rental subsidy program, known as Section 8. "What we're seeing in the next year to two years is a dramatic shrinking of the housing options available for people who are living on the street or who are living in shelters," Raman said. "The impacts of this are not to be underestimated." Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Yahoo
Your Voice, Your BBC News: Do you have a story to share with a local BBC journalist?
What stories would you like BBC News to cover in the Highlands and Islands? We want to hear about the big issues affecting your community, the local people doing remarkable things, as well as quirky tales that will intrigue and entertain. Use the form below to upload photographs and documents, and to get in touch with your local BBC journalists.
