California’s Gubernatorial Candidates Focus on Affordability at Climate-Focused Forum

California is dealing with a lot climate-wise. Wildfires destroyed thousands of homes in L.A. last year. Floods from storms and king tides swamped communities across the state this winter. The Trump administration is attacking California’s ambitious policies aimed at limiting carbon pollution.

The state’s next governor will have to deal with all of it. And the race to fill Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shoes is on. He positioned himself as a climate leader, overseeing the build-out of battery storage and passing regulations to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles. However, advocates have questioned that record recently and criticized the administration for warming to the oil industry. There’s a whole field of candidates who want his job, including a new candidate who entered the race on Thursday, San José Mayor Matt Mahan.

Four of the California gubernatorial hopefuls — former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, billionaire climate activist and businessman Tom Steyer, and U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell — debated their plans to address the impacts of climate change across the state during a Tuesday evening forum organized by California Environmental Voters, a nonprofit political advocacy organization.

They discussed reducing fossil fuel production and consumption and investing in green energy such as solar, wind and battery storage. The candidates agreed on many things, including the need to meet climate goals while also reducing the cost of energy to Californians’ wallets. They also discussed how to lower energy prices and to develop electric vehicles.

No one expressed outright support for Gov. Newsom’s proposal for a 45-mile tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as it is currently written, and some argued the state should consider ramping up other solutions like water recycling instead.

And they pulled no punches in their criticism of President Donald Trump, arguing that the federal government has doubled down on fossil fuels and rejected climate science.

“The biggest challenge we have here is Donald Trump,” Becerra said. “[California pays] more taxes than any other state, yet the Trump administration is not sending it back to us in California. And so the first thing we have to do is fight like the dickens to make sure we’re getting our fair share.”

Swalwell, who represents parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, said he stands up to the Trump administration every day in Congress.

“The reason my three little kids can’t play in the front yard is because of the death threats that he inspires against me,” Swalwell said. “I do not hide under the bed, and the way that I have gone after him and been a fighter in Congress is what I will do as governor.”

California Environmental Voters invited the six top polling candidates, but only four agreed to participate.

Paasha Mahdavi, a political science professor at UC Santa Barbara, said the candidate forum lacked bold ideas and proposals that voters, especially young people, are asking for to address climate change.

“If you’re not going to be bold in an EnviroVoters conversation, where are you gonna be bold?” Mahdavi said. “It’s not enough to be singing in the shower, get out on stage.”

Leah Stokes, a political science professor also at UC Santa Barbara, listened to the forum and said it was exciting to hear four democrats actually “prioritize climate.”

“Whether or not they do everything they say in this forum, if one of them becomes Governor, is an open question,” Stokes said.

Stokes said voters associate Newsom’s climate policies with the high cost of energy, and that’s one area where the candidates clearly tried to establish a contrast with their own ideas.

“The debate in many ways was less about the candidates debating each other and more about them debating Newsom’s record,” Stokes said. “He’s been a really big climate champion, and he certainly bills himself that way. But he’s also allowed electric utilities to consistently jack up rates, and that is creating an affordability crisis.”

She said Steyer — who ran for President on a climate-forward platform but has since leaned into an affordability message — was the boldest on climate action, but she did not think any of the candidates stole the limelight.

“Newsom’s got real charisma, and I don’t know if any of these candidates have that as much, which isn’t a criticism of them, but I think that’s part of why we’re not seeing a clear frontrunner,” Stokes said.

California Environmental Voters, an event sponsor, released new polling this week that showed 65% of voters want the price of electric vehicles to become more affordable. The largest proportion of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions comes from transportation.

Porter acknowledged the Trump administration’s efforts to block California from requiring 100% of vehicles be zero-emission or electric by 2035, but said the state also has other issues when it comes to electric cars, like high monthly loan payments and a lack of charging infrastructure.

“California has built charging stations, but we are not anywhere near where we need to be, and those charging stations are not necessarily located in all of the communities they need to be in in order for us to make progress,” Porter said.

Steyer also hit on the affordability of electric vehicles, noting that “the job of the governor” is to make sure the price comes down by making affordable electric cars produced in places like China available to Californians.

“It may be complicated, but the facts are on the ground and by 2035, there’ll be $15,000 electric vehicles available,” Steyer said. “Mark my words.”

Steyer was initially the only candidate who said he would take steps to hold the oil industry accountable for the climate impacts on this state, saying he would have polluters pay “100%.”

But when moderator Sammy Roth, who writes the Climate-Colored Goggles Substack, pressed the candidates, they all agreed they would support legislation — which has repeatedly failed in California — to force oil companies to pay for damages from wildfires and severe storms.

“Clearly the window has shifted since all four supported it,” Mahdavi said. “But it did seem like we’re not gonna see too far a break from the status quo. And right now, people are not happy, especially younger voters, with the status quo. We do need an expanded ambition, but nobody really captured that.”

Mahdavi also said none of the candidates addressed how to support workers with what he called a “just transition,” which would be needed if the California oil industry were phased out.

Swalwell told the story of visiting a business in Altadena and learning that a person’s home had burned down. If elected, he said he will hold utility companies accountable by making sure they invest in “disaster improvements that they have to make and that we socialize the idea of managed outages.”

“Fire victims know that their homes will never come back the way that they knew, but they want to know that the next governor gets it and will fight for them,” Swalwell said.

The candidates didn’t quite agree on funding climate solutions, either, especially since the Trump administration cut millions of dollars for climate-related projects and programs.

Porter suggested taxing AI companies.

“AI has the potential to make society much more wealthy,” Porter said. “We need to capture that wealth to address not only the environmental consequences of data centers and of AI, but the longstanding environmental challenges that we face.”

Steyer, a billionaire himself, alluded to taxing billionaires and closing tax loopholes as a solution, as did Becerra.

“It was interesting to see a divide across the four,” Mahdavi said. “Then, when pushed directly on the idea of taxing billionaires, it was surprising to hear everybody agreed.”