All-or-Nothing Politics Help Nobody

Let’s agree to build what works.

Last night, Washington delivered a disastrous government shutdown thanks to our federal politicians’ inability to lead or negotiate.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how natural it is in politics to look for one “big win.” The demand that you get everything all at once, or nothing at all.

But most progress doesn’t happen that way. It comes in smaller steps that, stacked together, add up to something much bigger.

Our summer legislative session is the perfect example. Lawmakers sent Governor Newsom a package of climate and energy bills that, each taken on their own, might have seemed incremental. But taken together, they move us toward a more affordable, reliable, and sustainable California.

Let’s do a quick recap of what this series of bills will actually do for Californians:

Cap-and-Invest (AB 1207 & SB 840): These bills extended California’s cap-and-trade program through 2045, keeping billions flowing into clean energy, housing, transit, and wildfire prevention. AB 1207 tightens oversight of offsets, shifts utility allowances toward customers through the climate credit, and ensures the value flows back to ratepayers. SB 840 maintains core investments while adding $125 million for transit passes and $85 million for innovation, like sustainable aviation fuels and carbon removal.

The details may sound technical, but the outcomes aren’t: The passage of these bills will translate to cleaner air in communities, cheaper utility bills for families, safer neighborhoods, and more affordable housing that is closer to public transportation.

SB 79: The notion of automatically upzoning land near transit may not grab headlines, but it cuts through some of the barriers that have kept housing scarce and expensive in the state of California. More homes near jobs and transit translates to shorter commutes, less traffic, and lower costs for working families.

CEQA Streamlining: A set of updates tucked into the budget package will make it easier to build housing, transmission, and clean energy projects. CEQA has long protected California’s environment, but too often it’s been used to delay exactly the projects we say we need. Reforming the process means families can move into affordable homes sooner, and that clean power can get on the grid faster.

Grid Regionalization (AB 825): By allowing California to participate in a broader western electricity market, AB 825 will reduce costs, improve reliability, and cut pollution by optimizing clean power resources across state lines. At a moment when data centers, EVs, and electrified heating are pushing demand higher every year, that matters.

Transmission Accelerator (SB 254): California’s single biggest bottleneck to ensuring that we have a reliable power supply is our lack of transmission capacity. SB 254 creates a public financing tool to bring costs down by billions and speed up construction. That’s not just a win for utilities — it’s what allows new solar, wind, and battery driven energy to actually reach homes and businesses.

Here’s the bottom line:

None of these bills was perfect on its own. Each one involved compromise. But that’s the point. Taken together, they stack up to something bigger — more housing, more clean power, more reliability, and more affordability.

That’s the kind of progress Californians need today.

Housing costs are crushing families. Utility bills keep climbing. From wildfires to heat waves, we need only look in our backyards to remind ourselves of what’s at stake every single day. And waiting for perfect solutions in the face of this crisis is a luxury we simply don’t have.

The lesson of this summer is simple: Don’t wait for perfect. Build what works. Step by step, we can deliver prosperity – in housing, in clean energy, in safety, and in affordability – for more California families.

Each incremental win adds up to the kind of California we all want to live in.