Billionaire Elon Musk said Tuesday he will move the headquarters of private company SpaceX and social media site X from California to Texas, calling Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to sign a new law on student gender identity “the last straw.”

The law, signed Monday, prevents school districts from requiring teachers to inform parents of changes in a student's gender identity or sexual orientation without the child's consent. It also requires the state Department of Education to provide resources for families of LGBTQ+ students in seventh grade through high school.

“This is the last straw,” Musk wrote on X. “Because of this law and many others before it that attacked both families and businesses, SpaceX will now be moving its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas.”

Elon Musk said SpaceX will move its headquarters to Texas. REUTERS

Musk added that he “made it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws like this would force families and businesses to leave California to protect their children.”

In another post, the billionaire added that the headquarters of X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, will be moving from San Francisco to Austin, Texas.

“I'm tired of dodging gangs of violent drug addicts just to get in and out of the building,” Musk wrote on X.

Critics argue that the bill is too invasive and undermines parents' rights. One group opposing the bill, the California Family Council, said it “undermines their fundamental role and puts boys and girls in potential danger.”

Meanwhile, supporters said the bill would provide necessary protections for transgender students whose parents live in disapproving households. The law takes effect in January.

In a separate response to an X post by “All In” podcast host Jason Calacanis, Musk said the law would cause “many families and businesses to move out of California.”

“Who would want to risk having their children taken away from them by the government?” Musk said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill, which Musk said will force families to leave the state to protect their children. JULIANA YAMADA/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott said Musk's move “solidifies Texas' leadership in space exploration.”

The Post has reached out to SpaceX for further comment.

Musk had already moved the physical headquarters of his electric car maker Tesla from California to Texas in 2021 after confrontations with Newsom and other local authorities over their pandemic policies.

In a separate move, Tesla moved its headquarters from Delaware to Texas earlier this year. Musk pushed for the change after a Delaware judge rejected his pay package on the grounds that it was excessive.

With post wires

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By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com In Alpharetta, Georgia

04:14 01 Dec 2023, updated 08:02 01 Dec 2023

• DeSantis showed off an app where feces is ‘plotted’ in the California city 
• He jabbed Newsom for ‘cleaning up’ for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping 
• Came at the end of a fiery debate between the red and blue state governors 

Ron DeSantis pulled out a map of human feces on the streets of San Francisco and tore into the homelessness and crime in the city in his fiery debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday night.

Newsom, a Democrat, claimed he had taken 68,000 people off the streets and closed 6,000 homeless camps when the Florida governor pulled out the visual aid.

‘You may be asking ‘what is that plotting?’ This is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco,’ Republican Gov. DeSantis detailed. ‘That is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had.’

He then took a jab at Newsom for cleaning it up for the visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping earlier this month as the testy showdown wrapped.

The pair went to war over COVID policies, the southern border, taxes, crime and book bans in the primetime head-to-head on Fox News .

Both governors accused each other of lying about many of their states’ policies in what was a display of two alternatives to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. 

Ron DeSantis pulled out a map of human feces in San Francisco and tore into the homelessness and crime in the city in his fiery debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday night

The end devolved into chaos when they called each other ‘bullies’ and shouted over each other while moderator Sean Hannity tried to intervene.

Along with the feces map, DeSantis’ campaign also unveiled on its website the sale of $37 brown socks with the words: ‘Newsom’s California Walking Socks. Watch your step.’

The description reads: ‘Thinking about visiting California? You’re going to need a pair of these. Order your California walking socks before you’re dodging feces in San Francisco!’

The two specifically sparred over some noticeable changes in California and Florida since they both become governors at the start of 2019. This included homelessness, drug use and crime.

In the U.S., 30 percent of those experiencing homelessness are located in California, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Of every 10,000 people in California, 44 are homeless, while only 12 of every 10,000 people in Florida are experiencing homelessness.

DeSantis started the debate by slamming his California counterpart by pointing to his hypocrisy during COVID-19 by going out to fine-dining restaurant The French Laundry and sending his children to in-person private schools while his residents were still under lockdown.

He said California ran out of UHaul moving trucks because so many people were moving out to head to red states – including Florida. He said among the new residents in Florida is the father of Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Newsom didn’t back down in the one-on-one debate in Alpharetta, Georgia on Thursday night, taking a dig at DeSantis by saying they both won’t be presidential nominees in 2024.

He also accused DeSantis of ‘trolling’ with his move to transport migrants out of border states to Democratic sanctuary cities – and said he’s trying to one-up former President Donald Trump with the antics.

‘You almost have to try to mess California up,’ DeSantis said during feisty opening remarks explaining why his state is superior. ‘That is what Gavin Newsom has done since he has been governor.’

‘He has imposed restrictions on his own people while exempting himself from those restrictions and going to the French Laundry while his people were suffering,’ the Florida governor said. ‘He led the country in school closures, blocking kids out of school while he had his own kids in private school in-person.’

Newsom has repeatedly said he has no plans to run for president in 2024 and has served as a surrogate for President Joe Biden since he launched his reelection campaign this year.

But DeSantis is among a group of Republicans who don’t take the California leader at his word, and believe he plans to launch a 2024 bid for president – especially if Biden for some reason is no longer in the race.

Newsom claimed he had taken ‘68,000 people’ off the streets and closed 6,000 homeless camps when the Florida governor pulled out the visual aid ‘You may be asking ‘what is that plotting?’ This is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco. That is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had.’ DeSantis’ website features a $37 pair of brown socks titled ‘Newsom’s California Walking Socks’, it says they are for making sure your feet are protected from feces on the city streets of San Francisco

‘I thought this was state versus state,’ moderator Sean Hannity of Fox News posed to the two men as they devolved into debate over national-level policies.

‘But it’s about the United States of America, I thought this guy was running for president of the United States,’ Newsom shot back.

‘You will not admit it,’ DeSantis said, demanding: ‘Admit that you’re running.’

DeSantis is currently in the middle of a heated primary election where he comes in distant second to former President Donald Trump. He will debate his fellow 2024 competitors on Wednesday – just six days after the one-on-one with Newsom.

The California governor claims that despite DeSantis ‘playing political games,’ he is failing at trying to be the new Trump with policies more radical than the ex-president’s.

‘You’re trolling folks and trying to find migrants to play political games to try to get some news attention to out-Trump Trump,’ Newsom alleged of the Florida governor’s actions.

‘And by the way, how’s that going for you? Down by 41 points in your own home state.’ 

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The Democrats’ delicate majority in the U.S. Senate puts extra pressure on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to quickly pick a replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein after her death.

Already, names were being floated Friday in California circles. The situation is complicated and wrought with political risk for Newsom, a term-limited governor with national political ambitions of his own.

The Democratic governor has promised to appoint a Black woman. He has also promised to avoid the field of candidates already running for Feinstein’s seat, which was set to expire at the end of next year and includes Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the state’s most prominent Black women currently serving in elected office.

In filling the Senate vacancy, Newsom has the sole authority to name a successor. He could even pick himself, though that is unlikely.

Newsom made no mention of Feinstein’s replacement in a statement he issued marking her death Friday morning.

“Dianne Feinstein was many things – a powerful, trailblazing U.S. Senator; an early voice for gun control; a leader in times of tragedy and chaos. But to me, she was a dear friend, a lifelong mentor, and a role model not only for me, but to my wife and daughters for what a powerful, effective leader looks like,” Newsom said. “There is simply nobody who possessed the strength, gravitas, and fierceness of Dianne Feinstein.”

FILE – Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., smiles after announcing the introduction of a Senate bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, on Capitol Hill, March 16, 2011.

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

On Capitol Hill, Feinstein’s death leaves Senate Democrats with no margin for error until a successor is appointed.

Democrats now have a functional majority of just 50 seats in the Senate, while Republicans hold 49. At the same time, many Democrats are calling for the resignation of the indicted Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., although the embattled Democrat has vowed not to step down.

And while Democrats continue to control Congress’ upper chamber, Feinstein’s absence will make it harder to advance Biden’s judge nominees in the Judiciary Committee.

Newsom’s choices all run political risks.

Should he follow through on his pledge to avoid picking from those already running in the Senate primary, he could select a true caretaker who would be replaced by whomever voters select in next year’s election.

A handful of Black women in office have been floated as possibilities, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

Lee and others lashed out at Newsom earlier in the month after he indicated he would select a caretaker instead of picking from the current slate of candidates.

“The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election,” Lee tweeted.

Some California Democrats are still upset about Newsom’s last Senate appointment.

He chose Alex Padilla, then California’s secretary of state, to replace Kamala Harris in the Senate when she was elected vice president. That process took more than six weeks. That made Padilla California’s first Latino senator, but it also left the Senate without a Black woman.

He later promised that if Feinstein’s seat became vacant, he would choose a Black woman to replace her.

“He made the commitment and I do not believe there is any wiggle room for the governor not to honor his commitment,” Kerman Maddox, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist and fundraiser, said before Feinstein’s death.

In a recent interview with Fox 11 TV in Los Angeles, Newsom said he was being swamped with recommendations for how to fill a possible Senate vacancy.

The decision for Newsom is clouded by his personal relationship with the late senator.

Newsom, whose father was a prominent judge in San Francisco, has known Feinstein since he was a child and has spoken recently about their personal connection. He interned in her office in college and said he considers her to be family. He said it wasn’t long ago that she would call him on the phone to discuss a variety of issues, from water policy to forest management.

“I have no objectivity whatsoever,” he said in a recent interview with NBC when asked about Feinstein and her decision to stay in the Senate.

He said he was hoping he would never have to make a decision to fill her seat.

___

Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed.

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The proclamation Friday was reminiscent of Breed’s bold claim in 2021 that the city would crack down on the “bulls— that has destroyed our city,” which she said in announcing an emergency plan to address the drug and overdose crisis in the Tenderloin.

That effort brought together multiple city agencies to ramp up enforcement of dealing, clear sidewalks and offer new public health responses to drug use such as opening what became a supervised consumption site called the Tenderloin Center.

The facility closed at the end of 2022, a few months after Newsom vetoed legislation that would have allowed San Francisco, Los Angeles and Oakland to pilot safe consumption sites. Breed said the plan was only meant to be temporary and, on Friday, added the center “didn’t quite work out.”

Residents wait in line to get into the Tenderloin Linkage Center (also known as the Tenderloin Center), a now-defunct safe consumption site in San Francisco, on Feb. 8, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

After the closing of the Tenderloin Center and the emergency plan’s winding down, overdose rates have again increased in 2023, data from the Office of the Medical Examiner shows.

Meanwhile, public safety advocates applauded the governor’s decision to increase law enforcement around the issue, at a time when the San Francisco Police Department is struggling to recruit and retain a full workforce.

“Just the mere presence of our officers we believe will help deter and disrupt criminal activity,” Duryee said.

Newsom said that his plan “will not seek to criminalize those struggling with substance use and instead focus on disrupting the supply fueling the fentanyl crisis by holding drug suppliers and traffickers accountable,” according to a press release on the plan.

But addiction experts and advocates for people who use drugs say the move could nonetheless have unintended consequences, and negatively affect people who struggle with addiction and lack access to housing, health care or other support systems.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers on Monday agreed on a $310.8 billion budget spending plan that will reduce investment in fighting climate change and a compromise on the governor’s last-minute proposal to speed up infrastructure projects represents throughout California.

The 2023-24 budget deal, which lawmakers will vote on in a series of bills this week, ends weeks of power struggles among Democrats that began after the governor introduced a package of infrastructure legislation at the end of the budget process, including easing his highly controversial one Approve plan to build a $16 billion tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to carry water south.

Newsom last week threatened to veto lawmakers’ budget priorities unless they approve his infrastructure plan. The two sides eventually reached an agreement that removes the Delta Tunnel project from the package but retains measures to reduce delays in other major projects due to legal challenges under California environmental law.

“In the face of ongoing global economic uncertainty, this budget increases our fiscal discipline by increasing our fiscal reserves to a record $38 billion while preserving historic investments in public education, health care, climate and public safety,” Newsom said in a statement announcing the deal late Monday night.

California’s budget deficit has complicated negotiations in the Capitol, where financial analysts expect tax revenues to fall nearly $32 billion short of funding for state programs.

The governor and leaders of the Democratic-led Legislature agreed to defer nearly $8 billion in spending, including an allocation of $550 million to build facilities for transitional and full-time kindergarten programs. Lawmakers and the governor agreed on another $8 billion in cuts, such as a $750 million payment to the federal government for COVID-related unemployment insurance debt.

The deficit marks a new era of economic challenges for California that could prevent Newsom from delivering on his expensive policy promises in his second term. The current agreement aims to maintain funding for Newsom’s key programs, including extending Medi-Cal eligibility to all immigrants regardless of legal status, while maintaining $37.8 billion in reserves.

Here’s what you need to know about six key areas of the 2023-24 budget spending plan, which comes into effect on July 1:

An uproar over infrastructure

Newsom’s plan to streamline the process of building infrastructure in California was the most controversial policy proposal in the budget negotiations.

The agreement includes a transformation of the state’s groundbreaking California Environmental Quality Act by reducing the possibility of lengthy legal challenges to major infrastructure projects. Environmental law requires an assessment of potential environmental impacts before a project is approved, but is also used strategically by environmental organizations, project opponents, and others to thwart or alter construction projects.

Some environmentalists objected to the hasty nature of the governor’s plan, claiming that he was attempting to weaken California’s environmental laws and protections without adequate time for political scrutiny and public comment.

Opponents of the controversial underground tunnel used to transport water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California emerged victorious from the budget compromise.

Former Sierra Club director Kathryn Philips last week called Newsom’s proposal an “environmental nightmare” and said it would “decimate one of North America’s largest estuaries”.

Though Newsom and environmental groups often disagree, it’s rare for Democrats in the Capitol to openly criticize the governor. Last week, a bipartisan group of 10 lawmakers sent a letter to Newsom outlining their reasons for rejecting the proposal, including that building the tunnel would have profound health and environmental impacts in three counties: Sacramento, San Joaquin and Contra Costa.

Several other Democratic lawmakers publicly criticized Newsom during the legislative hearings for trying to get such critical legislation through the budget process at the last minute.

Newsom eventually agreed to remove the tunnel from the list of optimized infrastructure projects, according to several sources involved in the negotiations. Lawmakers also successfully urged that the state must seek to reduce impacts on disadvantaged communities in the final agreement.

More money for healthcare providers

Physicians and other medical providers have long argued that low reimbursement rates for services limit access to health care for nearly 16 million Californians, or one-third of the state’s population, who are covered by federally subsidized health insurance.

With the support of a broad coalition of physicians, community health centers, hospitals and unions, Newsom and lawmakers agreed to renew a tax on managed healthcare organizations, known as the MCO tax, to fund Medi-Cal at a time when the state is expanding the pool of eligibility. The tax is expected to generate $19.4 billion in government revenue from 2023 to 2027.

The budget provides for the first increases in reimbursement rates in more than two decades in some cases, and provides a faster timeframe for disbursing the money than Newsom proposed in May.

Legislatures and the governor are allocating $2.7 billion annually for rate increases and other investments from 2025 through 2029, including $1.65 billion for primary and specialty rate increases. The deal also includes $555 million for emergency and inpatient services and $300 million for behavioral health beds.

Although the deal represents a victory for some providers, Sen. Carolyn Menjivar (D-Panorama City) questioned why clinics serving the poorest communities were not consulted in the final negotiations.

“It was a little frustrating how the MCO breakdown came about, or what the final outcome of that was, and who got involved in the talks about who gets a piece of the pie,” she said at a legislative hearing Monday night.

Slight reduction in future efforts to combat climate change

Newsom last year praised the state’s $54 billion in investments in climate programs, but in May proposed cutting it by $6 billion as the deficit became more apparent.

Ultimately, Democrats reached a compromise, agreeing to $51.4 billion for climate programs.

The agreement will provide more than $1 billion for coastal resilience and clean energy programs and will return nearly $300 million to the State Coastal Conservancy.

Public transport funding restored

The final agreement reverses the governor’s call for a $2 billion cut in public transit after extensive lobbying by city transit authorities and Democratic lawmakers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The deal totals $5.1 billion for transit over four years.

In anticipation of possible future cuts, Democratic lawmakers on Monday unveiled a separate plan that would increase tolls on seven state-owned bridges in the Bay Area by $1.50, by about $180 million annually from 2024-2028. generate dollars.

Money for the reconstruction of a prison

The agreement Newsom has reached with lawmakers will kick-start his comprehensive plan to revitalize San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitation-focused facility and officially begin the process of renaming it the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Despite early opposition from lawmakers who opposed Newsom’s proposal and criticism from the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office that the plan lacked necessary details, the final budget includes what the governor had aimed for: about $380 million for the Reconstruction of certain parts of San Quentin. The plan calls for the prison to be completely transformed into a Norwegian-style facility focused on vocational training and other programs to better prepare individuals for rehabilitation, thereby reducing recidivism.

San Quentin’s transformation builds on Newsom’s multi-year initiative to overhaul the state’s criminal justice system, which he began in 2019 with an executive order that temporarily halted the death penalty and closed the prison’s execution chamber.

Lawmakers have also negotiated an agreement with the administration that will give the state Police Training and Standards Committee more time to comply with part of a law passed in 2021 that introduces a decertification process for officers who commit misconduct.

An increase in state funding for child care

The current agreement includes a big win for low-income families who receive government support to fund childcare.

Currently, families earning more than 40% of the state median income are required to pay a monthly childcare fee that ranges from $36 to almost $600 — up to 10% of their income. For example, a family of four earning $6,950 a month would pay $518 a month in family fees. These fees were waived during the pandemic but were scheduled to resume on October 1.

The current budget agreement would waive fees for all families earning less than 75% of the state median income and cap all fees for families earning more at 1% of monthly income.

However, the agreement does not authorize the legislature’s target of a $1 billion increase in home childcare rates over 2023-24. Instead, a total of $2.8 billion will be approved to fund payment increases across all childcare and preschool providers over a two-year period. The details are the subject of ongoing collective bargaining with the Child Care Providers Union, which represents California’s 40,000 child care providers at home.

Contributors to this report were employees Hannah Wiley and Jenny Gold, and Sacramento Bureau chief Laurel Rosenhall.

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People fishing in Elk Slough in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta near Courtland.

To paraphrase Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry in the 1973 classic Magnum Force, a governor must know his limits.

Even a governor with little political opposition and a very friendly, usually cooperative legislature has limits to power.

This time Governor Gavin Newsom may have found his limits. Key lawmakers are fighting back against his late-introduced law to expedite construction of a highly controversial water tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

As is his pattern, Newsom attempts to squeeze through legislation at the last minute, denying lawmakers and the public adequate time to evaluate and discuss the proposal. This really gets on the nerves of lawmakers, whether they are leaders or backbenchers.

“It feels disrespectful to him [legislative] process,” said State Senator Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, at a Senate committee hearing on the governor’s proposal this month.

“To try to do something like this at the last minute on such a controversial issue is so inappropriate,” said Rep. Carlos Villapudua, D-Stockton.

Newsom waited until May 19 to propose outline infrastructure legislation for lawmakers to pass within five weeks as part of the annual state budget. What he proposes has nothing to do with the budget. But he can hold lawmakers’ favorite budget items hostage to their votes for his proposal

Newsom proposed a sweeping package of 11 bills that would facilitate the construction of clean energy, transportation and water projects, including the Delta Tunnel.

This would be achieved essentially by reducing environmental protection. Lawsuits filed under the California Environmental Quality Act of 1970 would have to be completed within 270 days unless a judge determines it is impracticable. Such lawsuits can drag on for years.

Governors have tried for six decades to build this project in some form, but have been repulsed by grassroots activists or state voters.

The delta is California’s most important water hub, serving 27 million people and irrigating 3 million hectares.

“It’s the backbone of our state’s water system,” says Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the state agency for natural resources. “We have borrowed time at the Delta. It is highly vulnerable to saltwater intrusion and is at risk of sea rise as a result of climate change. And there is a risk of earthquakes.

Project opponents — particularly Delta residents, including farmers — claim that future saltwater intrusion is one reason the tunnel should not be built. It would siphon water from the fresher northern delta before it could flow through the saltier southern end, as it does now, pushing back the salt water intruding from San Francisco Bay.

The saltier water would be disastrous for Stockton, smaller Delta communities and agriculture, opponents say.

In terms of earthquake risk, no earthquake has ever damaged a dike in the delta and there are no major faults under the estuary. Anyway, couldn’t a major tremor damage an underground tunnel?

The fishing industry and boaters fear that reducing freshwater flow through the delta will decimate salmon stocks and exacerbate toxic algae that clog waterways in summer.

Villapudua authored a letter to Newsom and lawmakers, signed by 10 lawmakers from both parties, asking for the tunnel project to be removed from the governor’s package.

“It wasn’t very wise to include the delta,” says Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, a former natural resources secretary who helped persuade the then-governor to consider the delta. Jerry Brown’s failed twin tunnel project.

“A $16 billion project like [the tunnel] is likely to have a significant impact on a large, ecologically sensitive and important area. Something of this magnitude should not be rushed through an environmental assessment process.”

Oh yeah. The Cost: Virtually everyone knows that the price for this 45-mile, 39-foot-wide tunnel would be much higher than advertised. And so far there isn’t even any funding for it. Water users would pay.

Newsom should listen to Dirty Harry.

George Skelton is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday released a campaign video that took him to the streets of San Francisco to use the city’s homelessness problem to smear California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

The one-minute spot shows DeSantis in San Francisco after a visit during which the Republican presidential candidate said he saw people using heroin, smoking “crack cocaine” and “defeating on the streets.”

“The city isn’t alive anymore,” says DeSantis. “It’s really collapsed because of left-wing politics, and those politics have caused people to flee that area. They don’t go after criminals like most parts of the country and the destruction is really sad to see.”

“It just shows you that guidelines matter. leadership is important. You’re doing something wrong here,” he adds.

DeSantis also took action against Newsom, saying the troubles in San Francisco are one reason so many people are moving from California to Florida.

DeSantis and Newsom have been at odds for a year, with the California governor running ads in Florida last year denouncing the Republican for his policies, which he says target LGBTQ rights, voting rights and abortion, among other things.

“Republican leaders — they ban books, make voting harder, restrict free speech in classrooms, and even criminalize women and doctors. I urge you all to join the fight or join us in California where we still believe in freedom,” Newsom said in the ad, which aired on Fox News.

For his part, the Florida governor has shown that he sees Newsom and California as worthy opponents for boosting his own national image. With the new video on Newsom’s terrain, which was created during a DeSantis fundraising trip to California, he followed up again.

Proposed rule requires railroads to notify first responders within 10 miles of derailments. Abortion rights group presents first recommendations for 2024

DeSantis made donation stops in Sacramento and the Bay Area on Monday. The governor was scheduled to attend fundraisers in San Diego, Orange County and Los Angeles on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Newsom said last week he would be debating DeSantis, and DeSantis responded back, telling Newsom to “stop babbling around” about running for president in 2024.

California is the most populous state in the country and also has the estimated largest homeless population in the country.

Copyright 2023 Nextstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to introduce a sweeping bill of laws and sign an executive order Friday to facilitate the construction of transportation, clean energy, water and other infrastructure across California. This step is intended to capitalize on a cash injection from the Biden government to promote climate-friendly construction projects.

The proposal aims to shorten the procurement process for bridge and water projects, limit environmental litigation deadlines, and simplify approval of complicated developments in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and elsewhere.

Overall, administration officials hope the package could accelerate project construction by more than three years and cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars – efforts they say are needed to meet the state’s aggressive climate goals.

Newsom unveiled the proposal Thursday at an event in Sacramento, calling it “the most ambitious streamlining, licensing and judicial reform in our state in half a century.”

“This is a profound moment,” Newsom said.

Newsom is expected to formally release his 11-bill bill plan at a Friday morning news conference in Stanislaus County.

Administration officials said they want to integrate the package into the 2023-24 state budget, which has to be passed by both houses of the legislature by June 15. Lawmakers are currently negotiating the final details of the budget with Newsom’s office.

At the heart of Newsom’s plan is the California Environmental Quality Act — a polarizing 1970 statute that supposedly helps preserve the state’s natural beauty but is often criticized for putting needed housing, energy and transportation projects in litigation blocked.

The proposal makes no significant changes to the law, which requires officials, agencies and developers to fully consider and publicize a project’s impact on the existing environment. Rather, it seeks to limit the length of time that CEQA lawsuits can drag on in court.

The proposal aims to prevent lawsuits against certain projects in the water, transport, clean energy, semiconductor and microelectronics sectors from lasting more than nine months.

Eligible projects include the governor’s $16 billion plan to build a tunnel to transport water to southern California under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, water recycling and desalination plants, solar arrays, offshore wind farms and power transmission, according to government officials .

The idea is similar to existing practices that have helped speed construction of NBA arenas in San Francisco and Sacramento, as well as other major projects across the state.

Additional CEQA changes in the plan would give government agencies more control over deciding what is needed in a project’s official administrative records, overturning a recent Court of Appeals decision that required the inclusion of internal emails in those records. The litigation over the e-mail issue related to a large residential and commercial development in San Diego County lasted almost two years after it was approved.

For decades there have been debates about speeding up the state’s sluggish process of building critical infrastructure. Major reforms often foundered in the thicket of environmental, development, local government, and labor interests influential in the Capitol. Newsom said Thursday his administration had made an organized effort to get advocacy groups on board.

Gayle Miller, deputy director for policy at the state Treasury Department, told The Times that the plan offers a “sound approach” to addressing CEQA.

“We are not trying to destroy our environmental protection in California. But we’re definitely trying to say enough is enough,” Miller said. “We must move forward and transition the state to its clean energy future.”

Newsom said it’s important to make changes now because there is a projected $180 billion in state and federal funding available for infrastructure in California over the next decade, an amount increased by allocations from the President Biden-signed Infrastructure and climate change legislation is increased.

“It’s one of the most significant investments in California history,” Newsom said. “The only thing standing in our way is the world we invent.”

To kick-start this process, Newsom is expected to sign an executive order directing various government agencies to work together and form an infrastructure attack team, which will theoretically take care of projects that need to be completed and make sure they get to their destination come line.

The newly available federal money also includes many clean energy grants and other competitive grants. For California to win, it must show the federal government it can deliver, the governor said.

Newsom, a Democrat, said those investments would be at risk if talks in Washington about raising the debt limit collapsed.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) said Republicans would agree to raise the limit only if Biden agreed to roll back certain provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which include ambitious climate plans and funding for infrastructure projects.

“If Kevin McCarthy has his way, that’s going to set us back,” Newsom said Thursday. “What he promotes would have a devastating effect on our progress.”

Other elements of the Newsom package would remove contractual barriers that government agencies encounter when starting and completing their projects.

Newsom wants to allow the State Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Transportation to use a more flexible contracting process for up to eight complex projects each, which could streamline construction and reduce logistical issues that cause delays. Another proposal would allow the transportation department to use a simpler contracting model that could shave months off a project’s schedule.

Departments could use these streamlining tactics to build bridges more quickly, upgrade dams, repair aqueducts, or maintain the state’s highway system. The package would also expedite three planned wildlife crossings along Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County.

The final part of Newsom’s plan would streamline Caltrans’ conservation efforts and approval of projects that affect endangered species or are in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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