He isn’t the only politician talking about affordability and clean energy as if they’re in conflict. As Sacramento Democrats gear up for a legislative session focused on cost-of-living issues — including gasoline and electricity prices — Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) has vowed that California “will continue to lead on climate, but not on the backs of poor and working people,” per this story by Politico’s Wes Venteicher.
That kind of rhetoric is unfortunate because it hides the costs of oil and gas that we tend to ignore, or to accept as inevitable: higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, cancer and deaths; infrastructure damage from heat waves; more dangerous storms and sea level rise driven by climate change; and exposure to global oil and gas markets that can be manipulated or thrown into chaos by political adversaries such as Russia.