California has been leading the Democrats’s so-called “Resistance” against the Trump administration. But now Governor Jerry Brown wants President Donald Trump to exempt the Golden State from a new offshore drilling plan.
Gov. Brown and Attorney General Xavier Becerra have fought nearly every single major Trump administration policy, and have held out California’s liberal policies as an alternative model for America to follow. The state is even considering converting state taxes into charitable contributions for wealthy taxpayers to avoid Trump’s new tax reforms, which cap state ant local tax (SALT) deductions at $10,000.
California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff has been a leading voice pushing theories of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — and a suspected source for mainstream media stories about congressional investigations.
And California Democrats are also leading calls for Trump’s impeachment, with billionaire Tom Steyer plowing tens of millions of dollars into the effort.
Through all of those fights, the Trump administration has delivered federal aid to California where needed, as in the flooding and fires of 2017.
But now Brown and his administration want special treatment — the same favor that was bestowed upon Republican-led Florida earlier this week, when Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced that the Sunshine State would be exempt from a new policy proposal to open oil and gas drilling and exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf.
“We’re certainly going to ask for that. They’ve set the precedent in Florida and we’ll try to get” the exemption, Brown told a press conference Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee.
Other California leaders, such as Becerra, also weighed in.
California’s state government has opposed offshore drilling for nearly 50 years, despite the presence of lucrative fossil fuel deposits, following an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1969.
Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has also asked Trump to exempt his state.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named to Forward’s 50 “most influential” Jews in 2017. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.