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We’ve been here before. Even the players are the same.

When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, his preferred sparring partner was California. The state’s ambitious environmental policies have often clashed with the president’s promise to “drill, baby drill for oil» and master Californian regulations.

It’s now California versus Trump, 2.0 – and the stakes are pretty much the same. Candidate Trump threatened to dismantle numerous environmental programs and gut federal regulatory agencies on his first day in office.

Although California proclaims its exceptionalism and touts its environmental policies as examples for the rest of the nation, the Golden State is just that, a state – not a nation-state. It counts on assistance, funding and partnership from the federal government for major initiatives.

California’s massive water projects, its authority to clean its air, federal support for offshore wind power and aid for wildfires all depend on cooperation with the new Trump administration.

On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom called for a extraordinary legislative session to fund California’s legal defense against efforts “to undermine California’s laws and policies.” Newsom wants to boost funding for the state Department of Justice and other agencies to move quickly through the courts to pushing back against a series of anticipated actions by Trumpincluding those related to air quality and climate change.

The good news for California, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor and director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, is that the first Trump administration “lost 83 percent of its lawsuits involving attempts to roll back environmental regulations.”

It’s unclear whether California can “Trump-proof” itself and fend off four more years of assault on its environmental efforts, but lawmakers say they’re ready to fight.

“We learned a lot about former President Trump during his first term: he is petty, vindictive and will do what it takes to get what he wants, even if his policies are dangerous,” said Senate President Pro Tem. Mike McGuirea Democrat from Santa Rosa, said in a statement.

Here are some of the key environmental policies at play in California:

Federal disaster funds for California wildfires

Trump has never been short of advice to California on how the state should handle its ever-increasing threat of wildfires.

As president, while visiting the burned-out husk of Paradise, a city destroyed in 2018, Trump suggested raking its 33 million acres of forested land to reduce fuel buildup. It was particularly year of destructive fire: 8,000 fires, 2 million acres burned, 24,000 structures destroyed and 100 people killed.

Two years later, Trump threatened to suspend federal fire assistance because he said the state deliberately did not follow his advice to “clean its floors.”

And last month during an election rally he made another threat to suspend fire aid if he was re-elected. Trump chastised Newsom for failing to properly manage the state’s water supplies and said that if the governor didn’t toe the line, “we won’t give any of the fire money that we send to you all the time for all the fires, the wildfires you have.” . It’s not difficult to do.

Whether Trump’s remarks are intended as a warning or to inflame the crowd, it is sobering: Presidents have the power to refuse or delay sending emergency aid to states.

Despite this bluster, California has so far largely received the help it requested in fighting wildfires. Even at the height of Newsom’s feud with then-President Trump over wildfires and pandemic aid, federal aid arrived.

“There is not a single phone call I have made to the president that he has not responded promptly,” Newsom said in 2020. “And in almost every case, he responded favorably in terms of meeting the emergency needs of the state. »

Brian Rice, president of California Professional Firefighters, the state’s largest firefighting organization, said disaster aid should not be politicized.

“If you live in California, you need to be concerned about this,” Rice said. “Will the 47th President of the United States Deny Federal Disaster Assistance to the State of California?”. It’s difficult to understand. What if we had an earthquake, what if we had mudslides? It’s one of those things that should be left aside.