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While California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blame this week’s devastating wildfires on climate change or claim that they did all they could to prepare, the evidence tells a different story. Their focus on a woke, climate-driven agenda has come at the expense of practical, effective wildfire prevention measures. The result? Lives lost, homes destroyed, and a state left unprepared.

Mismanagement of Forests and Water Resources

Decades of forest mismanagement have created a dangerous tinderbox across California. Overgrown vegetation, deadwood, and excess fuel such as dried leaves and fallen branches have accumulated unchecked, turning forests into powder kegs.

Proactive measures like thinning trees, controlled burns, and vegetation management have been deprioritized due to excessive regulations and litigation driven by environmental groups. Newsom’s administration has compounded the problem by slashing budgets for fire prevention and delaying critical water infrastructure projects.

Firefighters in Los Angeles battled this year’s blazes with insufficient water resources, a failure directly tied to Newsom’s inaction. Billions of dollars allocated for new reservoirs remain unspent while the state’s aging water infrastructure struggles to meet the growing demand. Bass worsened the situation by cutting $17.5 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department budget, all while jetting off to Ghana during peak wildfire season. These decisions reflect a troubling detachment from the practical needs of Californians.

Ideological Influence

The root of these failures lies in an ideological agenda that prioritizes performative politics over governance. Newsom’s Green New Deal-inspired energy policies have worsened California’s wildfire crisis by misallocating resources and overregulating essential infrastructure. Meanwhile, activists oppose vital measures like logging, controlled burns, and timber sales, labeling them as environmentally harmful. This shortsightedness ignores the essential role these practices play in preventing catastrophic fires.

California’s progressive leadership has also diverted resources away from wealthier neighborhoods under the guise of “antiracism,” a move that leaves all communities at greater risk. Instead of prioritizing public safety, they’ve fixated on initiatives like increasing diversity quotas and combating climate change—efforts that create more problems than they solve and do little to address the immediate threat of wildfires.

A Strained Insurance Market

Losses from recent wildfires are estimated to exceed $150 billion. Alas, insurers offering policies in the future will be hard to find. In recent years, their requests to increase premiums to reflect the soaring wildfire risk were denied by state regulators. Many left the state. And as they did, the burden has fallen on the state’s Fair Plan, a last-resort insurer now overwhelmed by surging policies. The lack of investment in fire prevention only exacerbates this problem, threatening the long-term affordability and availability of coverage in high-risk areas.

Federal and State Failures

California’s wildfire crisis isn’t solely a state-level failure. The federal government, which oversees much of California’s forestland, has also fallen short under the Biden administration. Effective wildfire mitigation requires state and federal cooperation, yet both levels of government have neglected their responsibilities.

By contrast, the previous Trump administration took decisive action with Executive Order 13855, promoting active forest management to reduce wildfire risks. This approach emphasized thinning, timber sales, and reducing regulatory barriers—practical solutions that California desperately needs to revisit.

Strengthening state-federal partnerships and encouraging public-private collaborations could provide the comprehensive strategy required to protect lives and property.

A Call for Responsible Leadership

California’s leadership crisis is not just about incompetence—it’s about priorities. Leaders like Newsom and Bass have chosen ideological distractions over practical governance, leaving millions of Californians vulnerable to preventable disasters. Their failures on wildfire prevention, water management, and public safety underscore the need for a new approach.

Californians deserve leaders who prioritize solutions over slogans. Proactive forest management, modernized water infrastructure, and adequate funding for first responders are not optional—they are essential. It’s time to reject ideology and demand practical, forward-looking leadership that protects lives and property.