Voices: River City

This episode was originally published for patrons on 4.22.2021. We were joined by Aaron Ziemer of Sunrise Sacramento to discuss the confluence of labor and climate justice. Last spring a bill to end fracking--a practice Governor Gavin Newsom claimed he was against as recently as September 2020, before going silent in the early days of the recall effort--died in the state Senate's Natural Resources and Water Committee, with key Democrats refusing to cast their votes. One of those senators was Bob Hertzberg, who screamed at Sacramento City Councilmember Katie Valenzuela last session when she rose in support of a bill to create buffer zones around wells (a provision also included on this fracking bill). Why do these Democrats hate fighting climate change? We know Newsom was responding to the recall effort. But others are fearful of stepping on the toes of building trades labor groups, which formed an unholy alliance with Big Oil in recent years. Then there's the money. The state Democratic Chair Rusty Hicks t