Trump vs. California: The Midterm Scorecard

For once, we at CP&DR kind of know how CNN feels. We have our slow news weeks at CP&DR. But, ever since Donald Trump got back into office, we have rarely lacked for material to put into our weekly news briefs.

CP&DR doesn't generally cover federal politics. We do, though, when the federal government takes action directly involving California. In the 18 months since Trump took office, we have run over 30 items in our weekly news briefs referring to the Trump administration specifically (as opposed to more routine federal actions). That's an average of close to one per week.

Needless to say, Trump does not hesitate to tell the world what he likes and dislikes. Likes: beautiful women; tariffs. Dislikes: vegetables; the post-World War II global order. But few things under or beyond Trump's jurisdiction raise his ire as like California does. It's a "disaster." It's "out of control." And it contains and promotes so many other things he hates: renewable energy, greenhouse gas reductions, electric vehicles, public transit, fire suppression, high-speed rail.

And of course, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta, California's federal legislators, and other public officials are protesting, suing, proposing legislation, and otherwise trying to protect the state's sovereignty and interests. The fruits of their efforts remain to be seen.

Here are just a few of the ways in which the Trump administration has attacked California's environment, land uses, and related policies:

Most Brazen: Restraining the Coastal Commission Currently the administration is exploring ways to pre-empt the Coastal Commission's authority over water- and land-side development along California's coast. We're talking about oil drilling, desalination plants, rocket bases, and other facilities in which the federal government has an interest. For more than half a century, the commission's authority and the state's right to regulate its coast (under the federal Coastal Zone Management Act as well as state law) has been unquestioned--for better or worse--and has preserved what is arguably the state's greatest asset (as well as a headache for some developers). In essence, the coast may be federalized.

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Most Expansive: Killing the EPA Waiver & Fossil Fuels The administration's efforts to reduce the use of clean energy and promote fossil fuels are nationwide but have hit California especially hard. Actions include attempts to nullify California's EPA waiver -- one of the most successful anti-pollution efforts in history -- and restrict the use of the state's cap-and-invest funds. For good measure, the feds are investing $75 million into a controversial coal terminal at the Port of Oakland.

Most Nonsensical: Stopping Wind Farms The administration is nullifying around $2 billion worth of agreements for private companies -- capitalist enterprises! -- to develop large-scale wind farms off the coast. These are agreements that the state, which is nothing if not circumspect, had approved. California has lost investments, jobs, and clean energy all at once.

Most Predictable: Selling or Leasing Open Spaces Here is a surely incomplete list of the public lands and other open spaces that the administration has tried to sell, denude, or otherwise alter: 18 national forests (for a goal of 25% increase in timber production); roughly 300 endangered species habitats, which will lose many protections under a new, narrow definition of "harm"; 3.3 million acres across 11 western states, including parcels near California National Parks and throughout the Sierra Nevada range; several federal office buildings in San Francisco, including one named after Trump's favorite person: the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building.

Most Petty (tie): The Presidio and Eel River Dam Un-removal If Trump hates California, it's no wonder that he hates the most Californ-iest city: San Francisco. If there was a crisis at the Presidio--the former military facility in the northwest corner of the San Francisco Peninsula--San Franciscans didn't know about it. And yet, the Trump administration replaced the entire governing board and is threatening changes to what is currently a civic treasure and one of the country's best examples of civic-federal partnership.

Further afield, it's a wonder that the Trump administration has even heard of the Eel River. But, somehow, the modest waterway in Humboldt and Mendocino counties has two decrepit, obsolete dams that the administration considers of the utmost importance. The dams have been scheduled for decommissioning and removal, per a longstanding, intricately negotiated agreement between Pacific Gas & Electric and tribal, state, and county entities. The administration is convinced that the dams, and the mountains of silt behind them, can be resurrected. Or, maybe, it just can't stand the idea of replacing industrial blight with a natural landscape.

Most Chilling: Gilroy Detention Facility The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency has planned a detention facility near Gilroy where, if reports from other California ICE facilities are to be believed, unspeakable horrors may await detainees. ICE is claiming to be exempt from (or is simply ignoring) local land use regulation. The state and County of Santa Clara are suing.

The Exception: High Speed Rail So far, the federal government has put around $3 billion into High Speed Rail …and gotten little but delays, cost overruns, and empty viaducts in return. The feds canceled $4 billion in funding for the program. The action may have been biased, but perhaps they did not want to throw good money after bad.

California can count at least one blessing that the good people of Palm Beach, Fla., cannot: so far, Donald Trump has not renamed an airport after himself.