I don’t know if you saw the big news last week, but California just became the first U.S. state requiring all new homes to include solar panels starting in 2020.

This. Is. HUGE.

There is no faster, easier and common sense way for Californians to reach our climate goal of 100% renewables than by solarizing every new home built across our state. At the same time, we can tax oil and gas extraction like every other oil producing state and discourage fossil fuel use even further.  

For context, about 80,000 new houses get built statewide each year. Currently, less than 20% of those include solar panels. This law will make a giant dent in our state’s greenhouse gas emissions. It will also greatly lower people’s utility bills, since families will be generating most of their power from their rooftops.

If we’re serious about leading the world to 100% renewable energy use, this is the sort of bold strategy we need to adopt. As the two-term Mayor of Richmond, Calif., I pushed to successfully institute a similar, people-powered approach to clean energy.    

During my time leading Richmond’s government, we created a nationally acclaimed green jobs training program in 2010 that resulted in more solar installations per capita than anywhere in the Bay Area.  

We also put forward a local Climate Action Plan and green building ordinance, and helped build more bicycle paths, all of which contributed to cutting our city’s emissions. Beyond that, I helped Richmond join the regional community choice utility, Marin Clean Energy, which provides 85% of our residents and businesses with greener and less expensive electricity. All this in a city with a major oil refinery looming on our shoreline!

We showed that urban communities know how to fight back against the oil industry and be a leading example of the kind of renewable future that is needed on our planet.

As California Lt. Governor, I’ll push our state to do even more. That is why I’m calling for a 9.5% extraction tax on the value of all oil and natural gas drilled in our state, which would raise more than $1.5 billion annually to further expand our use of renewables. Please sign this petition demanding that California legislators implement the extraction tax.  

And please support my people-powered campaign for Lt. Governor, so we can bring even stronger climate action to Sacramento!