California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the highest-ranking US official to attend the COP30 summit in Brazil, told delegates here that a Trump administration plan to open the California coast for drilling will only happen “over our dead body, full stop.”
Newsom, who is stirring speculation about a 2028 bid for the White House, spent his day in Belém touring a riverside sustainable agriculture lab, signing a partnership with German officials to collaborate on nuclear power and other clean tech, and addressing a crowd of delegates from US city governments and universities about the importance of subnational climate leadership.
In addition to condemning the offshore drilling plan, Newsom said it is vital for Democrats to reframe the climate debate as an economic issue, with a focus on jobs and energy affordability. Trump “is doubling down on stupid and trying to vandalize our progress,” he said. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, “is singing [Trump’s] praises, and flooding the zone on the great economic opportunity in the transition to clean energy. We won’t allow that to happen.”