I’m guest hosting today’s Your Call, when we’ll start with a debrief on San Francisco’s election results with the reporting team of Mission Local – and look ahead to 2025.
Daniel Lurie assumes office as San Francisco’s 46th mayor on Jan. 8. He’ll arrive to find a $867 million budget deficit on his doorstep. And that could spike to $1 billion if Trump decides to withhold federal funds promised to the city.
Lurie beat out incumbent mayoral candidate London Breed by 10 percentage points in the second round of ranked choice voting. The new mayor-elect and Levi Strauss heir’s campaign was largely self-funded, and this will be his first time ever holding political office. So what glimpses has he shown the public so far of how he will govern?
Joining us will be Joe Eskenazi, managing editor for Mission Local, and Kelly Waldron, reporter at Mission Local.
Then later in the show, we’ll talk about about rising hunger and a drop in donations to Bay Area food banks. The leaders of 5 major food banks — San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, Second Harvest of Silicon Valley, Redwood Empire Food Bank and Alameda County Community Food Bank — held a joint press conference last week. Together, those organizations provided enough food for 270-million meals last year.
We’ll discuss with Lauren Lathan Reid, CEO of the California Association of Food Banks, and Liz Gomez, chief impact officer at the Alameda County Community Food Bank, and 2023 Bay Area Jefferson Award winner.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
I’m guest hosting today’s Your Call at 10am PT, when we’ll discuss what Donald Trump’s return to the White House means for US nuclear policy and worldwide anti-proliferation efforts.
The US has over 5,000 nuclear warheads, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Just one of those bombs could destroy a city. Trump’s allies want to build more.
Project 2025, the playbook led by the Heritage Foundation to guide Trump’s second term, recommends significantly ramping up the nation’s nuclear arsenal. It also wants Trump to pave the way to restart nuclear bomb testing in Nevada — something the US hasn’t done since 1992.
Our guest will be national security expert Joe Cirincione, who writes that we’re embarking on a new and dangerous nuclear era worldwide, one in which Trump will once again have “the unfettered ability to launch nuclear weapons whenever he wants, for whatever reason.”
Mr. Cirincione is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, former president of Ploughshares Fund, and author of “Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late.”
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live at 10am PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guest? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll hear from CLEE’s Louise Bedsworth and Isabel Rewick, both of whom took part in this year’s United Nations climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
AND we interview Assemblymember Damon Connolly, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, and Senator Scott Wiener about how new Trump administration policies might impact life here in the Bay Area.
PLUS, we’ll get advice from Luisa Smith of Book Passage on the perfect gift for the booklover on your holiday list.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Trump is promising to roll back the $7500 tax credit for electric vehicles. CBS News covered the story last night, where I talked about the potential impact:
I appeared on CBS News Bay Area last week talking about what the Trump administration might do to try to gut California’s electric vehicle requirements:
And a similar story on Monday from CBS News Sacramento:
Yesterday I appeared on two radio shows, now available for streaming or podcast download. First, on KQED Forum, I was on a panel discussing what climate efforts may look like during a Trump Administration, and how California will respond. Joining me was:
- Lisa Friedman, reporter on the climate desk, New York Times
- Jesse Jenkins, assistant professor, engineering, Princeton University
- Aru Shiney-Ajay, Executive Director, Sunrise movement, a grassroots organization of students and young people focused on climate change
You can stream it here.
Then last night I hosted State of the Bay on KALW, where I spoke to UC Berkeley Professor of Chemistry Omar Yaghi about a newly developed carbon-capturing material that has the potential to transform how we address climate change.
Then, we broke down local election results and discussed what they tell us about the priorities and concerns of Bay Area residents with San Francisco Chronicle opinion columnist and editorial writer, Emily Hoeven.
And finally, we talked with Rae Black of Oakland’s For the Win Boxing, a boxing gym that offers professional coaching for women and non-binary people who want to pursue “the sweet science” of boxing.
You can listen to that show here.
California will need a significant build-out of new high-voltage transmission lines to meet state goals for renewable energy deployment and a decarbonized grid by 2045, which requires quadrupling its current in-state solar and wind capacity. But if this new infrastructure is paid for solely through electricity rates, it could increase them significantly, when they have already increased roughly 50% over the past three years for investor-owned utility customers.
In response, UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) is releasing today the policy report Improving Transmission Financing in California: Alternative Models and Policy Strategies to Increase Affordability. It contains a variety of strategies available to policymakers for financing new high-voltage power transmission in California, with the dual goals of 1) reducing costs to ratepayers and 2) accelerating transmission development. The report was developed with the support of Net-Zero California and Clean Air Task Force.
Among the key findings:
- Some form of public-private partnership (P3) could provide significant benefits to deploying lower-cost transmission, due to cost-savings potential and the ability to leverage existing institutions and structures. A number of possibilities and considerations exist, and the form of P3 may depend on the particular transmission line, developers, and other project-specific circumstances.
- Policymakers could endow an existing entity with transmission financing and related P3 authorities, rather than create a new entity. Currently, California has multiple entities with at least some role in transmission. Creating a wholly new public entity, or endowing an existing agency, in California to finance and oversee transmission would entail administrative and procedural changes, which may be more significant for a new public entity.
- State leaders could focus on demonstrating alternative financing arrangements for four to six key transmission regions and lines in the California Independent System Operator’s 20-year transmission outlook that most stakeholders agree are essential. The Governor’s Office could designate a coordinator for high-priority lines and support a process to speed implementation and financing.
- State leaders could minimize risk for the entity or entities owning new transmission lines, including establishing a liability backstop and developing insurance, contract, indemnity, and first loss protection, and other mechanisms, subject to negotiation and legislation.
These and other findings, as well as more detail on selected financing options and their specific challenges, can be found in the new report.
To learn more, register for the CLEE webinar “Financing California’s Transmission Needs” on Wednesday, November 13, from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Pacific. Keynote remarks will be provided by:
- Le-Quyen Nguyen, Acting Senior Advisor for Energy for Governor Gavin Newsom
- Cliff Rechtschaffen, California Air Resources Board member and former California Public Utilities Commissioner
In addition, CLEE will discuss the report findings, along with representatives from Net Zero California, Clean Air Task Force, and DH Infrastructure.
For French speakers, here’s a new Radio-Canada/Canadian Broadcasting Corporation report on California’s high speed rail system, featuring an interview with moi:
Tonight on State of the Bay, local sports journalist Steve Berman from The Athletic will update us on the Niners, Warriors and other Bay area sports teams.
Then, we dig into California’s Prop 4, the $10 billion bond to fight climate change with a panel of experts. Is it worth your vote? Tune in and decide for yourself! Guests include:
- Ari Platcha from the Sacramento Bee
- Sarah Atkinson from SPUR
- Allison Chan from Save the Bay.
Finally, we’ll hear from celebrated local dancer and choreographer Micaya about the 26th annual SF International Hip Hop Dance Fest.
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
Tonight on State of the Bay, we’ll explore Sonoma County’s Measure J with Phil Barber, staff writer with The Press Democrat. Measure J aims to prohibit concentrated animal feeding operations, or large animal farms in Sonoma County. This contentious initiative could reshape the county’s environmental and economic future. What do farmers and residents stand to gain or lose?
We’ll also hear from Stanford climate scientist Rob Jackson about his new book, Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere, and the reasons he remains hopeful despite the climate crisis.
Later, we’ll talk with New York Times reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, co-authors of Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter. What has Musk’s takeover meant for free speech and the future of social media?
Tune in at 91.7 FM in the San Francisco Bay Area or stream live tonight at 6pm PT. What comments or questions do you have for our guests? Call 866-798-TALK to join the conversation!
