My-turn

Amee Raval and Sona Mohnot, Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Greenlining Institute: Simply put: climate change acts as a threat multiplier that magnifies differences in income, race, health, zip codes, immigration status, housing, and other factors that determine whether a community can access the resources needed to cope and recover from climate disasters.

Jennifer Pierre, State Water Contractors: California needs to reshape how it manages the rivers of the Sierra Nevada and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by providing more water for the environment, more restoration, more funding and more collaborative science. That can happen through voluntary partnerships, not Senate Bill 1, which seeks to tap into public sentiment against President Trump without solving California’s water war.

John McManus, Golden Gate Salmon Association: Gov. Gavin Newsom has a choice: side with the California environment or with the Trump administration on the question of water diversions. Trump is finalizing plans to rip up restrictions on diverting Northern California water to farmers in the dry western San Joaquin Valley, at the expense of salmon runs that feed families, coastal economies, and ports throughout the state.

Joie Acosta and Regina Shih, RAND Corporation: California utility companies are increasingly triggering power outages by their own accord to try to prevent wildfires. But the practice may endanger elderly people and individuals with power-dependent medical devices.

Maurice Hall, Environmental Defense Fund: This amazing natural underground storage is the critical foundation of our entire water system. Water from our rivers and streams leaks into the aquifer. If we don’t manage groundwater pumping, levels of groundwater as well as rivers and streams will decline, compromising the wildlife, farms and cities that depend on them.

Assemblyman Adam Gray, Democrat from Merced: The implications of Senate Bill 1 are profoundly disturbing, forcing the state to ignore evolving science. We’ve got until Sept. 13 to either kill or fix this wrongheaded bill. If we don’t, it very well could set back progress on our rivers for decades.

Dustin Weatherby, California Taxpayers Association. Thanks to a transparency law passed by a bipartisan vote, taxpayers receive important information about local tax and bond measures. But there’s a legislative attempt to effectively exempt local jurisdictions from this requirement to be honest and transparent with taxpayers.

Jared Martin, California Association of Realtors: If our state is to continue leading the nation, we must address the housing shortage with policies that will actually lead to more housing. Simply put, a rent cap would be a bandage on a festering wound and would nothing to solve the root cause of higher rents.

Joseph Sanberg, Working Hero Action: Poverty is a threat to our economy, security, and human potential, and it’s an issue politicians on stages large and small have avoided. That needs to end. Poverty must take center stage at the Houston debate Sept. 12 because it is a challenge our next President must not ignore.

Liz Helms, California Chronic Care Coalition: California congressional delegation needs to act in unison to protect patients against surprise medical bills.