ENCINITAS, Calif. — Democratic U.S. Representative Mike Levin held a forum Wednesday night in the North County on climate change. It comes as San Diego finishes cleaning up the mess left behind by its first tropical storm in decades.
“For the first time since 1939, we had a tropical storm warning in the state of California,” Levin reiterated. “We can’t wait. We can’t delay. We can’t keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Levin made his stop in Encinitas, marking his 102nd town hall since taking office, centering the discussion around climate and solutions. One stemmed from federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act — a $370 billion investment in renewable energy.
“It’s the biggest climate bill in the history of the United States, the history of any country and a dramatic investment in reducing our emissions,” Levin said.
San Diegans in North County lined up at the town hall to discuss what matters most to them. One being Leslie Gomez. She says she has seen major changes along the coastline since she moved to the area in the 1960s.
“The changes in our weather, our humidity, and our climate, the deterioration along the coast,” Gomez said.
It’s something Levin said he’s addressing by using funds to add more sand along the beach while working to move coastal train tracks inland due to eroding bluffs.
“We have to do more up and down the coast because we know our beaches our eroding, our bluffs have collapsed, and I’m doing everything I can to secure the rail corridor connecting San Diego to L.A. The second busiest rail corridor in the U.S.”
Many who attended are part of an organization called California Environmental Voters. Mike Young helps run the group and says the time to act is now.
“It’s really feeling intense wildfires, massive floods, now a hurricane…This isn’t just the hottest year that we’ve had, this may be the coolest year that we will have,” Young said.
Levin is once again trying to push a bill that would ban oil drilling off the coast. It’s something he attempted back in 2021 before it failed to reach the finish line.
