22August 2020
LOS ANGELES, CA– As disastrous wildfires damage California, lots of lawmakers are calling for a federal examination into claims that the Trump administration poorly rejected or postponed help to California wildfire victims out of spite.
Miles Taylor, previous chief of personnel at the Department of Homeland Security, sparked a political firestorm recently when he declared that President Donald Trump when ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cut off help to California wildfire victims due to the fact that the Golden State is “not part of his political base.” A letter signed by 26 of California's members of Congress Friday called for a federal examination into the allegations. Taylor's charge comes as California grapples with hundreds of brush fires, consisting of the 2nd and 3rd largest wildfires in state history. The unmatched variety of wildfires is stretching state resources beyond capacity, requiring California firemens to ask other states and countries for firefighting assistance. Cal Fire teams are fighting the second biggest fire in state history with less than a 3rd of the firemens they had to fight the state's worst wildfire two years ago. At least 6 individuals have died in the wildfires currently burning across the state, and nearly 1 million acres have actually burned in California since July.
With a lot at stake, the politics surrounding wildfires is heating up. At the Democratic National Convention last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked Trump's comprehension of the issue. The next day at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump, again, blamed California for the wildfires and threatened to withhold federal cash– something he has actually done throughout the previous two years.
“I see once again the forest fires are starting,” he stated. “They're starting again in California. I stated, ‘You got ta tidy your floors, you got ta tidy your forests– there are numerous, several years of leaves and damaged trees and they're like, like, so flammable, you touch them and it increases.'”
He included, “Maybe we're just going to have to make them spend for it since they don't listen to us.”
Newsom addressed the Democratic National Convention Thursday live from a California forest a brief range from the fires. The fires, he said, are proof of the devastation brought on by climate change. He knocked inaction surrounding the problem, and criticized the president's politicization of the crisis.
“Just today, the president of the United States threatened the state of California– 40 million Americans take place to live here in the state of California– to defund our efforts in wildfire suppression since he stated we hadn't raked enough leaves,” said Newsom. “You can't make that up.”
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, followed up on Friday by requiring the investigation into allegations that the federal government incorrectly rejected or postponed aid to California wildfire victims.Lieu's letter
to DHS Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari mentions that, “It is important that decisions associated with catastrophe help be free from improper political interference. Our constituents have suffered gravely from these fires and deserve to know whether any improper or illegal habits has actually happened … the idea that the President made decisions about disaster assistance based upon the political preferences of disaster victims is alarming and brings with it possible legal ramifications. As such, we ask for an examination into whether any improper or illegal habits has actually occurred with concerns to California wildfire assistance.”
If Trump has withheld aid to California for political reasons, he's probably not the first president to do so.
“People have actually done studies and found that federal government disaster declarations tend to be biased toward states that have actually supported the individual in workplace,” stated Adam Rose, a research study professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy.
When it concerns the politics of wildfires, it's actually about international warming, he said.
There are three factors they contribute in California's wildfires, said Rose. There is the issue of sprawl and encroachment on forest areas, and there's the failure of utility companies to maintain or monitor equipment. But the primary factor is environment change, he said.
“It's scrambling the weather condition, he said. “There are going to be more extremes of rainfall.”
A year of severe rainfall will cause a lot of new growth just to be followed by drought -years, which leaves the state with great deal of dead new growth.
“If you do not want to confess environment modification is a significant cause then you divert attention to somewhere else,” said Rose. “You move the blame to the states for the failure at the federal level.”
The strategy is unlikely to serve Republicans well in California, however it might work for on the national level, stated Rose.
It helps in those other states that love to hate California, he said.
City News Service contributed to this report.