Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.
By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.
Please enter a valid email address.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Democratic Senator Jacky Rosen has spent nearly a decade in Washington, and the result? Nevada families are paying more at the pump, facing record-high grocery bills, and struggling to afford rent or buy a home in their own communities. Washington is supposed to be a place to fight for our people, to serve those who sent us there. But for Jacky Rosen, it’s a career destination where votes are cast to suit D.C.’s agenda, while Nevadans foot the bill.
Advertisement
Sen. Rosen has spent her years in Washington voting with Joe Biden 98% of the time and against President Trump 100% of the time.
Instead of representing Nevada, she’s aligned herself entirely with the Kamala Harris agenda, which has brought us runaway inflation, border chaos, and policies that leave working families behind. When Nevada needed a voice, Senator Rosen chose to toe the line with Biden and Harris, ignoring the struggles of families who are just trying to make ends meet.
SAM BROWN BEGINS TO CLOSE GAP WITH INCUMBENT SEN. JACKY ROSEN IN BATTLEGROUND NEVADA
I’m running for the Senate to serve the people of Nevada, not the career politicians in Washington. I know what’s at stake when D.C. forgets who they work for. Unlike my opponent, I’ve lived the challenges so many Nevadans face every day: working long hours, watching costs rise as paychecks stay the same, feeling like the American Dream is slipping further out of reach. We rightly feel a deep sense of betrayal when politicians don’t fulfill their promises and leave us behind—and that’s exactly what Jacky Rosen has done.
Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown attends a Hispanic roundtable with Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump at Beauty Society on October 12, 2024 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.(Ethan Miller)
Advertisement
After nearly eight years in office, Sen. Rosen has failed to address the issues that matter most to us. Instead of prioritizing Nevada’s needs, she’s aligned herself with Washington insiders and party agendas, and Nevadans have paid the price.
Take, for example, her stance on women’s sports—a straightforward issue of fairness and respect. Here in Nevada, we know what it means to compete on equal ground, which is why the young women on the UNR volleyball team recently took a stand. They’re fighting for their right to safe and fair competition, but Sen.Rosen won’t even acknowledge them. Instead of supporting these young women and their courage, she chooses to follow the political winds of Washington, which have no place in Nevada’s sense of fairness.
In fact, yes, Senator Jacky Rosen voted in favor of allowing men to compete in women’s sports. That’s not fairness; that’s a woke agenda, and it’s one that’s out of touch with the values of our state. I was proud to stand with the UNR volleyball team at their game, supporting their right to safety and privacy. We should all be willing to stand with our young women who have the courage to defend their rights.
SENATE HOPEFUL SAM BROWN, TULSI GABBARD SHOW SUPPORT FOR NEVADA WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM AMID SJSU TRANS DRAMA
When it comes to the economy, Sen. Rosen’s record is a painful reminder of what career politicians are willing to sacrifice for a vote. Every policy she’s backed has made life more expensive for Nevada families. Gas, groceries, and essentials have become luxuries under her watch, all while D.C. spending spirals out of control. Nevadans are tired of living paycheck to paycheck.
Advertisement
We’re tired of cutting back on basics while Washington plays with our tax dollars like Monopoly money. Nevada families live within their means and work hard to make ends meet, and the federal government should do the same.
REPUBLICANS TOPPLE DEM VOTER REGISTRATION ADVANTAGE IN CRUCIAL SWING STATE AS EARLY VOTE WRAPS UP
Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen
When I get to the Senate, I’ll be relentless about reigning in the reckless spending that’s driving inflation. I’ll keep taxes low on necessities because no family should struggle to afford food or medicine. And I’ll push for energy independence policies that lower costs, following President Trump’s lead in ensuring America’s self-sufficiency. Nevadans shouldn’t be forced to pay the price for policies written by D.C. insiders who have never felt the strain of rising bills. Nevada deserves leaders who fight for every dollar, every job, and every family—not for political favors or campaign donors.
To every worker who relies on tips to pay rent, buy groceries, and put food on the table, know this: taxing tips is wrong, and it’s got to end. Nearly 20% of Las Vegas works for tips, and those dollars should go straight to your pocket—not the IRS. President Trump understands this struggle and has a plan to end taxes on tips, protecting Nevada’s hard-working service industry. Jacky Rosen has had years to make this change but hasn’t even tried. In fact, she backed Joe Biden’s hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents to target working families and tipped workers. In the Senate, I’ll stand with President Trump and end taxes on tips. It’s not just common sense; it’s fairness.
Advertisement
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
For Nevada’s seniors and working families alike, fairness also means keeping the promises made to those who rely on Social Security and Medicare. These programs aren’t just talking points—they’re lifelines. I know this because Social Security and Medicare were there for me during my recovery. Jacky Rosen, however, has ignored the very real solvency issues facing these programs, choosing reckless spending over responsibility. I will not let that happen. In the Senate, I’ll work to ensure Social Security and Medicare are funded for generations to come. And I’ll end the double tax on Social Security benefits, because Nevadans shouldn’t have to pay again for what they’ve already earned.
Let’s not forget border security, an issue that Sen. Rosen has failed to address time and again. Our communities are suffering from the fallout of an open border, from the flood of millions of illegal crossings to the rise in dangerous drugs like fentanyl infiltrating our towns. Jacky Rosen has ignored the threats that come with a porous border, and that choice has put lives at risk. Time and again, she’s voted against funding for border security, while Nevadans face the consequences. She helped create this border crisis, but President Trump and I will end it.
As your Senator, I will make border security a top priority. I’ll ensure our law enforcement and border patrol agents have the resources they need, that we build secure infrastructure, finish the wall, confront the cartels, and protect our communities from the dangerous consequences of D.C.’s inaction.
Working with President Trump, I’ll bring back the America First agenda that benefited all Nevadans. Under his leadership, we had secure borders, a strong economy, and a safer, more prosperous America. Gas prices were lower, grocery bills were affordable, and safety and opportunity were within reach for everyone.
Advertisement
Compare that to the record of Jacky Rosen and Kamala Harris, whose lack of real leadership has brought economic ruin, sacrificed our national security, and cost us our standing as the leader of the free world. President Trump understood peace through strength—a principle I’ll carry forward in the Senate to protect and restore the American Dream for every Nevadan.
My pledge is simple: I will work with President Trump and be a leader for every Nevadan. I will bring your voices to Washington, not D.C.’s agenda to Nevada. I’m running to serve you, and I respectfully ask for your vote.
The Interior Department on Friday kick-started the process to streamline permitting for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
Interior said it had received a petition for rulemaking from the Alaska Oil and Gas Association earlier this month. In response, the department plans to launch a 45-day public scoping period as the first step toward permitting oil projects in the reserve more quickly.
The AOGA petition argues that the environmental impacts of oil developments in the NPR-A, such as ConocoPhillips’ Willow project, have been “exhaustively analyzed” and similar new proposals shouldn’t have to undergo the same review.
Advertisement
“The rulemaking will establish pre-defined criteria for defined and repeatable common activities with similar environmental effects that, when met by an applicant, will result in streamlined permitting for qualifying production sites,” Interior wrote in a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement.
Paradise Valley 16-year-old Gadin Arun is one of three American boys who helped lead Team USA to victory at Junior Davis Cup Qualifying in Canada. The Junior Davis Cup, tennis’s premier international team event, will be held later this year, at a time and location yet to be announced. Arun, who is homeschooled, is the 26th ranked American in his age group, and second in the Southwest, according to the USTA.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
The Chevron refinery in Richmond is located behind a nearby neighborhood on Feb. 21, 2024. Photo by Loren Elliott for CalMatters
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.
California is considering handing oil refineries and other major polluters billions of dollars in free emission allowances just as the state says carbon reductions need to come faster than ever.
Advertisement
In the last six months, two refineries have closed and gas prices have topped an average of $6 a gallon as the Iran-Israel war sent oil markets into turmoil. The oil and gas sector spent $10.3 million lobbying Sacramento in the first three months of the year, according to lobbying filings, with the Western States Petroleum Association and Chevron accounting for the bulk of it.
The result is a new proposal before the California Air Resources Board that would provide as much as $4 billion in new free emission permits to companies with half slated for the fossil fuel industry in exchange for commitments to invest in clean energy.
Environmentalists warn the proposal is a giveaway to Big Oil that would weaken California’s “cap-and-invest” program just as the state is relying on it to cut emissions and fund climate, housing and other programs. Anthony Martinez, a spokesman for Gov. Gavin Newsom, said the changes are necessary to keep the state’s carbon market “durable” and “affordable” amid mounting refinery closures.
The fight over California’s carbon market has exposed the political tensions at the heart of Newsom’s energy transition agenda. California is trying to preserve its climate ambitions while keeping gasoline affordable for drivers already facing the highest prices in the country. Critics say the air board’s proposal accomplishes neither goal.
“We are really concerned that this would significantly kneecap the program,” said Chloe Ames, a policy adviser with NextGen Policy.
Advertisement
Weakening the backstop
Through California’s 13-year-old carbon market, major polluting companies must buy permits for every ton of greenhouse gases they emit, with the state capping total emissions year by year. Each permit is worth real money and companies can sell the ones they don’t use. The program is considered California’s climate backstop — the only state policy that sets a firm limit on greenhouse gas emissions.
At the heart of the dispute with environmentalists is a proposed subsidy program carved out of that carbon market. The air board, if it approves the proposal on May 28, would create a new pool of free pollution permits for refineries, cement plants and other big companies that pledge to invest in clean energy and efficiency projects.
The pool would be capped at 118.3 million permits — the same number the air board has said must come off the market for California to hit its 2030 climate target. Environmentalists say the proposal risks wiping out those reductions.
Berkeley energy economist Meredith Fowlie, who chairs an independent committee that oversees the carbon market, wrote in a recent analysis that the design would give qualifying refineries more free permits than they need to cover their emissions.
“One could use the word generous,” Fowlie said.
Advertisement
Rajinder Sahota, the air board official overseeing the program, said the proposal would ensure emissions reductions. The new permits, she said, would only go to companies undertaking clean energy and efficiency projects and would be limited, temporary and rescinded if companies misuse them. The plan is meant to help keep refineries operating in California at a time of uncertainty, she added.
“We want to make sure that there’s reliable, affordable fuel for California consumers while the demand persists,” Sahota said.
But environmentalists say the air board has built in almost no accountability for how companies invest in those projects. Katelyn Roedner Sutter, state director for the Environmental Defense Fund, said the proposal “is based on proposed investment, not any guaranteed reduction.”
“That’s a red flag,” she said.
A climate money crunch
Quarterly auction revenue for state programs could drop from roughly $4 billion a year to about $2 billion under the proposal, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.
Advertisement
Sen. John Laird, the state Senate budget chair and a co-author of California’s original 2006 climate law, warned at a May 6 hearing that the proposal “flies against many things we negotiated just last fall” with the governor and could put the carbon market deal “back on the table.”
Not all lawmakers are critical. Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin and Cottie Petrie-Norris, who respectively chair climate and energy committees, said the proposal “reflects the Legislature’s focus on affordability,” and urged the board to proceed “without delay.”
They pointed to an increase in the Climate Credit, the twice-yearly rebate that the carbon market funds on Californians’ utility bills; a UC Santa Barbara analysis, however, found the new subsidy could shrink the credit by as much as $1.7 billion under the proposal.
A separate, bipartisan group including Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat, and Senator Suzette Valladares, a Republican, argues the purpose of the carbon market is to cut emissions, not raise money for programs.
Newsom struck an eleventh-hour deal with lawmakers last year that extended the state’s carbon market through 2045 and set the order of which state programs get auction money first.
Advertisement
Under that plan, California’s high-speed rail project receives $1 billion a year before many other programs. Lawmakers also carved out a $1 billion annual pool for priorities they control themselves, but Newsom in January proposed committing that money to wildfire spending and other programs.
Last in line are programs lawmakers have spent years building into California’s climate agenda: affordable housing and transit-oriented development meant to reduce driving and climate pollution, rail and bus service, wildfire resilience, clean drinking water in poor communities and neighborhood pollution monitoring.
Newsom unveiled a revised state budget on May 14 that did not reflect the potential drop in carbon market revenue. Laird, in an interview, said the administration told him the revenue drop wouldn’t show up in the coming fiscal year.
Laird said he planned to “ground truth” that assessment in the weeks ahead. The hit “would still be a big hit the year after this budget year,” he added.
Big Oil’s biggest target
California’s carbon market became a central focus of the oil industry’s lobbying efforts after the air board released a January proposal sharply reducing free pollution permits for industry.
Advertisement
Seven of the 10 highest-spending oil and gas lobbying groups in California pushed state officials on the proposal, state filings show. The petroleum association and Chevron mounted some of the industry’s most aggressive lobbying, pressing lawmakers, the governor’s office, the air board and the California Energy Commission on the plan.
The April plan raised free permits for most industries through 2030 above the January version, but deferred decisions on permits after 2030 to a future rulemaking.
Jim Stanley, a spokesman for the petroleum association, said the group has been pressing lawmakers, regulators and the governor’s office about “the potential consequences of a poorly structured cap-and-invest program.”
Chevron spokesman Ross Allen declined to comment beyond letters Chevron filed with the air board. Chevron initially warned the proposal threatened refinery survival in California. After last month’s revisions, the company is continuing to push for additional protections.
Zach Leary, a lobbyist for the petroleum association, said California needs to go further than even its latest proposal. He wants California to lock in a higher level of free permits permanently.
Advertisement
“The state is acknowledging that affordability and ambition are not getting along very well right now,” Leary said.
Eddie Ahn, executive director of Brightline Defense, oversees community air sensors in San Francisco’s Tenderloin, Mission and South of Market neighborhoods funded through the state’s community air protection program. That program is among those that could lose state money if carbon market auctions decline under the proposal.
“If the funding is cut off, then convening groups of people on a monthly basis — that goes away,” Ahn said. “It means frontline communities get disconnected from environmental policy.”
This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
