by Steve Hilton
California’s burning. Again. And it’s a tragedy made all the more infuriating because it was so avoidable. This isn’t just about dry brush and Santa Ana winds, it’s about years of policy failures, of prioritizing fashionable green agendas over common-sense fire prevention. The climate change narrative has become a convenient excuse for inaction, a way to avoid confronting the hard truths. As I’ve said before, you can’t hug a burning tree.
The truth is, we can mitigate these disasters. It starts with managing the fuel load. Years of neglect, bureaucratic red tape, and environmental extremism blocking sensible forest management have created the tinderbox we see today. We need aggressive brush clearing, controlled burns, and thinning of overgrown forests. It’s not rocket science, it’s basic land management. And we need to deregulate the process to get it done.
But it’s not just about the forests. Our water policy is a disaster too. This constant talk of “drought” is a joke. California has the water, we just lack the will to capture and store it. We need serious investment in water infrastructure, not more virtue signaling about electric vehicles. The carbon footprint of these megafires dwarfs any emissions reductions from those policies. It’s time for some hard truths.
That’s why we at Golden Together have developed a comprehensive plan to tackle this crisis. Our RESCUE, REFORM, REBUILD framework lays out a clear path forward. We need to help those affected now, reform the broken policies that got us here, and rebuild stronger than ever. We need a “California Fire Force” using cutting-edge technology like AI-powered robots and drones for early fire detection and suppression. We need to clear homeless encampments that pose a fire risk, modernize our firefighting tools, and fix our broken insurance system. We need to cut the red tape that strangles progress and explore innovative solutions like mass timber construction.
This isn’t about left or right, it’s about common sense. It’s about protecting our communities. It’s about making California livable again. Visit www.goldentogether.com to learn more about our plan and get involved. We need your support, your ideas, and your energy. Donate, volunteer, and help us build a fire-resilient future for California. Because together, we can make a difference.
Steve Hilton is the founder of Golden Together and was previously senior policy and strategy advisor to former UK prime minister David Cameron and former host of The Next Revolution on Fox News.