California Gov. Gavin Newsom's climate agenda highlights tensions with environmental groups

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — In the rush to cut California's pollution and rid the state of fossil fuels, the most intriguing confrontation hasn't involved business leaders or the oil industry. Instead, it's simmering tensions between the state's robust environmental advocacy wing and California's progressive governor who considers himself one of their own. 

The modern environmental movement has its roots in California, including the founding of the Sierra Club. Gavin Newsom, who rose from local politics in liberal San Francisco to become governor of the nation's most populous state, sees himself as a descendant of that progress, proudly carrying the movement's goals on the world stage. 

Yet in the early days of Newsom's second term in office, some of his loudest criticism has come from inside the proverbial house. Newsom and environmental groups mostly agree on the big things, like rules banning the sale of new gas-powered cars and the goal of making California carbon neutral. It's how to get there that's causing friction. 

Those tensions erupted last month during negotiations over California's more than $300 billion budget. Newsom wanted major changes to the state's permitting and building process, saying it was taking far too long to build the kind of projects needed to update the state's aging water delivery system and boost clean energy to meet the state's insatiable demand for electricity.