California Secession And Climate Change Update: Jerry Brown Vows To Fight Donald Trump On Global Warming

California is gearing up to be a big counterweight to President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

The incoming president and his allies have indicated an interest in policies that have sent chills down the spines of environmentalists and climate change experts. One such policy would be to cut NASA’s role in monitoring the Earth’s temperatures. That has prompted California Gov. Jerry Brown and other state officials to propose much more severe measures ahead of Trump taking office.

“If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite,” Brown said Wednesday during a speech in front of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. “We've got the scientists, we've got the lawyers and we're ready to fight.”

Brown, a Democrat, has been a vocal opponent of Trump and his proposed policies. As governor, he’s overseen the continuation of a robust response to climate change including the implementation of policies to curb greenhouse gas emissions from livestock.

Trump’s cabinet and administration picks have largely been people who either deny climate change or don’t see it as a major concern. He’s picked former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to oversee the Department of Energy and chose Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a long opponent of the Environmental Protection Agency, to run that same agency.

“We've got more sun than you've got oil," Brown said, referencing renewable energy options like solar power, a jab at Perry’s home state and its large oil and gas industry.

California, which voted overwhelmingly in favor of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in November, has been clear about its distaste for Trump in other ways, as well. Following the election, a secession movement gained steam, culminating recently in an official filing to put a measure to secede onto the state’s ballot. That movement has technically existed for two years but the election sparked a renewed interest and attracted 13,000 volunteers to collect signatures for the legislative effort.

That was seen as a long shot but there are already plans in place for a potential win. One of the group leaders said Wednesday that he was already planning out an embassy in Russia.