Following are remarks as delivered by Maryam S. Brown, 2025 chair of the California Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, at the first California Business Outlook Dinner on June 4. Brown is chief executive officer of Southern California Gas Company, Los Angeles.
It is truly invigorating to be with like-minded people that have shared values on what it is that makes California strong. And I think that we’re united in several ways… We are all united in promoting a positive investment climate for business, for businesses to be able to grow here in California.
We are also united in being solutions-oriented. We see problems as opportunities. And we are also united in knowing that when California builds, California prospers.
When California connected the railroads to the rest of the country, California prospered. When the Golden Gate Bridge was built, California prospered. Connecting Northern and Southern California, the aircraft industries, the shipbuilding industries from World War II and the housing boom that followed that — California prospered.
Silicon Valley, when that was built, California prospered, and our university system. And when we sent Americans in the Apollo mission to the moon, it was Californians that designed and built that command module — not Texas, not Florida, that was California. I repeat, when California builds, California prospers.
Affordability Crisis
California has many great things. We also have problems, and the affordability crisis is a big one. The affordability crisis is rooted in housing, energy, water, transportation. And the affordability crisis really is an availability crisis, and it has become one that’s so serious that it endangers the inherent promise that is California.
California has always symbolized opportunity in this country. It’s written in our music. Think of songs like “California Dreamin’” from the Mamas and the Papas and “Hollywood Nights” by Bob Seger. And “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.” And I even think that Tupac — “California Love” — expresses that vibe as well.
Changing Trajectory
But it is obvious that we must change this trajectory on affordability in this state. Right now, Californians feel overwhelmed and they feel let down, and we as business leaders have three choices.
First thing we can do is do nothing. So often, that is what ends up being the choice that’s made.
Another option we have is to work on narrow, parochial issues that meet our interests.
And the third option is we unite with other business and other stakeholders to build a better California.
I think that the choice is clear — that we need to build a better California and solve real problems. And one of the benefits of solving real problems is that it regains trust in business and in government institutions that has been absent of late.
Working Together
Right now, we look like combatants with one another, fighting for our respective interests. And what Californians need and want is they want to know that we’re working together and that we are working for their interests. And it is needed now.
It’s needed now because the RAND Corporation published a series of results that tell us the time is now. Seven of the most costly metro areas in the United States are in the state of California. Housing is the most expensive to build in California in every single cost category that there is. And the out migration that we’re experiencing in California is very real. And when people leave, we lose tax revenue, we lose brain power, and we lose valued employees, and those are the people that we’re going to need if we’re going to build a better California.
So, why am I invested in California’s future? I’m not from California. I’m from south Louisiana, and I am a first generation American. But California has always represented that shining city on the hill for me. That first time I got an opportunity to live and work in California, the first time in San Francisco and now again in Los Angeles, I felt like the luckiest person in the world.
I still feel like the luckiest person in the world. I think that we can build that shining city again, but the way that we need to do it is to build. Again, when California builds, California prospers. Housing, water, energy, transportation — we need all of it.
Modernizing CEQA
Making it easier to build — and we all know this — starts with modernizing CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. Some people told me that not everybody knows what CEQA is. I’m glad that I’m in this kind of audience that they do.
Modernizing this 50-year-old law is essential to affordability and it’s essential to prosperity. I have three proof points for you on it. Exhibit A: when we experienced the fires in Los Angeles earlier this year, the governor the very first thing that he did was he waived CEQA. Exhibit B: in Sacramento, right now, in the Legislature, in the Assembly and the Senate, there are major legislative proposals seeking to reform CEQA. And those are by progressive legislators of ours, but it shows that consensus that’s there.
And by the way, and this would be my third — this is not just a California problem. There is recognition that we need streamlining of permitting for it to be easier to build across the country. And just last week, as divided as our United States Supreme Court can be, there was a unanimous decision about narrowing the scope of NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act], and why that’s important is that NEPA is the forerunner to CEQA.
I know that there can be skepticism that this hill has already been climbed. There have already been efforts to reform CEQA, modernize CEQA, and they were not successful. What I would say is that knowing that history means that we have the power to not repeat it.
Thomas Jefferson said it well: “I like the dreams of the future rather than the history of the past.”
So let’s move forward. The writing is on the wall.
‘Tear Down These Walls’
Speaking of walls, 40 years ago, a great Californian stood at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, and he spoke against the Berlin Wall, against the system that suffocated freedom and brought economic misery. On that day, California’s Ronald Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
Today, Californians face an oppressive wall of regulation, and we need to say, “Elected officials, let’s tear down these walls. Let’s tear down these walls that are crushing affordability and crushing prosperity, and let’s rebuild an archway, an archway that balances human needs and environmental needs.”
Solving affordability in California is number one on CalChamber’s Board agenda. I hope my fellow Board members get good rest. We have a lot of work to do. I’m going to remind you something that somebody taught me once, which is nothing good happens after 10 p.m. To the broader business community that’s here, our partners, we hope to come back to you with an action plan.
