Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer is not alone in seeing plans to build a better downtown by investing in needed infrastructure face opposition from so-called progressive groups.

In some quarters, infrastructure has become a four-letter word.

Gov. Gavin Newsom spilled his guts recently to New York Times columnist Ezra Klein about more than 100 environmental groups teaming up against a legislative package to clear some of the hurdles to building infrastructure in California.

“This is ridiculous,” Newsom told Klein. “These guys write reports and they protest. But we need to build. You can’t be serious about climate and the environment without reforming permitting and procurement in this state.”

‘Wounding Break’ With Environmental Groups

Klein described the opposition to legislation that would enable California to increase its electricity output to meet its nation-leading clean energy and climate goals as a “wounding break” between Newsom and the environmental groups.

“I licked envelopes for these nonprofits as a kid. My father was on the board of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund for more than a decade,” Newsom said. “This was my life. But this rigidity and ideological purity is really going to hurt progress. I did the climate bills last year, and these same groups were celebrating that. But that means nothing unless we can deliver. That was the what; this is the how.”

Read more at The New York Times.