California to launch "its own satellite" as a blow to Trump, says "Governor Moonbeam"

California Governor Jerry Brown said on Friday that his country would launch its own satellite to fight climate change, following a promise it made following the election of President Trump.

"We are going to launch our own satellite – our own satellite to find out where the pollution is and how we are going to stop it," Brown said at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco.

"We are going to launch our own satellite – our own satellite to know where the pollution is and how we are going to end it."

– California Governor Jerry Brown

The Golden State will work with San Francisco-based Planet Labs to launch a satellite capable of tracking pollutants that cause climate change. The company has already launched 150 satellites, said Brown.

"In California, where science is under attack, we are attacked by many people, including Donald Trump, but the climate threat continues to grow," Brown said. "So, we want to know, what's happening around the world, all the time?"

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The outgoing governor, who will leave at the end of the year and will be replaced by Democratic Lieutenant Gavin Newsom or Republican businessman John Cox, has not revealed how much it would cost the state to submit to a space project. it's usually done by the federal government.

Brown's office told the Washington Post that scientists and government staff would work on the project, but that state funds would be useless for satellite development. A number of donors have mobilized to fund the experiment, including San Francisco investment banker Richard Lawrence and the Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust.

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The intentionally worded announcement came nearly two years after the governor threatened the Trump administration that California will launch its own satellite.

"If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own satellite," Brown said in 2016, before complaining about the nickname "Governor Moonbeam" that the media had previously given him.

"I remember in 1978, I proposed a Landsat satellite for California. They called me "Governor Moonbeam" because of that, "Brown said.

Over the last two years, Brown has clashed with the Trump administration on a number of fronts, including immigration and environmental rules. Trump's decision to withdraw the Paris climate agreement in June 2017 has particularly infuriated the governor of California.

Associated Press contributed to this report.