California to ban sale of gasoline-powered vehicles
Fox News chief correspondent Jonathan Hunt has more as several states may follow California's lead on 'Special Report.'
As California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom prepares to run for president, he continues to burnish his far-left credentials. In his state’s latest reality-be-damned, Green-New-Deal endeavor, California regulators have banned gas-powered cars by 2035 in favor of electric cars. Never mind that just a couple of months ago, the Reuters headline blared: "California says it needs more power to keep the lights on."
In case you missed it, California’s latest head-scratching headline is that it wants to be first in the nation to ban cars that run on gasoline. As Americans are beset with inflation and a recession, you might wonder whether mandating high-priced electric cars makes sense and whether Newsom should be preaching to the rest of the country.
The Golden State of yesteryear, California, has a few problems these days: a violent crime spree, No. 1 in homelessness, No. 1 in poverty, among worst in the nation in roads, home of the supply-chain crisis, trillions in long-term debt, a water-delivery crisis, a disappearing middle-class, business flight, and on and on.
FOREST FIRE NORTHEAST OF LOS ANGELES CONTAINED BY 20%
It also has a severe electrical crisis that is exacerbated by its severe wildfire crisis.
Flames consume a home on Triangle Rd. as the Oak Fire burns in Mariposa County, Calif., on Saturday, July 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
California is the only state in the nation that has a wildfire season that results in blackouts. For years, Californian officials have bowed to environmentalists and not cleared brush, wooded areas, and forests from overgrowth.
When that overgrowth is near electrical lines, deadly fires occur and California’s power-providers shut down power, sometimes days at a time. California’s Public Utility Commission even has a name for this. It’s aptly called "de-energization."
That de-energization policy is in response to wildfire death that saw the state’s main energy company, PG&E, plead guilty last year to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in a 2018 case. It was charged with manslaughter again in 2021 as a result of a deadly fire.
The wildfire problem is anything but solved – but that won’t stop Newsom’s presidential, green-energy dreams.
And does de-energization work with electric cars? Shhhh. That’s not the worst of it.
California has an energy shortage. Period. Full stop.
Just a couple of months ago, California energy officials forecasted that "the state's electrical grid, lacks sufficient capacity to keep the lights on this summer and beyond if heatwaves, wildfires or other extreme events take their toll." Don’t forget, that in 2020, California had to get electricity from neighboring states and eight different utility companies just to keep the lights on.
California's regulators have also projected that the problem will get worse by 2025 – and are about to stick customers with annual electricity rate increases of between 4% and 9% from now to 2025.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) talks with reporters after a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in the U.S. Capitol, on Friday, July 15, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Keep in mind that, Democrats have been actively making the problem worse. For years, green-minded Democrats have wanted to shut down the state’s last remaining nuclear power plant. Faced with the current power shortage, however, and against the wish of California’s green-movement, Newsom has extended the life of the plant another five years.
There is also the very serious problem with the fact that California’s existing power grid is so outdated that it isn't "ready to take on the level of electrification," their green new policies require. The grid cannot handle the solar mandates California has imposed.
All of which brings us to California’s regulatory requirement that new cars sold in California be electric or plug-in hybrids by 2035. That is part of California’s greater plan, worked out under Newsom’s blessing, that the state’s electricity system must be carbon-free by 2045.
You might be asking yourself, right about now, how can a state that cannot reliably deliver electricity to its citizens and businesses simultaneously require the use of massive amounts of more electricity? Please, stop being so logical.
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Plainly stated, California’s policies, including many driven by Newsom, do not make practical sense. That is why so many of its citizens are leaving the state for, well, yes, greener pastures, i.e., the greener pasture of a job.
The problem is so bad that California is now shrinking in population for the first time in its history. So many have left that California even lost a vote in the Electoral College.
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Now, by requiring its residents buy expensive electric cars in the years to come, hitting them with the highest income taxes in the country and all its other problems, California’s green-energy car ban will drive even more Californians out of the state.
If you don’t think that matters to you, don’t forget, as I wrote recently, Newsom wants to be your president. So, if you think things are bad now under President Joe Biden, think how bad it could be if Newsom is elected to de-energize the nation.
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