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Gov. Gavin Newsom has called an emergency special session of the legislature, again. Last time the “emergency” was the political need to blame oil company inventories for California’s uniquely high gas prices.
This time the “emergency” is the election victory of former President Donald Trump. Newsom wants the legislature to find money in the budget to fund lawsuits against the Trump administration in order to protect what he calls “California values.” He also made an emergency trip to Washington, D.
C., to plead with the Biden administration for speedy approval of federal waivers that are needed to allow some of California’s most radical regulations to go into effect. Under the Clean Air Act, the Golden State is allowed to have stricter standards than the federal government has approved, but waivers are still needed for each specific regulation.
To get the waivers, the state must demonstrate compelling and extraordinary conditions that justify more stringent standards, which also have to meet criteria for technical and manufacturing feasibility. So far, the Biden administration has not approved waivers to allow California’s rules banning the sale of cars and trucks with internal combustion engines to take effect as scheduled. A rule banning the sale of gas-powered leaf blowers and lawnmowers also needs a waiver, as do rules requiring new ferry boats to be zero-emission and diesel locomotives to be phased out.
Other rules awaiting waivers would eventually ban diesel engines in farm equipment, construction vehicles and refrigeration units used in cargo trucks. These rules come to us from those wonderful folks at the California Air Resources Board, the same people who just approved a new 300-page rule that will drive up the cost of gasoline by an estimated 65 cents per gallon starting next year. CARB is implementing the blithering idiocy enacted by the state legislature, which passed laws requiring California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by specific percentages and specific deadlines.
Gasoline will be more expensive because, to achieve this goal, CARB came up with a credit-trading scheme called the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The LCFS program measures the carbon density of different types of fuel and then requires producers of high-carbon fuel to buy credits from producers of low-carbon fuel. It’s all arbitrary, just a system of penalties and subsidies to try to force a transition away from petroleum products by imposing economic hardship.
Thanks to the reporting of journalists including KCRA’s Ashley Zavala and Fox 40’s Eytan Wallace, the public has become aware of the arcane and opaque process that is raising the cost of meeting fundamental needs, such as driving to work. Lawmakers are feeling the heat. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas issued a statement expressing his “concerns about reports that gas prices may be adversely affected” by CARB’s recent vote.
The legislature could pause the targets for greenhouse gas reductions, but won’t. “Climate change is an existential threat to all of us, and in the coming years, we must continue to buckle down to meet our goals,” insisted Senate leader Mike McGuire. But how does buckling down in California stop the “existential threat” of climate change? Even assuming that every pronouncement of doom is literally true, how does CARB’s 300-page rule prevent it? Related Articles Opinion Columnists | John Stossel: Kids need freedom too Opinion Columnists | Did anyone actually think Kamala Harris was the one to beat Donald Trump? Opinion Columnists | A bipartisan bummer: Both parties embrace central planning of the American economy now Opinion Columnists | Susan Shelley: Donald Trump has a mandate from the American people Opinion Columnists | Larry Wilson: Zen and the need to not just be sunshine journalists The answer is, it doesn’t.
The rule subsidizes the manufacturers of some types of fuel that the market has rejected as too expensive or impractical, if not fully useless. And it does this at the expense of every Californian who buys gasoline or pays for anything in the state that’s moved, built, grown or generated with the help of an engine. CARB claims that the eight rules awaiting federal waivers will prevent 11,000 premature deaths and save $116 billion in public health benefits, but the science and math supporting this claim should be closely scrutinized.
Do gas-powered leaf blowers really cause 887 premature deaths and $9 billion in public health costs? Elected officials should weigh these assertions against the deaths and health expenses caused by not being able to drive to a job, buy food, or run the air conditioner. Poverty is more dangerous than any leaf blower. If President Trump denies the waivers and cancels CARB’s rules, Californians might even be grateful.
Write [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley.
