I had forgotten about this until I read Chan’s “Thoughts on a Sunday” last night who talked about it:
It’s bad enough California’s legislature has already done considerable damage to the state’s economy. Now they want to make it even worse by giving power to the California Air Resources Board to ration gasoline and diesel fuel as a means of reducing air pollution.
Yeah, the same crew that have all but eliminated wood burning stoves, wanted to ban gas powered lawnmowers, and shut down your outside grills. Their aim is to have 100% “clean air” no matter what the cost or the impact on the State’s residents. It is ONLY the mission that counts with these folks…
To quote Squidward, “Just when I thought they couldn’t get any stupider…”
To meet the mandate, the state air resources board will be able to ration gas, place mobility restrictions on state residents, place surcharges on family mini-vans, trucks and SUVs, and even monitor individuals’ fuel consumption records.
Think about what that means to what we call “the Land of the Free”.
California’s elected representatives can’t take the heat of radically changing your lifestyle, so once again, we see the idea of Representation go out the window and flow to the Administration State. I’ve written about the CARB chief before, Mary Nichols, and she is totalitarian about achieving that “clean air”; she just doesn’t care when people complain because her self-righteousness knows no bounds. It matters not what effect it has on others; like all bureaucracies, they end up with tunnel vision – THEIR mission is of the highest priority and then self-justifies their actions and slowly morph from being public servants to being the Public Masters – and make no excuses for it. And get this from Legal Insurrection (where I first saw this):
The California Air Resources Board [CARB], an unelected group of bureaucrats, will be given full authority to meet the restriction mandate in any way its members see fit with no oversight permitted by our elected representatives.
This IS the Progressive end state – the Administrative State that answers to no one except other bureaucrats (like the European Union has all but become – so remember that when Democrat Elites keep saying we should be more like Europe. Looks like California is well down that road). Chan also quotes:
“Place mobility restrictions on state residents” means “We can tell you that you can’t leave town, can’t get on that train/plane/bus, and have to stay home ‘for your own good’.” That sounds just like the old Soviet Union which greatly restricted citizens’ rights to travel. Let’s face it, if this incredibly stupid legislation makes it out of the California Assembly and is signed by Governor Brown, California is doomed. If they think the exodus from the once prosperous Republic of California was bad before, it will become an absolute torrent and the state will collapse. If nothing else it will be a big incentive for residents to call for breaking up the state into smaller states that will not be run by the effin’ looney tunes along the coast, one I doubt Congress will oppose.
“For your own good” – an attitude of condescension from those that pay their salaries (how often have I been saying that lately?) that translates to “you have no clue how to do the right things on your own. Here, we will tell you what that is, and if you don’t take that to the bank, well, we’ll take your bank account from you in fees, fines, and court costs.
In that last paragraph, this is presented as an evil outcome. Given what the Sustainable Communities Initiative / Agenda 21 is already doing out there with Federal dollars, this may be the actual intention – get residents to move out and leave the State to the Beautiful People. Problem is, even as the ordinary middle class folks (and bigger companies, like the one I work for) move out, all they’re going to end up is the illegal immigrants they encourage and incentivize to come over the border.
How will that work out, eh?
