Last month, California made the decision that it was going to tell the tide of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to go out and never return. Of course, this got much play – that only electric cars and trucks would be allowed. Petroleum-based vehicles would be illegal to be sold.
Related: California: We Can’t Keep the Lights On So Let’s Ban Gas-Powered Vehicles
Along the lines of the”You can keep your car…” schtick. But from my perspective, there is a problem. A big, BIG problem.
But first, what Lloyd (a “car hater” to the max) wrote:
Governor Gavin Newsom of California has announced an executive order requiring all new passenger vehicles to be zero-emission by 2035. The press release notes:
“The transportation sector is responsible for more than half of all of California’s carbon pollution, 80 percent of smog-forming pollution and 95 percent of toxic diesel emissions…
‘This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,’ said Governor Newsom. ‘For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.’We might complain about a couple of things, starting with the use of the word “impactful” and then pointing out that a lot of countries are doing this even more quickly, with Israel, Iceland, and Germany aiming for 2030. Even the UK is pushing its deadline forward to 2030.
Even as he’s mocking the move, Lloyd (a professor of Sustainability and Architecture), was still rather dismissive (emphasis mine):
There are many who are not getting with the program. The White House complains that “this is yet another example of how extreme the left has become. They want the government to dictate every aspect of every Americans’ life, and the lengths to which they will go to destroy jobs and raise costs on the consumer is alarming. President Trump won’t stand for it.”
Ah yes, that “right side of history” crapola, that whole “progress thing” that Progressives and Socialists are always yammering about. But “Electrify EVERYTHING” is a goal as much to them as “Public Health trumps EVERYTHING” is to NH Gov. Sununu. And in this, Newsom and Sununu are equivalent – they have both assumed mantles they should not have.
Also, in both cases, they have Legislatures that have laid supine in letting the Executive Branch take their lunch money Power away from them with nary a peep. Certainly has happened here in NH where the House and Senate could have convened and canceled the State of Emergency – but didn’t. I’ve heard nothing out of California about the Legislature there going “Sonny, get OFF MY LAWN!”.
Even if they are in favor of the actions, can’t they at least muster enough self-worth to go “well, ok” in a weak-kneed mealy-mouth resolution? Governor, aka King, Newsom decided that he, on the basis of an Executive Order, would make this far-reaching decision on his own say so?
This is how dictatorships start when a Branch of Government refuses to do its job.
GraniteGrok:
Now that this has been going on for a couple of weeks, I noticed one VERY important thing missing from either the discussion or the original post – that Newsom decided, on his own, without going through the normal and legal legislative process, to destroy an entire industry.
In American (and California), the legal way to change things is to introduce a bill into the Legislature, go through the horse trading of mark-ups of changes in sub-committees, vote on that bill there, route it through other committees (as needed depending on the subject of the bill that may cross committee jurisdictional boundaries), and then finally voted up on in the chamber (Assembly or Senate in this case). If passed, move it to the other chamber – rinse, lather, repeat. Do any reconciliation.
If passed by both, and ONLY then, would Newsom sign a bill for such a rather huge change in the State.
Nowhere here at TH (or the other Left leaning sites I visit) have said anything as to “Is this legal for him to do so”? Usually, an Executive Order is only in force for the time that Chief Executive is in office AND is must be based on State Law giving that C.E. the Power to issue such an E.O.
Yet, everyone here is all happy dance that Newsom just crowned himself King by assuming the roles of the Chief Executive, the Legislature, and (I’m assuming) the Judiciary by pushing it through the unelected, unaccountable, and unassailable CARB.
Make the change – but no push back from doing it incorrectly?
Rubber stamping at its finest.
I resignedly believe that the use of E.O.s during the WuFlu pandemic may have conditioned people that almost anything can be decided for them. No matter who you voted for to represent you, they have given up. Auto-pilot as long as the King (or Queen (re: Half-wit Whitmere)) is still inline with your particular ideology.
May the good Lord above have mercy on our souls. And wallets. And Freedoms.
