Common sense returns to Virginia as California Governor Gavin Newsom Struggles to defend inane policy. Let’s start with Newsom and gasoline prices. 
In a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Newsom says “What people pay at the pump isn’t simple supply and demand but the result of a highly concentrated and opaque market.“
Here are the facts. Price spikes—like the $6.42 a gallon in June 2022 that sparked our new price-gouging law—happened when California taxes and fees remained unchanged, and crude prices had actually decreased. What drove up prices were increases in industry profits.
California’s new law provides us with tools to investigate profit spiking by Big Oil, helping us to prevent supply disruptions and take legal action when necessary. Another potential tool to encourage the oil industry to do right by Californians is a price-gouging penalty that will be developed through a public process.
What people pay at the pump isn’t simple supply and demand but the result of a highly concentrated and opaque market that lets a handful of mega-profitable oil companies upcharge tens of millions of people. In California, four companies control 90% of the gasoline refining capacity.
Factors such as refinery maintenance and lack of planning have been shown to reduce supply and increase refinery margins by upward of 200% at a time. California has also found that traders on the open “spot market” drive up prices, benefiting oil companies.
A Concentrated and Opaque Market
OK, why is the market in California concentrated and opaque?
- California has the most regulations of any state
- Refiners tired of California nonsense have left the state
- California seasonal blend requirements have costs. But there’s not just one summer blend. Refineries make more than 14 kinds due to different state regulations.
Two California Refiners Shut Down
Please note that on October 11, 2023, 2 of 5 Bay Area Refineries to Stop Making Gasoline
“Coming into the year, there’s only gonna be three refineries in the Bay Area,” said Texas-based Andrew Lipow, an oil industry analyst and consultant. “When you have only three and one shuts down, it makes, to say the least, it would make things exciting and not necessarily in a good way.”
“Yes, we’ll be as vulnerable or more to disruptions just because there’s less alternative sources to diversity that production amongst. I think we’ll have too much diesel and not enough gasoline,” said UC Davis economics professor Jim Bushell.
Not enough gasoline in a state mostly using gasoline cars means higher priced gasoline.
California Issues Major New Emergency Rules
Totally oblivious to what’s going on, please ponder Newsom’s solution to high gas prices and refiners leaving the state.
Effective May 20, 2024, California Issues Major New Gasoline Regulations for Refiners, Traders, and Brokers Through Emergency Rulemaking
Effective May 20, 2024, refiners and all importers of transportation fuels into California must follow the newest regulations from the California Energy Commission (CEC) — the Gross Gasoline Refining Margin and Marine Import Reporting Regulations. These impose substantial reporting obligations on imports of transportations fuels destined for California. Importers subject to these obligations are all entities that import transportation fuels, including refiners, traders, and brokers, and that are importers of record under federal customs law or are otherwise owners of cargo before arrival. Refiners, firms that produce liquid hydrocarbons or fuel ethanol, and firms that sell these products to retailers and resellers are also required to submit new monthly reports on their gross gasoline refining margins and detailed information on expenses and wholesale gasoline sales.
Following a pre-rulemaking workshop in April, CEC submitted this latest regulation to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) on May 9, kicking off a limited five-day public comment period. OAL ultimately approved the regulation on May 20, and it became effective immediately for a period of two years. Most significantly, the regulation requires that any importer of record or owner of “reportable cargo,” which includes finished gasolines, gasoline blending components, diesel fuels, and aviation fuels, file the new California Marine Import Report prior to arrival at a California port.
The latest regulation is a product of the March 2023 California Gas Price Gouging and Transparency Law (SBX1-2), which provides CEC with unprecedented authority to promulgate regulations that will increase state regulatory control over the transportation fuels market. These regulations will have a significant impact on a wide swath of market participants — including market participants beyond refiners and importers of gasoline.
What Newsom Deserves
What Newsom and his supporters deserve is for all California refiners to leave the state.
However, if the refiners all did leave, innocent bystanders who don’t support Newsom’s madness would also suffer in the debacle.
A Higher Gas Price Is Part of the Plan
A small opinion letter to the WSJ sums up the situation nicely: A Higher Gas Price Is Part of the Plan
Considering that it takes many years to build a new refinery and that Gov. Gavin Newsom championed California’s law to prohibit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles after 2035, why would anyone invest in new refining capacity to produce California’s unique blends? Mr. Newsom and his fellow travelers are on a mission to force Californians to stop driving gas-powered vehicles, so he should be thrilled at high gasoline prices.
Paul Dembry
Virginia Exits the California Way
Please consider Virginia Exits the California EV Way
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spread his anti-fossil fuel gospel far beyond California, but last week he lost a follower. Virginia canceled its plan to adopt West Coast vehicle standards, offering drivers freedom instead of climate dogma.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin said his state won’t phase out sales of gas-powered vehicles, despite a 2021 law that might have set Virginia on course to ban them by 2035, as California will. “The idea that government should tell people what kind of car they can or can’t purchase is fundamentally wrong,” he said.
He’s changing policy set by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who signed a bill letting Virginia impose regulations set by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The Biden Administration opened the door by letting the Golden State set stricter rules than those set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Virginia was one of several states to follow California.
In 2022 Mr. Newsom pushed CARB to impose even stricter rules, mandating that zero-emissions cars make up 35% of new auto-maker sales by 2026 and 100% by 2035. Democrats in Virginia say they are bound to go along once the new rules take effect next year. So much for individual state sovereignty.
Mr. Youngkin has the public on his side. A December poll found that 57% of Virginians want to repeal the vehicle mandates, compared with 30% who prefer to keep them in place. Ditching the mandates will give consumers a choice of EVs or gas-powered cars, which will help low-income buyers in particular. As for Mr. Newsom, check back in a decade to see where his forced EV march has led the Golden State.
Virginia Has Had Enough
Expect a challenge from the climate fearmongers, but it won’t go anywhere. The bill signed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam lets (but does not require) Virginia to follow California nonsense.
No matter what idiots decide, 35 percent of new car sales in 2026 will not be EVs.
Assuming Trump is elected, he will seek to reverse ruling that lets California set stricter rules than those set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
And expect those increasingly ridiculous EPA rules themselves to be watered down.
AAA Gas Prices June 10, 2024
California Governor Escalates the War on Gasoline
On May 20, I noted California Governor Escalates the War on Gasoline Impacting Neighboring States
Prepare to pay another $1 per gallon in California with higher prices in Nevada and Arizona too.
Despite refiners losing money, Newsom seeks new taxes causing a complaint from Nevada.
If I was a refiner, I would leave that hell hole and let California fend for itself.
California already pays $1.48 more than the national average. Governor Newsom wants you to believe gouging is more likely in California than anyplace else in the nation.
As of April, 2024, the World Resources Institute reports “While around 50 oil refineries were in operation across California a few decades ago, 11 refineries operate in California today.”
Newsom’s proposal will impose more still costs on gasoline refiners, perhaps to the point more leave the state.
It’s on purpose.
Virginia now says no thanks to the path California is on.
Reflections on Progress
On March 22, I commented In the Name of Progress, Biden Will Take Away Your Truck
Trump will stop this nonsense cold.
EVs will happen, but at a pace set by markets, not by subsidies and demands with no reasonable plan to execute the plan.
If the oil company executives had any sense, they’d band together and make a proclamation that no petroleum will cross state lines between California and any other state. No oil for refining, no crude, no nothing. They’d further state if California wants oil, they can immediately begin drilling off of the coast of California and refine it and transport it themselves in their state.
What? They can’t do that legally? Well then, tie it up in courts and slow roll it with lawfare. If you want electric vehicles, make it happen tomorrow, California.
I am a great proponent in making the voting public feel the pain of their vote, especially since the California state legislature has been donkey blue since 1970. What we have today is death by a thousand cuts. Time to surrender and short circuit that. Give the progressives exactly what they want and point them out when people get really angry and want revenge for the nonsense.
Stop subsidizing and bailing out stupidity.
Climate problems are real and Mr. Market will not solve those problems. Market forces have flaws and can create undesirable outcomes. It’s not like Market forces care about the 10 million Americans who lost jobs because of outsourcing. Less jobs mean less taxes collected and higher deficits. It’s a very complicated problem, and market forces are not the solution to every problem. EVs may not be the solution but government needs to craft some kind of response because coastal cities will in time be flooded out, and then we’ll be dealing with disastrous market forces as people abandon worthless homes in cities that are under water.
“coastal cities will in time be flooded out”
When is this going to happen? 2000 yrs from now.
“Refineries make more than 14 kinds due to different state regulations.”
You mean, 14 blends is more than a market can cope with? Gosh, I wonder how food markets ever manage to operate! Supermarkets must be a daily miracle!
Imagine Trudeau’s brother, Gavin, as president.
OK with me. As long as the California pays for every every penny of the costs associated with the recharging systems and grid upgrades needed to power their brave new world.
Youngkin is testing the waters as to acceptance for policies which push back against what has been going on from progressive marxists installed in Government.
So far his election to office is getting validated.
Coming from Virginia certainly sets the tone for a rising economic South.
Still early in the battle against progressive takeover of US however as just occurred in Europe the people have had it with current political elite.
I left Calimafia 7 years ago, but still have most of my friends there. They adore Newsom, and think Cali is the exceptional state among states. They tolerate the smog, horrendous traffic, and high taxes, and all of them thought I was crazy to move to Florida. So it does take all kinds of people to make our world.
Remember how they foisted the tranny freaks flashing ball sacks in primary schools – while parents clapped and danced along?
Now this https://www.zerohedge.com/political/obese-woman-wins-miss-alabama-and-people-have-questions
It’s all about mass demoralization
It’s all about making up crazy lies, so everyone thinks you’re the hero with the inside info.
How Many Trillions Will You Pay for Electric Vehicles?
Political fantasies keep crashing into automotive reality.
And how are you profiting from this? What are your investment recommendations? Or are you just here to whine, complain and spread your moronic cult beliefs?
How am I profiting?
I am currently building a new energy system that will be powered by stupidity … then I will yoke the EVs owners to the system and generate low cost electricity that I will then sell to the grid operators.
California will be the epicentre.
Meanwhile … I am sitting back … and watching the Tesla Fan Boys… lose their minds… as reality sinks in.
Ha ha ha ha … I do enjoy when ya’ll get angry
I believe Connecticut is tethered to California’s CEC rulemaking, but has started severing specific laws that can’t possibly be implemented by their legislated dates.
Former CT governor Dan Malloy was forced to resign (technically he “chose” not to run for re-election when his party told him he had zero chance) after he bungled storm Sandy recovery efforts … like he was an inept CA politician. Malloy was Obama’s State of the Union guest of honor after the Sandy Hook school shooting (which was caused in part by an inept state psychiatrist advising the shooter’s mom to buy a gun for her son). Malloy’s mishandling of the electrical grid pretty much ended his political career, and pushed Northeast Utilities into bankruptcy (a shotgun wedding with Eversource). Malloy was the architect of a lot of the enviro-terrorist laws in CT, and he was the jackass that levied all sorts of extra taxes on electricity to cover up his spending binges.
The current CT governor Ned Lamont is a trust fund baby, who’s daddy arranged the merger of Bristol-Myers and Squibb company decades ago. BMY is trading where it was in 2012ish, and where it was in 1997ish. That trust fund isn’t going as far as it used to, and like all worthless trust fund babies, eventually Lamont has to face reality.
CT also has an official government debt problem, and a bloated municipal payroll problem that causes a severely underfunded pension scheme — and CT taxes are already much higher than the national average. The wealthy are already leaving at a faster pace (percentage wise) than California. Upstate CT relies on Fairfield County (near NYC) to fund the entire state — and NYC has its own list of problems and wealthy leaving.
CT has a lot of hills and irregular roads — not EV friendly. It gets very cold in the winter — not good for batteries. CT’s electrical grid is marginally better than California’s but only marginally. Like CA, a huge amount of CT power generation comes from out of state.
Can’t power electrical batteries with imaginary power brought in from out of state, store it in freezing cold batteries and then have sufficient power to climb hills. And CT’s fiscal situation is very tenuous, they cannot afford to bribe or subsidize bad technology.
Oh, and the First Poltergeist in the Oval Office also drained the northeast gasoline reserve to reduce his spending deficit. Biden has screwed New England economically.
As bad as EV’s are in hilly and rural Virginia, CT adds very cold weather effect on batteries. EV’s are simply not going to happen in CT.
While bankrupt states like IL and CA get all the financial media attention, CT government (and a lot of corruption) has squandered hundreds of billions over the last 20-30 years.
CT’s unofficial nickname is “Corrupticut”
The May US BLS Disability numbers are in.
The US population 16 & Over has been rising again every month since January and sits less than 100k from new all time high.
The Civilian Labor Force 16 & Over went to a slight new all time high.
This trend is going in the wrong direction 4 years after the pandemic & furthermore the US civilian labor force which should be healthier than the general US population is making a new high.
Again why is is this not an interesting phenomenon to the watchdog institutions?
https://t.me/EdwardDowdReal/824
This explains the job openings.. but nobody wants to talk about THIS… cuz most of them shot the Rat Juice… and now they are scared… and in order not to lose their minds… they pretend this is not happening.
THIS is total carnage… it’s multiple Vietnam War death totals in a far shorter time frame… and it is not stopping
Did you vax your kids? Oops.
SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭 Swiss Cardiologist Dr. Thomas Binder says, “Today we know that COVID vaccines have a negative effect; they promote illness and death… they have not saved a single life…”
“Covid vaccines have caused a real pandemic of all types of illnesses and sudden deaths…”SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭 Swiss Cardiologist Dr. Thomas Binder says, “Today we know that COVID vaccines have a negative effect; they promote illness and death… they have not saved a single life…”
“Covid vaccines have caused a real pandemic of all types of illnesses and sudden deaths…” https://t.me/downtherabbitholewegofolks/93519
Yes but they have created lots of job opportunities for those who are not damaged…as well as promotions for many many thousands.
For some this is a great outcome… I betcha quite a few people got salary increases 🙂
Lol! He spent time in a mental institution. I think he also said that smoking and inhaling bleach was good for you and helps prevent Covid. And he is a member of the flat earth society to boot!
You sure can pick winners when you go down those rabbit holes.
Believe one crazy “expert” while dismissing ten thousand real experts.
Lol!
Totally unscientific, anti-intellectual and willfully ignorant statements.
Google papers that are being published with descriptions and statistics of the human damage that has been done and is ongoing due to the mRNA products and the problem with the spike protein.
Lol. Just trying to relate to the cult morons here.
Now, how about you show me the stats on this.
Are they published beside the stats that show the harm that seat belts cause? Or maybe next to the stats that show how quitting smoking harms people? Same stupidity.
There is a lot of information out there out there.
Search it yourself.
I will not waste any more time on a fool.
From: “Cause Unknown”: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 & 2022 & 2023
“2020 saw a spike in deaths in America, smaller than you might imagine during a pandemic, some of which could be attributed to COVID and to initial treatment strategies that were not effective.
But then, in 2021, the stats people expected went off the rails. The CEO of the OneAmerica insurance company publicly disclosed that during the third and fourth quarters of 2021, death in people of working age (18–64) was 40 percent higher than it was before the pandemic. Significantly, the majority of the deaths were not attributed to COVID.
A 40 percent increase in deaths is literally earth-shaking. Even a 10 percent increase in excess deaths would have been a 1-in-200-year event. But this was 40 percent.”
Yep. That’s what I thought. No stats. Moron.
40% higher is a stat. A 6 sigma outlier, even. Rather odd that the public health agencies don’t want to investigate what caused it. The Covid shot is the obvious answer as to why they don’t. They know it is dangerous.
a stat you pulled out of your posterior and didn’t even bother to wipe off.
You haven’t read any such thing. You got nothing, because none of that exists.
It is so cringingly obvious when you clowns retreat to ‘research it yourself’. Has the energy of that fat kid in high school that was an ‘expert with nunchucks’/
Nobody believes you. They just subtly remove your craziness from their social circle, until the only people that will talk to you are other crazies.
And me. You can talk to me. I’m here for you.
That’s what I love about these comment sections. There’s a reliable supply of weapons-grade crazy to gawp at.
Yep. They’re morons peddling their cult conspiracy crap and wasting our time. They get in the way of intelligent discussion.
This tax will just encourage people to buy the biggest gas gullers they can get their hands on directly contradicting the climate mandate they proposed.
I found a way to put VAMPIRE TEETH into a Picture of Newsom smiling like a Prince. I sent it to everyone I know in Cal and not ONE friend DID NOT LAUGH. Some called me LOL-ing while looking at it. If I could post it here, then I would but this forum has no attachment tool.
HE IS DRACULA, after ALL and sucking the life blood out of the State. HOW he retains power is amazing.
He is SO crooked.
He’s not DRACULA, you moron. He’s a lizard person.
“It’s on purpose.”
Yes, just as raising the minimum fast food wage to $20 an hour was. 10,000 fast food jobs are gone now. Others have had hours cut and more automation will be going in as soon as possible to cut staff to minimal as possible. Rubios suddenly closed 48 restaurants and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Newsom and the legislators knew this would happen in advance and did it anyway. It’s their leftist agenda.
WHO IN THE H’ell down-voted this post? SPEAK UP COWARD.
It was probably Barry 😉
https://ritholtz.com/2024/06/seattle-redux-misunderstanding-seasonal-adjustments/
https://ritholtz.com/2024/06/thanks-joe-updating-brandons-restaurants/
More restaurants than ever making more money than ever with more employees than ever, at least in his corner of the country.
I don’t know if he’s in the 0.1% or the 0.01%, but he’s loaded.
I did it. I’m GLAD I did it. I’ll do it again!!
Good post Mish.
As I frequently say, mandates and regulations will be changed or reversed when reality slaps you in the face.
Yes, companies will shut down unprofitable refineries. Which could reduce fuel supplies and result in shortages.
It will be interesting to see what the response will be if gasoline shortages happen.
Meanwhile, with the current heat wave in California, I imagine that they’re burning a lot of natural gas to generate the electricity to run all those air conditioners.
And natural gas prices is California are also a lot higher than the rest of the country.
Henry Hub Natgas Prices, 2024
Jan $3.18
Feb $1.72
Mar $1.49
California Natgas Prices 2024
Jan $13.29
Feb $14.35
Mar $15.19
Tourmaline (Canadian Natgas company) supplies over 5% of California’s Natgas.
California politicians continue to do their bloody best to kill the golden goose. As a Californian I don’t know WTF they are thinking. As an example modern data storage and AI use a lot of power meanwhile California has the highest and rising energy costs in the U.S. This and other issues is also beginning to drive the movie industry out as well….
Residents of California are simply stupid.
Media weenies like to make fun of Florida man or people from West Virginia… that reflects the media’s intolerence and fear of everything outside of NYC and LA. Florida state schools (as an example) have outranked California schools for the last two decades, while costing less.
It doesn’t matter if California has lots of PhDs or other academic credentials – academic credentials signify that a person kissed the right ass in college and held the leftist most political views’ and pretty much that’s all it shows. Plenty of really smart people never attended college or only have a bachelors degree. Plenty of really dumb people have PhDs.
Californians should be judged on their track record – in economics, they turned a beautiful state into a high tax homeless camp while collecting a *LOT* of military spending. In environment, they created the worst wild fires on the continent while draining the colorado river to a trickle before it even gets to L.A. In energy, they insist on endless landscape lighting and central A/C, but they don’t allow power plants in state. The majority of their electricity comes from out of state (or Canada).
Speaking of, Pamela Anderson is from Canada, not from California.
Calfornia people are f#cking morons, and their governor is just appealing to their stupid.
California is marxist stupidity, like much of Latin America… its just that California is a Latino trust fund baby.
Once the trust fund (gold rush and cold war spending) start to run dry, the trust fund babies end up with homeless camps.
It happened to Karl Marx when his father passed away and the new factory owners stopped giving Karl his “allowance” (he was well over 18 by that time). Marx died a pauper.
The same will happen to the stupid trust fund babies we currently refer to as “Californians”.
The gold rush ended. Uncle Sam is out of money and has pretty much maxed out debt for at least a generation…. The CA trust fund babies are already moving into homeless camps.
California morons
I’ve written this before, but I just can’t resist. Favorite bumper sticker of all time: “The only thing worse than a Californian is an ex-Californian.”
God, you people are SO biased against Californians when MANY are just like US.
I do hate WOKENESS and ORANGE HAIR and the weird ones and they live in SF or LA. The north of Cal is gorgeous, with beautiful ranches.
My Dad is a horse breeder. He makes a fine living and came west in the 1930’s on a ARKY TRUCK seeking work in the APPLE ORCHARDS of Sebastopol.
He is DIE HARD REPUBLICAN. That is also quite sickening, being convinced the TRUMP has his back. BS!
Your dad *IS* a horse breeder in CA?
I don’t know your dad, and you might be one of the political agitators Mish likes… but lets stipulate that the info you gave about your dad is correct.
He went to CA in the 1930s — lets say 1939 to be safe.
He should have been an adult (age 18), but he might have lied about his age in the time when citizens were taken at their word and illegal aliens couldn’t bypass TSA ID checks with a note from George Soros. Lets say your dad lied about his age and was actually 16.
That would make your dad 101 years old now, and you say he *IS* present tense a horse breeder, If your dad was 18yrs or more, or if he went to California before 1939, he would be older.
Do I believe a 101+ year old is rustling horses? No, I’ve heard way too much bullsh!t from California already
DO NOT lump all Californians as being alike. It is a HUGE state, with AG, Ranches, Cattle People, and so on. THOSE AREAS are inhabited by people who WISH they could leave but these are 4000 Acre Ranches and inherited from the 1800’s. THEY CANNOT LEAVE as it is TOO MUCH to give up. WHEN THEY SELL OUT, they leave for Idaho.
I know that Clint Eastwood’s politics lean heavily libertarian or politically right, depending on one’s definitions.
That doesn’t change the fact that Hollywood is a ultra-left batshit crazy hell hole that no longer even pretends to care about entertaining its customers. Like the banana republic of California, all Hollywood does is preach their extremist politics and try to shove them down everyone else’s throats.
Schwarzenegger was married to a Kennedy and he only appears republican in comparison to Hollywood. He is pretty left wing when benchmarked against the USA as a whole.
Maybe you are to California what Eastwood is to Hollywood? Don’t know. Even if true, you would be a distinct minority in a state full of stupid.
Mis-information (or vague-information).
UCLA/Berkeley (plus UCSB, UCSD, etc) vs UofF, FSU, FIU or USF….really??
California generates over 100% SOLAR power each day (see Caliso.com) and is a net exporter between 1-3 PM. Yes, some importing from Nevada, etc, at night.
22,000 MW peak solar … 5 min increment data at https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply
CA is leading the way in Electrons (just not the hydrocarbon dinosaur fuel)!
Yes, college rankings put both UF and FSU above UCLA and Berkley. Since Stanford is private, they are not ranked versus state schools. Sorry to hear about your outdated ignorance. UC schools have been in decline for decades, while Florida has been steadily improving.
And your absurd claim that CA is 100% solar?!?!? You are stupid even by California standards. More than half of CA’s electricity comes from out of your state.
Your state is famous for brown outs. You are stupid
Yes, Willie likes to spread misinformation. But that doesn’t mean you should as well.
California gets 22% of its electricity from other states. Of its own electricity generation, 50% of it is from burning natural gas. 35% renewable, 9% nuclear, 7% hydro dams.
Papa – I’m saying during MID-DAY (1-3 PM), in spring/early summer (milder temps … some A/C; little heat), CA is 100%+ solar. Not 24/7.
Until batteries have a breakthrough or we grid up the whole Earth (send power under the oceans), full-time solar is not possible. Thus, CA has built about all the solar that is reasonable; yet the stupid part is that new houses still require it.
Your stats are fine averaged across a year (the 35% renewable is the ~8 hours/day of usable sun elevations that provide ~100% of CA electricity).
There are RURAL AREAS in California with VERY conservative constituents – – who make a living ranching, raising and processing Cattle, or are Horse people and THEY are the salt of the earth. My dad lives in Northern Cal where one of the biggest Rodeo’s in the Country is held and you cannot find a WOKE person in the COUNTY. Now, go into SF, things change. LA, horrible.
I hate Newsom.
We left Cal and never looked back and now live in Portugal.
Clint Eastwood is not representative of Hollywood, and rural CA farms are severely out populated and out voted by LA, SF, SD, etc. No matter what Eastwood does or says, Hollywood is still extremist left wing crazy, and California is still stupid.
If you didn’t think California was stupid, why did you move to Portugal?
I believe your actions more than I believe your words
The EPA has outlived it usefulness. Metro areas have air “cleaner” than the 1970s with many more cars.
So to expand its power, the EPA decided CO2 is a pollutant to regulate. CAFE standards began to ween us from foreign oil; now perverted to reduce plant food known as CO2.
Just like mRNA covid shots are about political power and political kickbacks, the environmental movement is also about political power and political kickbacks. Military spending long ago ceased to be about defending the USA or liberty … its all about politics and kickbacks.
Pretty much anything we see on national “news” broadcasts should be considered highly suspect. If the TV anchor’s lips are moving, he/she is probably lying.
EVs dont last more than 7 years. I have two cards older than that that continue to run just fine. Good thing we don’t drive much.
Newsom and others don’t look at the environmental impact of EV batteries. There are dozens of rare earth metals and minerals that have to be used on these batteries for them just to work for 7 years.
At some point, gasoline will have a healthy underground market with low cash prices just like everything else that gets regulated. It is impossible for the regulators to control the underground market.
As I always say, there is a lot of pretending going on. This applies to both liberal and conservative and doesn’t seem to discriminate. This is what happens when you look at the world through rose colored glasses.
I don’t think it’s even about emissions… there are just way way too many cars on the road there. It’s awful, and a complete waste of everybody’s time.
Psst…with my Gas (leaded preferred), can I get a 100W incandescent?
Seriously, where will 1000s lb of Gas come from? Your home refinery…trucked from Vegas? Can’t really grow it like pot or bathtub it like meth. Enlighten me….
I have an EV that’s more than 7 years old, but ok.
Is it your only vehicle?
We’ve got a camping monster truck thing too, but yeah, it’s the primary car and gets 10-15k miles put on it per year.
Before you ask, yes, the battery and range are still fine. It’s frustratingly obsolete in terms of things like charging speed these days, but c’est la vie – EVs keep getting better and cheaper at sort of a crazy rate.
Unless someone crashes it, I imagine it’ll belong to all three of our kids one they’re old enough, and after that who knows.
Cheep Underground gas? YGTBKM. The cartels will be selling the black market gas and the huge profits will go back to Mexico
“What Newsom and his supporters deserve is for all California refiners to leave the state.”
And they apparently are taking many of their customers with them. That’s okay, the illegals will sort-of-kinda fill the void…maybe.
Now a surplus of fast-food workers and gardeners?
Virginia realized that Trump will win if you force EV’s on everyone. Cali is a little slow but they will come to the same conclusion eventually.
Anecdotal experience is that most Californians spend all of their time obsessing with Trump so there is nothing left over to realize they’ve been robbed blind by the people they elected.
Note: The Great State of CA had the most Trump voters of any in 2020….yea, they’re all in hiding and not giving their name.
Not in coastal CA. These people are whacked.
It’s funny how the government complains about oil company profits but the government makes more money on gasoline sales than the oil companies do.
Yes, and once California moves to all EV’s where are they going to get that tax revenue that adds up to several billions of dollars.
One proposal is to start taxing by miles driven for EVs but that means yearly inspections (time and money for consumers and yet another government department) and a once a year bill for several hundred dollars. Most families won’t have budget for that since they can’t budget now for expenses like that.
“ that means yearly inspections”
No, they’ll force an app onto the cars or some such big-brother tech to passively monitor.
The usual Suspects will not have to pay for their inspections will be subsidized by the state .. will be relieved from paying gas tax and be exempt from paying for inspection probably for income reasons.. so while one group it’s completely relieved from taxes to pay the roads.. the productive but dwindling middle and upper classes will be hit even harder by the new fees.. will only exacerbate The Exodus of the productive from California..
“The bill signed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam lets (but does not require) Virginia to follow California nonsense.”
Where did you get that interpretation? I perused through the text of the law to see if Northram’s executive action would hold up and something like that did not pop out. Northram’s justification is that the Virginia law only applies to the first version of the California law, which ends in 2025.
Why would Trump want to reverse things in California? It’s not his base and people there clearly don’t care for him so why should he attempt to help them or even get into a fight about it?
Instead he should just let them flounder around in what they have wrought in terms of very high gas prices and concentrate on important things like the border.
Because he’s Superman, Jesus, and Oral Roberts all rolled into one. He can do ANYTHING!
Trump should let Caifornia be. The Federal Govt. should stay out of the state’s business – even if they are doing something stupid…
With the current prices of EVs and the availability, or lack of, charging for EVs, the other prediction may be more true = That our green-rulers don’t want us to have vehicles, at all. That it is time for people to go back to the 18th century and mostly get about on foot.
Praise Jesus! However, if that little squad chick Spanberger gets in, they will flip it back.
The only way to sell an EV is with high gas prices. Batteries lose efficiency in the cold too, which Virginia has.
Yep, it’ll be fugly once Biden/Harris/Newsome get re-elected. Over 100M votes I hear are in planning (aka printing).
Can you imagine: President Harris?
Now THAT is apocalyptic.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/OyyBQDNg77Y