EPA Chief Wheeler Slams CA Gov. Newsom for Ban on Gas Cars, Diesel Vehicles
Wheeler to Newsom: “You can’t even keep the lights on.”
Last week, I reported that California Gov. Gavin Nesom had signed an executive order banning the sale of new cars and diesel vehicles in the state after 2035.
This week, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler mocked Newsom’s plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, saying the proposal raises “significant questions of legality.”
… Wheeler sent Newsom a letter questioning how the state could add millions of electric vehicles despite having “a record of rolling blackouts.” He said it “begs the question of how you expect to run an electric car fleet that will come with significant increases in electricity demand, when you can’t even keep the lights on today.”
California had its first rolling blackouts in nearly 20 years last month when demand for electricity during a heat wave was so high the state ran out of power. More than half a million homes and businesses lost power for about an hour. The state came close to mandatory power shutoffs a few other times this year, but was able to avoid them.
Wheeler also notes that the ban would also require the EPA’s approval, which doesn’t seem likely to happen.
Mr. Wheeler also said the order likely wouldn’t be able to be implemented by the California Air Resources Board without approval from the EPA, noting that the Trump administration in 2019 took away California’s power to set its own vehicle tailpipe emissions standards.
Finally, Wheeler pointed out the scientific realities related to the rolling blackouts and their impact on public health and the environment.
Wheeler doubled-down on California’s recent blackouts and power shortages, which he said have caused a “series of otherwise preventable environmental and public health consequences.”
The EPA Administrator pointed to a blackout-caused pump station failure, which resulted in 50,000 gallons of raw sewage to be spilled directly into the Oakland Estuary.
The power grid problems also resulted in the California Independent System Operator – the organization that operates the state’s energy market – to seek an emergency exemption from federal air quality standards in order to maintain power.
That request was granted, but Wheeler said it resulted in an increase of pollution such as fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxide.
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The reason for the frequent power outages here is because the greenies slashed electricity production capacity from coal, oil, natgas and nuclear to make room for what was promised to be abundant renewable sources. Those sources failed to replace even half of the trashed capacity and never will. I maintain that renewable contribution is inflated by the natural gas “peak plants” embedded in at least the wind turbine fields which doesn’t get metered.
The outages are also not due to the “record” heat nor climate change either. CA orders black outs whenever forest fire conditions become “worrisome”. (I wonder if that explains why SoCal Edison is now the prime suspect for causing the Bobcat fire where I live? Pacific Gas isn’t the only electric utility that starts fires due to neglect.)
The only way for the green new deal to work in CA is for most of the population to leave. I hear North Korea is a shining model for that.
Thanks to Gov. Nosense’s politically correct order, maybe you should consider moving from Pasadena to Glendale …
… Arizona.
Prescott. I’m learning that renting is more complicated than owning and supply is not great. It’s cheaper to buy in AZ but rents are comparatively too high for my purposes. I don’t want to buy until I’ve lived there for a while. And those “planned communities” with their HOAs (another layer of government) and cookie-cutter neighborhoods are a big turn-off.
Lots of Texas money pouring into the Phoenix area (and Prescott apparently) which is already turning the Phoenix area into another Mexico City. (Homeless is spreading fast due to the shiny new rapid rail system.)
At least Prescott has some geographical barriers for the developers to deal with and a completely different attitude than Phoenix. Weather is better too. We’ll see. I’m rethinking Nevada.
“And those “planned communities” with their HOAs (another layer of government) (…)”
Thanks, Cynthia…
Sorry, I don’t get it.
CA citizens have to give the DEMS the heave-ho like these elected DEM reps in Ohio and Georgia are.
Black Ohio Democrat State Rep Endorses Trump For Reelection
Via Daily Wire and Weazel Zippers
On Tuesday, a female Democratic Ohio state representative endorsed President Trump for reelection. Bernadine Kennedy Kent, representing the 25th District located in Columbus, Ohio, wrote, “Today, following in the bold first step of Georgia State Representative Vernon Jones, I am both honored and humbled to be the second Democrat State Representative to publicly announce my endorsement of President Donald J. Trump.”
“From my perspective as a lawmaker who was elected for the first time in 2016, following a lifetime as an educator and child advocate, I have admired President Trump’s dedication to law and order and his respect for our Constitution,” Kent continued. “His strong leadership and willingness to fight for educational and economic empowerment for minorities has brought unprecedented hope to the American people.”
I’m moving from the San Francisco to Arizona. Going off grid. Land is cheap and plentiful. You are right that renting is nigh impossible between demand and price. I bought a travel trailer, which in the counties I’m looking at you can live in for up to two years while you build a permanent structure. RV parks are abundant and cheaper than renting, which is another benefit to having a trailer.
I’m clearly not looking to live in another city, so your mileage may vary.
I too am very interested in small towns, even in rural areas. I grew up in what was then a small NH town. Much better way to live.
Land is usually far less expensive off grid. And a properly designed off grid power system can, depending on climate, store excess energy can in a battery bank until it is full, and then can store as heat in a hot water heater or the earth under a house, or in a large water tank; or if it is a hot climate by freezing water in an insulated tank. Some people store excess energy as compressed air in large propane tanks (not very efficient).
Regarding using the grid as storage, power companies are in large part screwing customers, by trading dirt cheap off peak power for costly peak power.
My current house stores heat under my basement, from both a wood fired boiler (I have lots of trees, 40 acres or so), and from generators when I run them.
There is a fairly high probability that when I rebuild, it will be off grid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ryqv9REMpsg
(41 seconds)
Yes, HOAs make government look reasonable. I remember back in the early 80s seeing McCormick Ranch in Scottsdale. It was horrible. All those restrictions too.
Prescott’s nice during the summer to be sure. But, if I were to go back to Arizona though, I might consider the Bisbee area instead. Or, if I wanted a lower elevation, Safford would be a good choice. The climate there is cooler than Tucson and drier than Tucson, making a swamp cooler a good choice for lowing energy costs.
I’ll look into it. Thanks.
Hey Pasadena Phil! This is South Pasadena Sally. What do you think about Flagstaff as a place for A California to go? Temp is my most difficult issue with AZ.
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What did communist countries used to use for light before candles?
…
electricity
I think Jeff Spicoli would be a better governor than gavin. The good thing about this gas car ban is it pretty much disqualifies him from national public office. Think I’ll also leave this right here:
https://recallgavin2020.com/
Perhaps a better way would be to ‘federalize’ production. Place simple requirements for power generation on states and congressional districts.
Each congressional district would produce say 40% of its consumption within the district and could import 40% from elsewhere within the state but be limited to importing a maximum of 20% of consumption from other states.
This proposal accomplishes several things.
1. Hardening the grid via more local production capacity
2. Allows the local community to govern and regulate the production of power while ensuring that the local and state regulatory costs are born by the proponents.
3. Ensures that the environmental and other negative impact of power production are more evenly distributed.
So in sum the leftist states and congressional districts will have to bear the costs of their policies and share in the downsides of production; potential pollution, transmission
lines, in exchange they can regulate their local production.
About 20 years ago, I worked for Smith Barney who had an excellent analyst that issued an epic research report focusing on “distributed power generation”. It focused on eliminating the inefficient and vulnerable long distance power grids. He noted that the new tech-based economy made modern firms vulnerable to “dirty” utility electricity so they invested heavily on their own in-house electric generation to stabilize the “dirty” feed. This was a major research going to waste as those generators were largely lying idle at night when, for instance, workers would be home turning on their a/c.
He advocated deregulating electric utilities to let the market decide where to buy the electricity with everyone mainly connected to the local grid. CA screwed it up when they put SCE in charge of deregulation and we got Enron. The only thing that got deregulated was price so it just made things worse putting the fox in charge of the hen house. The idea was to allow capital to chase the most efficient solution and let it evolve into a less vulnerable, lower cost and more productive decentralized system.
It was a great idea but the corrupt politicians used the idea of “deregulation” as a cover for selling out to SCE and PG&E. We really should revisit that option. It would be the best way for renewables to find their market niches without the heavy taxpayer subsidies. As the technology improves and they find more profitable applications, they would grow accordingly but by organic evolution vs politicians handing out sweetheart deals to cronies for kickbacks.
Yeah, that’ll happen. It’s not that we don’t come up with great solutions, it’s that the crooks control the process.
“…a major RESOURCE going to waste …”
so…….more government?
I get your point and there are some valuable goals there but….not the way to do it IMO.
dmacleo,
‘More government’ – actually it calls for less government in that localities could regulate or not regulate, their choice, but their local policy preferences would be limited to their geographic control. If say NYC or San Francisco choose the path of high regulatory barriers that would be limited to:
1. The producers in those areas
2. Negotiating contracts, with appropriately priced purchases that producers set, for the imported power generation
There isn’t a requirement for more government regulation. Doubtless some locations would opt for it, but they would no longer be able to externalize the costs.
The Palo Verde Nuclear site in AZ sells a lot of power to southern CA since they are so dumb and shut down all their nuclear power stations.
They just ban gas/diesel cars so that people can’t escape CA – and because of the ‘rolling blackouts’ electric car owners won’t be able to charge their cars either. That’s kind of a Communist win-win situation…
The communist notion of egalitarianism is that all members of the proletariat will suffer, equally, while the nomenklatura and apparatchiks live high on the hog.
I’m disappointed in myself that I didn’t come up with this moniker — I saw the other day that a wit (or, wits) had crafted the gloriously appropriate title of “Newsolini” to accurately capture the quintessence of this totalitarian, would-be dictator’s arrogant and oppressive style of governance.
I moved my family from California to Idaho four years ago. It is truly amazing to see Democrats keep doubling down on stupid there. We will finally see how tight a grip Democrats have on the voting there this next election. If there is not a major shift in voting away from them, California is lost.
A couple of thoughts:
– People are leaving California in droves. The business shutdown was already driving them out but I noticed a big uptick in people I know either moving or deciding to move with Newsom’s ban on gas-powered vehicles. For some reason that seems to be the final straw. Oh – and they aren’t telling people they are moving. In the church I belong to (well known to lend helping hands) several families have just upped and moved without telling anyone until after they are gone. My neighbors did that too. Weird. Like they are escaping.
– Voting. People are really starting to hate Newsom (especially small business owners) and despite the Bay Area’s liberal disposition some Trump/Pence signs are popping up here and there. Courageous people! If there is ever a chance to wrest the state back from the abyss it is now. However, if the Dems win the state I will assume fraud is so strong all hope for a Republican comeback in California is gone for good.
I wonder why people think Newsome – or any Communist – cares whether or not it is feasible for electric cars to replace the current gas-powered vehicles. This is about control, and always will be.
And thanks to a toxic combination of media lying, a neutered opposition party, public-school indoctrination, and voting fraud, it is growing less likely the proles will be able to “throw the bums out”. Recall that the last GOP governor of the People’s Democratic Republic of California was Ahnauld, who was scarcely any better than Newsome.
Something most people don’t get about leftists; they belive every idea is already written and waiting is a desk, That they way they do things. Obamacare was written in teh 1960s and waited in a drawer. They don’t understand ideas take time to implement and devise
I see an rather obvious solution, it seems to work on many problems. Let the free market operate. Power supplies, consumer friendly vehicles could be available in short order. Too much government causes many more problems than it ever solves.
Has Gavin ever considered the source of all the electricity needed to charge all those batteries?
No matter if it is 15 or 100 years from now, one thing remains immutably true:
If there is energy in the ground somebody is going to find it and use it.
If it is in OUR ground it might as well be us!
It’s not the energy source that matters as much as how well it is utilized. Who’s to say that we won’t be able to use fossil fuels even more cleanly in 15 years? Every year brings more sophisticated methods. Banning an energy source in an ever competitive world is suicidal!
A big factor, often not considered, in cost benefit of things, especially things we can do for ourselves, is how much we save by not paying as much in taxes. Governments and business both extract a great deal money from us. A key factor in my being completely free of debt by my mid thirties was having skills to do most things myself.