A few weeks ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning the sale of new gasoline powered automobile engines by 2036, with a phase out schedule over the next fourteen years. “This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” Governor Newsom said. The problem with Governor Newsom’s claim is that the biggest impact will be felt by China, who will reap billions if not trillions of dollars over the next decade as the world’s largest lithium ore refining and lithium-ion production operation in the world. Without lithium, there are no electric vehicle batteries, and China knows this, as does Governor Newsom. So why the quick rush for the state government to mandate a certain type of vehicle over another, without market forces driving the shift? Put plainly, it’s a reflection of Democrats’ attempts to put government front and center in our daily lives and make us dependent on it even if the majority doesn’t want it. Here’s a close up look at California, U.S.A, and what it can teach us about going electric nationwide.
As previously mentioned, lithium is an essential mineral used in today’s advanced electronic products, mostly the microchips that go into smart phones and laptops like what you are using to read this article, and increasingly automobiles and other transportation vehicles. For electric cars, lithium-ion is necessary to create the energy needed to sustain a long battery life. The problem is that the U.S. is years away from having the manufacturing capacity to mine lithium and refine it into lithium-ion and manufacture cars at a rate to meet the state of California’s demands. Who has the capacity to mine, refine, ship and produce lithium-ion? China, which controls two-thirds of the world’s lithium production. California’s mandate will help usher in an advanced industrialization of China faster than America’s industrialization at the turn of the 20th century.
In addition, the rapid acceleration is an unfair burden on the automotive industry. John Bozzella, President and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents major automakers, told CNBC that “California’s mandate would be ‘extremely challenging’ for automakers to meet.”
“Whether or not these requirements are realistic or achievable is directly linked to external factors like inflation, charging and fuel infrastructure, supply chains, labor, critical mineral availability and pricing, and the ongoing semiconductor shortage,” Bozzella said in a statement. “These are complex, intertwined and global issues.”
While California is “leading the nation,” as Governor Newsom likes to say, here’s a look at how California ranks compared to other states based on some key metrics:
- California has a 4.1% unemployment rate (approx. 791,000 people), the 38th highest in the country and above the national average of 3.6%, according to the August, 2022 numbers reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
- California Ranks 29th on the Heritage Foundation’s new Education Freedom Report Card, which is an annual assessment of education freedom in each state.
- California ranks near the bottom, 48th in overall freedom, based on a combination of personal and economic freedoms, by the CATO Institute’s ‘Freedom in the 50 States’ annual report.
- The nonpartisan ‘Fiscal Stability Ranking’ by U.S. News and World Report puts California at 36th in the nation for long-term and short-term fiscal health.
- California is leading the nation as the state with the highest debt, a mere $506.7 billion dollars owed.
- California’s personal income tax, with a rate of 13.3%, is the highest in the country.
California sure does lead the way. It’s leading so much that its people are fleeing the state, having the 4th largest decline of all 50 states in 2021, according to a recent study by Pew Charitable Trust. “California lost more than 352,000 residents between April 2020 and January 2022,” the Los Angeles Times wrote, which is like a city the size of Anaheim, CA disappearing.
In an ironic scene, one that is really symbolic of California’s long list of problems under Democratic rule, days after Governor Newsom announced the state’s full ban of gasoline cars, the California’s electric grid operator put out a notice telling Californian’s that they “may need to take measures to conserve energy, including by avoiding charging electric vehicles, to prevent strain to the state’s power grid over the Labor Day weekend, officials said,” according to Newsweek. That’s right. In light of a massive heat wave sweeping the country, and Americans about to go on vacation, his administration put out an energy conservation mandate. Governor Newsom can’t have his cake and eat it too. The Newsom administration is essentially telling people that he wants more electric cars in his state and fast, while at the same time telling folks that his state’s electricity grid may not currently be able to handle the number of electric cars being charged today.
As other states look to California’s electric vehicle mandate as a model to duplicate, some states are pushing back to prevent this socialist takeover. The Minnesota Auto Dealers Association argues that the weather naturally prohibits the universal use of electric vehicles. “The technology is such that the vehicles just don’t perform that well in cold weather,” Scott Lambert, the trade group’s president, told the Associated Press. “We don’t all live in southern California.”
Governor Newsom’s energy and economic policies are simply misguided, reactionary, and obtuse. His duplicity in leadership is exactly how California got to where it is today. Other states would do well to learn the lessons of California’s mistakes and not subject their citizens to the radical laws of another state like California.
Bob Carlstrom is the President of AMAC Action
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Rings of Forest Gump, “Stupid is as Stupid does”! Guess we know what Gavin is!
Newscum is an a**hole. I live in CA and no way would I ever buy/drive one of those electric cars. They can’t even keep the grid up and running for air conditioners in 114 heat how the hell do they propose to power all electric cars. He won’t be around here in 2036 anyway.
I’ll say it one more time, we are at least 10 to 15 years away from having the technology to even think about implementing alternate sources of energy, a lot more research needs to go into the batteries that’s going to power the vehicles of the future, windmills and solar panels won’t even come close to providing the energy that each and every one of us consume on a daily basis, and finally, 5 or 6 years down the road, when batteries and solar panels have to be replaced, what impact is that going to have on the environment? These are all questions that needs to be addressed BEFORE we jump from the pan into the fire.
We ALREADY have the technology for nuclear. We are not within a century of any other “alternative” energy source to the scale needed.
Washington State is every bit as short-sighted. Governor Jay Inslee, a hand-wringing wokester, sprints to keep pace with the Gavin Newsome and Kate Brown (Oregon governor) race to an empty tank.
These politicians poorly implement bad ideas that unfavorably impact their constituents. But here’s the point. They don’t care! They see themselves working for the ‘greater good’, not for their voters.
Remarkably, those voters continue to overwhelmingly re-elect that socialist troika. So, until the voters wise-up, they — and sadly the rest of us — are stuck on empty.
Thing is…Newscum didn’t actually win the election. He harvested ballots (probably from dead people and illegals) to get and stay in office. 90% of the state HATES him.
Kind of funny that we didn’t see any fossil fuel vehicles catching fire when they got wet in Florida, but several electric cars. Those sold out to climate change will do anything to try to “save” the planet. Got news for you, God created this planet and only HE can destroy it. The major problem in the short run is a nuclear conflict. Now that will change the climate. Newsom has advanced many policies that affect human life in a very negative way. He will one day face the creator of the universe just as we all will. I pray for his soul; and some common sense would help also.
in 2035 (12 years from now) how are Californians going to charge their electric vehicles? With the Colorado river dropping, may not get any Hydroelectric power from Hover and Powell dams. (about 30% of Southern California’s power). Check out the water level for Lakes Powell & Mead. May need to buy more Chinese wind turbines and Chinese solar panels.
Great comments. But as aunt Nancy would say, we just have to pass the laws and we can figure them out later.
Yeah, ‘aunt Nancy’ is about as dumb as they come.
We might have to purchase some wind and sunshine from China to turn the turbines and shine on the solar panels (especially at night).
How about using the power from the wind turbines to power electric lights that shine on the solar panels at night to produce power that can be stored in Chinese batteries for use during the day? This would make perfect sense to CA politicians.
The movement toward electric vehicles is revitalizing lithium production in North Carolina.
California is a lesson in what NOT to do when it comes to battling climate change or anything else for that matter. Unfortunately there are some states in this country (New York included) who are more than willing to follow California right off this disastrous cliff.
My bumper stick on my gas-powered Ranger asks “If California is So Great Why Did You Move Here?”. Problem is they escape “there” and vote for the same BS they ran from “here”! Californians are like a virus.
To be fair, there are still some good conservative Californians that are fighting for change. Unfortunately, the liberal mentality is like a cancer that is moving across our country.
Not only did Newsom sign the mandate requiring the conversion to all electric vehicles, but the Legislature passed bills and he signed, the rapid phase out of all gas appliances in the same time period. That means things like gas stoves, gas heaters, gas furnaces, gas dryers, etc.
And the starting 1 January 2022 the State is in control of housing codes. The local cities and towns must comply. And it does away with zoning for individual private housing; every city is now to allow, without public hearing, high density housing.
Will the existing homes with natural gas (or propane) for stoves, heating and hot water have to convert to electric?
Probably not until the gas appliance goes out unless the state cuts off the sale of natural gas and propane. We hope all the illegals coming to California can meet all the new mandates.
The new electric vehicles are no better than the 100 year old models, today’s are just more complicated and expensive.
Jay Leno has a couple of early examples in his collection, a 1908 Baker Electric and a 1916 hybrid Owen Magnetic.
Every day, new problems surface with owning an electric car or truck, from the vehicle itself to the lack of charging sites and expense of charging them, to replacement battery costs, to declining grid power. Plugging in to your house 120 volts takes hours/days to fully charge an electric car for fewer miles of range than a gas powered car. .
Minnesota car dealers are right, electric cars do have lower range with cold weather. Also the charging time increases in cold weather. about a 30-40% drop in range when around 20F. electric cars would really be a poor choice in Alaska.
So many small communities in the mountains have no public electric charging stations. I guess you just don’t visit those locations.
California is being destroyed. If the people want to support Newsom’s policies, let the state continue to waste away, and the only people left will be the elite, the poor, immigrants, and the homeless. Good luck with that future. It’s the middle class that sustains America’s prosperity.
If we didn’t change the climate back when everything was run on coal and black smoke belched everywhere, how can they say we are changing it now when the US has almost the cleanest air of any major country?
The ONLY CLIMATE CHANGE POLICIES America NEEDS is the TOTAL DESTRUCTION OF TODAY’S SO-CALLED DEMOCRATIC PARTY!
Remember this. Put mama and 3 kids in ,you have added more weight. Harder on the car ,more power needed, not as much milage. Kyle L.
Since his mandates are executive orders, can’t the next governor of California change them? I would think California has wised up enough by now that they will not elect another Democrat Governor. Ever.
Dont count on it Gtace. They didn’t get rid of Newsom a while back. Kyle L.
We’re sure as hell going to try. He hasn’t a right to ‘mandate’ anything….he’s a worthless egotistic POS.
The Democrat Party is in total control of the state.
If only that were true. With all of the horrible policies related to the covid response and his hypocrisy getting caught violating them he still couldn’t be recalled. We had a great opportunity to replace him with Larry Elder. In fact he just doubled down on the things that irritate people that aren’t woke leftists. He just signed the bill that could threaten to take a physician’s license if they treat patients or even promote any treatment that is not the official policy of the CDC. They could be found guilty of spreading “misinformation”. It’s ironic that leftists do this on a daily basis like saying men can give birth, promoting the wearing of masks and Covid vacines.
California will never wise up. They keep voting in Pelosi.
Ca may wise up when the next earthquake put half the state in the Pacific Ocean.
Yes, but that’s San Fransicko. Is the rest of the state just as perverted and insane?
Many make snap decisions regarding California politics. What is billed as the west coast “blue wall” in fact is a “coastal thin blue line” however, that line contains high population and a far left mind set. And as you could expect they control the money, politics, and dominate policy no matter how stupid it is. If it were a mining operation; that thin blue line gets all the gold while the rest of the state is left with the shaft.
P.S. i.e. where are the worst social cesspools located in the state? Smack dab middle of the “thin blue line”.
FIRST OF ALL THESE VEHICALS ARE BATTERY POWERED … IF THEY WERE ELECTRIC, THEY WOULD HAVE EXTENSION CORDS. AS LAWN MOWERS DID AT ONE TIME.
They are battery operated, not battery powered. The batteries don’t produce any power. They just store power that was produced somewhere else.
Too much “glitter” and not enough “gold” for EVs to be practical at this time. No one has worked out how this will really work without serious changes in the electrical grid to be able to handle the load of all the EVs being charged at the same time and being able to provide power to air conditioning systems, water heaters, manufacturing facilities, hospitals, nursing homes, and all of the other things that require (yes, Gov. Newsom, I said require) electricity to function properly. We are nowhere near the point of being able to power our needs and power our “toys” at the same time now. Before declaring the EV vehicle issue, all the rest of these issues MUST be resolved.
going electric has GONE NOWHERE in over 100 years. the current proponents are economic illiterates.
instituteforenergyresearch.org/regulation/electric-vehicle-subsidies-on-the-road-to-nowhere/Electric Vehicle Subsidies: On the Road to NowhereBY ROBERT L. BRADLEY, JR.
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019CONCLUSION
Consumer verdicts for more than a century offer insight for today. Just as proponents of wind and solar to generate electricity want to believe their world is new and futuristic, electric-vehicle interests pretend theirs is new, just needing a little more subsidy and time.
But far from an infant industry, electric vehicles are a mature, deficient alternative to conventional vehicles as judged by consumers. Extended subsidies will simply prolong the uneconomic and require future extensions. It’s time to level the playing field and let the market decide.