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THE STATE OF THINGS -
“Almost everybody now agrees that humanity should wean itself off fossil fuels fast, but what if almost everybody is wrong?” Alex Epstein
Each day, I increasingly feel that California is pushing me away from the State. The overwhelming regulations, the amount of crime, the difficulty of getting anything done, the sheer number of homeless addicts, and the expenses of being here create a strong reluctance to return to California from Mexico. Elections matter, and those elected can ruin the economy for everyone. Their policies inflate the prices of everything we handle, consume, and purchase now and in the coming years.
Meanwhile, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be upset and protest that the State Legislature and powerful Commissions are doing all they can to sabotage progress and the quality of life in the State by killing jobs and making energy more expensive based on unproven claims that Carbon Dioxide a trace gas that is essential for life is destroying the planet. CO2 is measured at 400 parts per million, and plants are believed to start to die at 280 parts per million.
Egregiously, that concern has taken direct aim and is now over-regulating our critical gasoline supply. California barely produces enough special blended gasoline to supply our fleet of 31 million gas-powered vehicles. In an incredible act of bureaucratic overreach, Governor Newsom signed AB 2 1, which gives his administration new authority to regulate the essential industry of oil refineries in the State. This is to prevent, he says, "spikes in gasoline prices due to maintenance and low supplies." Refineries must build very expensive large storage facilities and keep the required minimum amounts of gasoline. Of course, the $1.50 in extra gas taxes we pay has nothing to do with the high price of gasoline, right?
This over-regulation doesn't sit well with the oil companies and proves the old law of physics that for every action, there's a reaction. It took only two days after Newsom increased regulations for Phillips 66 to announce the closing of their Los Angeles refinery, taking 8% of the gasoline off the market in late 2025. $10.00 a gallon gasoline, here we come. Of course, the tone-deaf, brain-dead uni-party legislators in Sacramento have caused these hardships to be foisted on the citizens of California. The over-regulations and green-scam-demics that they promote and fund have been increasingly discredited.
The new study published by Nature (A recent surge in global warming is not detectable yet), long considered one of the most rigorous scientific journals, analyzed global temperature records from 1850 to 2023 and found limited evidence of an acceleration in the rate of global warming since the 1970s. Despite the supposed record-setting heat of 2023, researchers using advanced statistical techniques (changepoint models) did not detect a significant increase in warming over the past five decades.
The study, which scrutinized four major global mean surface temperature datasets, suggests that the apparent fluctuations in warming rates—periods of faster or slower warming—are likely due to short-term natural variability rather than a shift in the long-term trend. It is proposed that this variability, caused by factors such as ocean-atmosphere interactions, has exaggerated, in this recent case, the underlying global warming trend.
Governor Newsom now says he has the tools to regulate oil refineries and ensure we don't have gas price spikes; however, a Communist/Socialist top-down approach can only result in scarcity. The California Air Resources Board is ready to pass a measure that will raise gas prices by $0.65 a gallon. This is on top of the $1.50 in gas taxes we already pay, so Governor Good Hair, who doesn't want higher gasoline and diesel fuel prices, is having his handpicked Commissars engineer a 43% tax increase.
The governor and the state legislature should be compos mentis to know they're driving up gas prices. This is the most regressive form of tax as it hurts the middle and lower classes more as they must use their older non-electric cars to commute and buy essential commodities to sustain their existence. Marginal businesses will be bankrupted or flee the State. It should be noted that the California Air Resources Board is a bunch of regulators that can adopt new rules without weighing the costs to consumers. And nobody voted for this or them. They should be stripped of their qualified immunity and sued out of existence.
Of course, this higher regulation and higher costs do not stop at the fuel pump. They will trickle down into everything we have to purchase here in California. Hotel California will now feature higher prices for everything while diminishing reliability from the only reliable fuel source we have besides nuclear, and the one nuclear plant we have will probably be gone soon. Once known for having the fifth-biggest economy in the world, California will become an economic backwater to Florida and Texas. Reasonable energy prices are essential to prosperity.
It does not take a predictive genius to figure out that even more companies, refineries, and people will leave Los Angeles and the State of California because it is unaffordable to live here. California is lorded over by people who would rather save the planet that doesn't need saving than ensure that the human beings who live here have a reasonable life and are not being forced into poverty and unenviable choices by unelected apparatchiks who have an agenda dictated by a governor that has ruined the State.
It is a shame that during the election, our climate cult legislators did not listen to the people at town hall meetings all over the country complaining about the cost of living. One could argue the way they march in step with one another that they're part of a sect dedicated to destroying the Golden State that once had everything going for it. Who will want to live here, given the draconian taxes and insane environmental rules? The refinery regulations will also affect drivers in Arizona and Nevada, whose Governors have already protested this regulatory overreach.
Our homegrown climate cult legislators have nothing on the followers of Jim Jones (Jonestown Massacre) of the People's Temple. They have drunk the Kool-Aid and are hell-bent on outlawing hydrocarbons and inhibiting our energy (see the Kardashev Scale) and water usage, no matter how much it hurts the economy and the people who live in it. According to Elon Musk, we are not even 1% of the way to a Type-1 Civilization. Civilizations thrive on their ability to use and manipulate energy for the benefit of society. In this case, California is going backward while China, India, and other developing nations are moving forward rapidly, using all available technologies to benefit their development and improve people's lives. If you stop and think about it, the quality of your life is correlated to how much energy you consume.
California has consistently voted Democratic since 1992; starting in 2008, Democrats have gotten at least 60% of the vote. How can anyone with an IQ over 70 say the State is moving in the right direction regarding taxes, homelessness, livability, crime and safety, and the overregulation of business? How can anyone say I'd like some more of this, please? This is the equivalent of being in the Twin Towers on 9/11 when the first plane hit and then voting for the second plane. Vote every incumbent out of office. It's time to say no more and restore common sense to Los Angeles and California.
(Eliot Cohen has been on the Neighborhood Council, serves on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, is on the Board of Homeowners of Encino, and was the president of HOME for over seven years. Eliot retired after a 35-year career on Wall Street. Eliot is a critic of the stinking thinking of the bureaucrats and politicians that run the County, the State, and the City. Eliot and his wife divide their time between L.A. and Baja Norte, Mexico.)
