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THE STATE OF THINGS -
“You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
Ayn Rand
Catastrophes first happened slowly, and then boom, all at once. The ongoing train wreck continues in California, especially Los Angeles. Purposefully created by making one bad policy decision after every disastrous law, an unrestrained majority with no pushback has been hell-bent on making California a wreck like the Hesperus. Seemingly, only a select few notice, and even fewer squawk about the ongoing disintegration of a once-great City and State.
We all know about the continuing decay of infrastructure around the City because we drive on it daily. Given that the Olympics will be here in three short years, Karen Bass, the City Council, and all the other important politicians in the state will be trying to put the Humpty Dumpty, which is Los Angeles, back together again. So that L.A. does not appear to be a third-world dumping ground for the dregs of society. The world’s greatest illusionists exist in Hollywood. You would think they would be happy to pitch in. “Make LA great again,” or at least “look great again”.
We prefer to spend billions of dollars on homelessness and its accompanying ineffective attempts at consistently failing solutions, rather than fix the roads. Furthermore, it is outright insulting to California taxpayers that we are allocating additional billions of dollars to illegal immigrants who have bypassed the system, overburdening our social services, such as health care, and causing a significant strain. Consequently, individuals are forced to spend hours in the emergency room waiting to be seen by anyone capable of providing care.
And if this weren't bad enough, the ongoing crime wave from criminal gangs, both domestic and tourist types, persists. They are looting unabated, targeting single-family homes all over Los Angeles. The only ones pleased about this are the alarm companies and politicians seeking to defund the police, such as Nithya Rahman CD-4, Mike Bonin CD-11, Eunisses Hernandez CD-1, Hugo Soto-Martinez CD-13, Ysabel Jurado CD-14, and Kenneth Mejia, the City Controller, and, of course, the criminals.
California has just had its credit rating downgraded, as predicted in this column many times. This is the first of many downgrades—just one notch above junk! LA also had its bonds downgraded. Due to illegal sanctuary policies, the state and LA must also prepare for the cancellation of numerous federal grants that have been supporting programs in the City, likely amounting to half a billion dollars or more. No amount of optimistic projections from accountants in Sacramento and Los Angeles will rectify the budget.
What will truly collapse the system is the insane anti-human, poverty-inducing energy policies. The green climate cult believes fossil fuels are evil incarnate, and a trace gas essential for plant life—and therefore all life on the planet—known as carbon dioxide, is viewed as a weapon of mass destruction. Apparently, to these cultists, every time you start your internal combustion engine auto, you are setting off a mini-nuke.
There is no civilization without sufficient energy. California's energy policies, in part, have driven at least a million people out of the state. If, as predicted, within the next three to nine months, gas reaches $8 a gallon, you can expect the floodgates of exodus from California to open wide. This would leave only the super-rich and Mad Maxers duking it out on gas lines for petrol.
California’s stringent regulations on oil refineries, driven by anti-fossil-fuel policies, are poised to drive gasoline prices to as high as $8.44 per gallon by the end of 2026, according to a 2025 study by USC Professor Michael A. Mische. These regulations, including the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), Cap-and-Trade program, SB X1-2, AB X2-1, and increased excise taxes, impose significant financial and operational burdens on refineries. Closing two major refineries—Phillips 66 in Los Angeles (October 2025) and Valero in Benicia (April 2026)—will reduce California’s refining capacity by approximately 21%, creating a daily gasoline shortfall of 6.6 to 13.1 million gallons.
At $8.00 per gallon, the average Californian driving 12,500 miles annually (at 31 mpg) would need an additional $600 to $1,000 in pre-tax income to maintain fuel costs in 2024. This situation severely impacts the 30-33% of Californians (10-12 million people) who are already unable to afford necessities. Low-income households will experience increased financial distress, reducing disposable income for food, housing, and healthcare, which deepens poverty.
California’s electric rates, at 31.66 cents per kilowatt-hour, are double the national average of 16.1 cents, making them the highest in the nation. For a family using 600 kWh monthly, this translates to a staggering $177 bill—$80 more than the national average, which amounts to an additional $960 annually. Gasoline prices, averaging $4.80 per gallon (April 2025, AAA), will soon seem like a bargain compared to the national average of $3.14 (as of 5/10/25).
According to United Way of California (2021), these costs impact the 33% of households that cannot afford necessities the hardest. Low-income families, notably the 79% of single-parent households with young children and 51% of Latino households facing hardship, spend 15% of their income on utilities, contrasting sharply with just 3% for high earners.
Even higher fuel costs will cripple small businesses, particularly the 30% already struggling, as insurance, transportation, and operational expenses soar. This situation could lead to closures and job losses, exacerbating unemployment currently at 5.4%, which is the third highest in the nation. The refinery closures alone threaten thousands of jobs, with Phillips 66 employing 600 workers and 300 contractors. Industries such as agriculture, manufacturing, and logistics will face supply chain disruptions, increasing costs for goods and services, which could stifle California’s $4+ trillion economy. It will also raise the price of aviation fuel, with air travel costs potentially increasing by 20 to 30%. Doesn’t this policy interfere with Interstate Commerce? Should the Federal Government step in here? Where are all the activist judges not blocking these harmful policies?
The loss of refinery-related tax revenue and jobs will worsen California’s budget deficit, estimated at $73 billion, with state and local debt reaching $1.6 trillion. Decreased corporate and personal income taxes and potential federal funding cuts ($10-50 billion due to sanctuary policies) will place additional strain on public services like Medi-Cal and education, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations.
California’s looming fuel shortages will raise prices in neighboring states such as Arizona and Nevada, which rely on our refineries for 88% and 48% of their supply. This situation could disrupt regional economies and threaten national security, as California hosts critical military infrastructure. Posts on X describe this as an “economic disaster” driven by one Governor’s obsession with Eco-Tyranny.
Sheila Kuehl, a former County Supervisor, once quipped to an audience that she liked playing with people’s lives. Holly J. Mitchell, another County Supervisor, has taken this dictum to an unimaginable level. Holly will not be outdone by the enormous burdens and policy blunders coming from the anti-fossil fuel crowd led by Governor Hair Gel, Gruesome Newsom, and the supermajority Democrats who worship at the altar of “green energy.”
Holly has now put on the table a County killing proposal to study the most draconian, expensive, job-killing, City-maiming plan that even Beelzebub would have trouble conjuring. It is a motion to eliminate all fossil fuel-related activities in the County of Los Angeles. The death of fossil fuels in Los Angeles means no gas stations, no gas pipelines, and no internal combustion cars, trucks, or natural gas-fired appliances.
If this comes to pass (pray not), 2.6 million homes in the county will need electrical appliances and upgrades to the panels and wiring. According to Google’s Search Labs | AI Overview, it's clear that it would be an extremely expensive undertaking, potentially costing every single family home $20,000 to $30,000. At the midpoint, that‘s $65 billion. Retrofitting all businesses in Los Angeles County to electric machines and appliances would likely cost $15–$35 billion, with a midpoint around $24 billion.
Another question is where the electrons will come from to power our all-electric future. Achieving 100% renewables by 2035–2045 requires unprecedented deployment of solar (3,000–4,000 MW rooftop installations, and 300–1,000 MW utility-scale systems), wind, storage, and grid upgrades costing $150–$200 billion for LA County. All these costs might approach nearly half a trillion dollars in today's dollar terms.
According to Angelino Insights, an X contributor well worth following, he does a terrific job letting us know what our dear leaders are planning for us. Supervisor Mitchell is asking the LA County Board to launch a full “Just Transition” framework. The goal? Shut down oil operations and fund a clean energy workforce—while holding polluters accountable. This is the most sweeping fossil fuel phase-out in the USA.
The motion lays out a multi-phase roadmap for: • Phasing out oil wells • Cleaning up idle, leaking, and toxic wells • Holding oil companies financially liable • Creating new clean energy jobs for displaced fossil fuel workers.
LA County is directing departments to: • Identify “high-risk” oil wells • Launch training programs for solar, water, and electrification jobs • Create new County job pathways for displaced workers • Target funds toward Black, brown, and frontline communities. Reverse discrimination, and equal rights amendment violation?
The County is recommending scoring preferences in contracts for companies that prove they’re: • Moving away from fossil fuels • Hiring from equity-impacted neighborhoods • Using clean tech and sustainability practices.
It’s not just oil jobs. LA County wants to reimagine how it contracts, trains, and regulates every piece of the fossil fuel system—housing, jobs, land use, and labor. And they’re setting aside $300,000 for consultants to design the new economy.
The motion also cites new enforcement powers: • Operators must file “leak detection & response plans” • New penalties if they don’t • Community health safety plans must be made public • Local rules may soon go far beyond state law.
If not stopped, this Eco-Tyranny Los Angeles economy will undoubtedly be so wounded that it may never recover. Likely, tens of thousands of businesses will close. However, the joke will be on us. We are destroying reliable energy for intermittent power, leading to brownouts and blackouts (see the grid failure in Spain and Portugal on 04/28/25).
China is rapidly building hundreds of thermal coal plants. In 2024, China initiated construction on 94.5 gigawatts of new coal-fired power plants, a record high since 2015. This new coal capacity is roughly equivalent to New York and California's combined power generation capacities. China is not about to run out of electricity to power a 21st-century economy. At the same time, we in California continue crippling our economy with excessive regulation that will only impoverish us for generations to come.
This former Golden State accounts for approximately 1% of global emissions, while China's emissions are estimated to be around 30%. California’s billion-dollar babies, the high-tech AI-powered economy of the future, are in jeopardy. Stopping the burning of fossil fuels today in California would not result in any appreciable reduction in greenhouse gases. We are sacrificing ourselves and our children's future to the delusions of ideology over practicality.
(Eliot Cohen has been on the Neighborhood Council, serves on the Van Nuys Airport Citizens Advisory Council, and 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.)
