(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) California’s radical leftists are continuing their delirious green-agenda rush to determine whether they can simultaneously bankrupt the state, while inflicting maximum suffering on its businesses and lower-income and middle-class consumers and families.
Not content with already killing the production and sale of gas and diesel cars within 13 years, a posse of unelected, leftist governor-appointed bureaucrats declared this week that they had a “moral obligation” to approve a plan to ban the sale of diesel big-rig trucks, one of the main drivers of the nation’s economy, within 20 years, reported the Los Angeles Times.
The regulations adopted by the California Air Resources Board also require that by 2035, medium- and heavy-duty trucks entering ports and railyards must be zero emission; government fleets must be zero emission by 2027.
The ban was met with widespread derision and skepticism, specifically from truckers who would be most directly impacted by the ban, a death sentence to many private rig owner-operators.
“There is no infrastructure to support this,” said Chris Shimoda, vice president of the California Trucking Association.
Shimoda said even if the state poured billions of dollars into boosting the number of charging stations for zero-emission trucks, it wouldn’t be enough to keep a supply chain moving.
“If you think today’s widespread shortages are bad, just wait until California bans delivery trucks,” warned the Republican State Leadership Committee.
I genuinely hope every transportation company out there refuses loads and backhauls from California. Let them sit in the dark and eat grasshttps://t.co/irBUL6WPFy
— JimBob (@JimBob2v2) September 21, 2022
Along with banning big rigs, the climate alarmists and Green New Deal big spenders at the California Air Resources Board also declared it is moving to ban by 2030 all new gas-fueled furnaces and water heaters, Bloomberg reported.
The move to force consumers and businesses into converting and using allegedly eco-friendly electric energy comes as California is plagued by a crumbling power grid that is already overloaded and triggering rolling brown- and blackouts. The crisis reduced Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom to begging residents to make their own lives miserable because of his failing green policies.
Enjoy your ‘progressive’ environ-mental policies, California lol
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) September 7, 2022
“And what’s the backup plan when 39 MILLION people in California need to charge their cars, run their A/C and appliances… AND the grid collapses?” tweeted one concerned consumer about the mandates to follow the green agenda.
“Why bother separately with furnaces, heaters, and stoves?” cracked another. “Ban them all at once. Oh, and don’t forget to upgrade your grid for all the new electric everythings.”
Not to let small details like a failing power grid and reality interfere with their radical climate alarmist agenda, the board directed state agencies to draft a rule for phasing out gas-fueled appliances that will be up for a final vote in 2025.
