Belltower: Outlawing the internal combustion engine – Mountain Democrat

Mike Raffety

Sept. 23 Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would outlaw sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles in 15 years. He issued an executive fiat. He may be able to effectuate that through his appointees on the California Air Resources Board, but at this time there is no law passed by the California Legislature to this effect.

Unfortunately, the state Legislature has a super majority of Democrats, mostly extremely impractical, far-left legislators. The odds are they could back the governors radical executive order. The Legislature might even go so far as to prevent people going to Nevada to buy a new gasoline car and registering it with the California DMV.

This 15-year plan will only serve to impoverish more Californians or cause a bigger exodus from this state.

California residents will spend more money with auto mechanics keeping old vehicles on the road.

There is a question about the legality of this executive order, even if he gets the Legislature to endorse his hare-brained scheme. It can be challenged as interfering with interstate commerce.

Garbage trucks and school buses may shift to electric power, but fire engines and ambulances never will. Fire engines need to stay on the job a long time, especially when fighting forest fires. Fire engines also need power to run their heavy-duty pumps. They wouldnt want to run out of electric power in the middle of fighting a house or commercial fire.

Ambulances also tend to be on the go a lot. You wouldnt want your life to depend on an ambulance that could run out of electric power on the way to the hospital or on the way to an accident on Highway 50 in El Dorado Hills or the American River Canyon. Ditto for tow trucks.

And when PG&E shuts off the power you would want El Dorado Irrigation District and all other water districts to have gas or diesel generators to make sure water still comes out of your tap and when you flush the toilet it gets pumped to the sewer plant instead of backing up into your home.

Speaking of expensive mandates, now all new residential construction must include solar panels. Thats just another useless way to drive up the price of homes. Residential solar is not going to keep the power on during a heat wave. It just drives up the cost of new home construction. Better home energy savings comes from extra attic insulation and sold core insulation on the outside of a home.

Residential solar may save some money on your PG&E bill, though not as much as it used to, and it wont keep the lights on when PG&E shuts off the power. The American Legion Hall installed solar panels. It saves on the power bills, but when the power is shut off it is dark in the hall other than the daylight coming in the windows.

The Legion is not the only solar panel owner that realized the panels are hooked up to reduce power bills when the power is on, but that arrangement doesnt light a residence when PG&E shuts off the power.

The governor also wants 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. Look for him to move up that earlier, so we can all suffer through the next heat wave when the Independent System Operator cant buy power from outside California and cant find a gas-fired generator that can immediately fire up.

All this electric car and renewable energy stuff isnt going to save the climate as long as lightning, people and PG&E wires set off fires and create weeks of smoke all over the state.

Michael Raffety is retired editor of the Mountain Democrat and a resident of the Placerville area.

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Belltower: Outlawing the internal combustion engine - Mountain Democrat