The unrealistic energy fantasies of California

 Thomas Elias:

There can be few better examples of ideologically convinced politicians running head-on into reality than a new California law known in the Legislature as AB 1346.

This bill, signed into law in September by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is the personification of today’s faddish hostility to everything fossil fuel by the Democrats who dominate California government.

These ideologues want to ban natural gas appliances from new construction. They want new cars to be all-electric before 2040, even if few have the range to travel from one end of California to another without long stops for recharging. And they are getting their way.

Their latest step in this direction is so extreme that even the new law’s backers weren’t quite sure it could be accomplished in the two-year time frame they called for. So they included an almost unprecedented “out” for some of the gasoline- or natural gas-powered devices they seek to ban: If the technology doesn’t exist to replace the affected machines with all-electric ones by 2024, the old types can be used and sold until such technology appears.

News reports on this bill said it bans new gas-fueled lawn mowers, leaf blowers, off-road engines, pressure washers, chain saws, weed trimmers, and even golf carts. Few mentioned it also bans gas-powered generators.
...

 This is likely to lead to an increased flight from California.

By banning generators they are going in the face of requirements that hospitals and assisted living facilities among other places where life support equipment is needed and must be operational when the power goes off as it already does in California because of its green energy policies.  California is likely to kill more people and more businesses than climate change ever will.

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