California Governor Hopes to Ride Climate Panic Into the White House in Four Years, But It Won't Work

Doug Sheridan has another great post up at LinkedIn. He nails what’s wrong with California, namely that it keeps electing terrible leaders, Gavin Newsom being one ofv the worst. Newsom, though, is a classic out-of-touch trust-funder type. He can get away with what he’s doing in the Golden State, which, like New York, is dominated by unaware urban voters easily susceptible to demagoguery. Selling his record and his politically correct blather in Michigan or Pennsylvania is not likely to work. Climate panic, as Sheridan calls may be appealing in Manhattan or San Francisco, but that dog won’t hunt in the heartland of swing states.

Here's Sheridan's spot-on take:

The WSJ Editorial Board writes, Kern County, in California's Central Valley, is being destroyed by a perfect storm of laws, regulations and lawsuits designed to eliminate oil and farming. Those industries have help sustain Kern's economy—and California and the nation's—for over a century.

But abetted by bureaucrats and opportunistic litigators, state officials have denied oil drillers and farmers the permits they need to operate, hit them with fines and crippling regulations, cut off their water, and sued them into oblivion.

Oil-and-farm rich Kern County may be ground zero, but this storm is destroying the entire state. Every essential foundation of a healthy, affordable economy is under attack. But rather than acknowledge this storm, Gov Gavin Newsom is doing everything in his power to make it worse.

Immediately after Nov 5, Newsom called a special session of the state legislature to "protect California values in the face of an incoming Trump administration." He intends to allocate as much as $100 million to the state's attorney general to wage lawfare against the federal gov't.

One of Newsom's top priorities is "climate action." In pursuit of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2045, the Newsom admin has given billions in subsidies to the "renewables" industry, at the same time it has relentlessly attacked producers of conventional energy. As a result, California's households and businesses pay for the most expensive electricity and gasoline in the lower 48 states.

It's all for nothing. California still relies on oil and gas for 80% of its energy, a reliance on fossil fuel that is the same as the national average. But unlike other states, California imports nearly 90% of its natural gas despite sitting on tens of trillions of cubic feet of reserves.

California used to produce 60% of the oil it consumed, but despite reserves estimated as high as 30 billion barrels, in-state production is down to 23% of consumption. Thanks to Newsom, California's resource-rich geology is off limits.

This is pure hypocrisy. Instead of safely extracting oil in a state with the world's most rigorous environmental and labor protections, California is forced to refine oil imported from such paragons of human rights and environmental stewardship as Ecuador, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

Meantime, California's refineries are shutting down, one by one, without the option to import gasoline thanks to the special formulation the state requires to lower the "carbon content" of transportation fuel.

To Sum It Up: While Californians from Kern County to Humboldt Bay suffer the consequences of Newsom's policies, the governor is positioning himself as the antidote to Trump. He is betting on climate panic to deflect criticism of his policies, and keep him in the presidential mix for 2028. Californians can only hope that the storm passes soon.

More and more voters are over being woke and have, instead, awakened to the fact they’ve been sold a dog that won't hunt. That's true even in California as this Grok answer to my question reveals:

In the 2024 presidential election, Donald Trump significantly improved his performance in California compared to both 2020 and 2016. Here's how:

• 2024 vs. 2020: Trump increased his vote share in California to about 40% in 2024, up from 34.3% in 2020. This represents a notable 6-point increase. Additionally, he flipped several counties that had previously voted for Joe Biden in 2020, including Butte, Nevada, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, Merced, Inyo, Fresno, San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange counties.

• 2024 vs. 2016: Compared to 2016, when Trump secured 31.5% of the vote in California, his performance in 2024 was also stronger, with the vote share increasing to about 40%. This indicates a significant shift, highlighting a broader base of support in what is traditionally considered a very blue state.

These improvements were observed across various demographics, including increased support from Latino and Asian American voters, and in regions where he historically did not perform well. This shift might be attributed to several factors like voter dissatisfaction with the incumbent administration, changes in demographic voting patterns, and possibly broader political and economic sentiments.

Politics, of course, is a finicky enterprise and no one knows what the mood will be in 2028, but the evidence for the revolt against climate panic politics and the like is pretty strong today.

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