Can California Come Back? There Are Signs Things Are Starting to Get Bad Enough But Aren't Quite There Yet.

Our son and granddaughter live in California and he owns property in Oakland and Nevada County. So, we take a great interest in what's happening there. Politically, the leadership of the state is going precisely in the wrong direction as lawmakers follow the public from about three steps behind, and like New York, the public largely consists of easily demagogued urban voters. Therefore, things change extremely slowly, but there are hopeful signs things are beginning, at least to get bad enough.

Those signs are picked up in an interesting article from Gateway Pundit, which includes this graphic:

Notice how many more counties went red and voted for Trump this time. Nevada County was one of them. It is on the Golden State's northwestern border and includes the historic gold towns of Grass Valley and Nevada City. It's that narrow curly county just above the bend in the state's eastern boundary with Nevada.

Numerous areas of central and south California went red this time and the article proceeds to explain one of the reasons why this trend is likely to continue:

On Friday, the California Air Resources Board, comprised of 16 members – with 12 members appointed by Democrat Governor Newsom, voted on a new climate program which will increase gas prices…

California Air regulators ignored the rightward shift and voted 12-2 to tighten California’s low carbon fuel standard.

The latest move from the California Air regulators will increase gas prices in a state with some of the highest gas prices in the country.

“Gas prices could increase by as high as 85 cents per gallon by 2030 and $1.50 per gallon by 2035 under the proposal, according to an estimate from Cullenward. Cullenward said his figures and the estimates initially released by board staff are not an apples-to-apples comparison, in part because his projection uses 2023 dollars and the board staff used 2021 dollars.” – The AP reported.

This is on top of anti-refinery regulations recently enacted and which are already leading to refinery closures that will further drive up gas prices and make the state ever more dependent on other states and countries for its energy.

It's clear where things are headed, and "what can't go on, won't,” as a famous economist once plainly articulated. This brings to mind a conversation I had a few months ago with someone from the California petroleum industry. He indicated things were getting very bad, yet he was optimistic that young people would soon revolt against the insane politicians and bureaucrats who were making it impossible to live in that gorgeous state. I think he's correct. Newsom and his bureaucrats are headed for the cliff and voters are starting to notice. It's just not yet quite bad enough for the people to throw out the bums.

#California #Election #Petroleum #AirQuality #Refineries