{"id":1635730,"date":"2022-09-07T18:02:46","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T22:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1635730"},"modified":"2022-09-07T18:03:31","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T22:03:31","slug":"welcome-to-the-green-new-deal-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/welcome-to-the-green-new-deal-california\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome To The Green New Deal, California"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwelcome-to-the-green-new-deal-california%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1635730&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>If California, our most populous state, was its own nation, it would rank as the world\u2019s fifth largest economy and boast the highest average household income (outside a handful of \u201ccountries\u201d like Monaco or Luxemburg). And, yet, the governor is begging its citizens to stop using their appliances, turn off their lights, and keep their thermostats at a stifling 78, lest they suffer more rolling blackouts, like some junior mandarin in a third-world country. <\/p>\n<p>Of course, I kid when I say that California is already experiencing the effects of the Green New Deal. A state that still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.ca.gov\/data-reports\/energy-almanac\/california-electricity-data\/2021-total-system-electric-generation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">derives<\/a> more than 66 percent of its energy from non-renewable sources, has tens of trillions of dollars to go before it meets Joe Biden\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/ceq\/news-updates\/2021\/12\/13\/icymi-president-biden-signs-executive-order-catalyzing-americas-clean-energy-economy-through-federal-sustainability\/#:~:text=Net%2DZero%20Emissions%20by%202050&amp;text=President%20Joe%20Biden%20on%20Wednesday,and%20trucks%20five%20years%20later.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">promise<\/a> of reducing 65 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. The flooding of an already rickety grid with undependable renewables offers only a small taste of the \u201ctransition\u201d to \u201cclean energy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because you can scaremonger about climate change all day long and ratchet it up to insane levels, but no one escapes the laws of physics or economics. California has been forced to extend the life of its last nuclear power plant at Diablo Canyon and gas-fired power plants to save the state from being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/environment\/newsletter\/2022-06-30\/california-passes-polarizing-energy-bill-that-could-help-rescue-gas-plants-boiling-point\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plunged<\/a> into darkness rather than the occasional blackout. As it turns out, most people are only theoretically fans of deindustrialization.<\/p>\n<p>California is following in the footsteps of Germany, which over the past ten years closed down\u00a0most of its nuclear power plants and engaged in a national decarbonization of the economy \u2014 <em>energiewende<\/em>. When reality hit, Germany, and thus the rest of the EU, was compelled to start relying heavily on Russian natural gas as it struggled to transition. Then Russia attacked Ukraine. Rather than falling back on its world-class, environmentally friendly, forward-looking nuclear-energy program, the Germans must now contemplate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/energy\/german-gas-rationing-looms-industry-begs-exemptions-2022-08-09\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rationing<\/a> and historically high prices. If they can avoid this fate, it will only be because the industry has turned back to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/germanys-energy-u-turn-coal-instead-of-gas\/a-62709160\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">coal<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even before the Ukrainian war, Germany was home to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.electricrate.com\/data-center\/electricity-prices-by-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highest<\/a>\u00a0global electricity prices per household in the world. As Robert Bryce points out, though California\u2019s households use only <a href=\"http:\/\/seds\/sep_sum\/html\/rank_use_capita.html&amp;sid=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">about half<\/a> the national average in energy, they also pay one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electricchoice.com\/blog\/percentage-income-electricity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">highest rates<\/a> in the nation \u2014 only Hawaii and Alaska beat them. Continued restrictions on reliable, relatively cheap, and portable energy are not only inconvenient, but they also damage growth and opportunity. Decarbonization is objectively immoral.<\/p>\n<p>One of the problems is that California has the power to export its retrograde ideas. Although electric car owners in the Sunshine State <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/01\/us\/california-heat-wave-flex-alert-ac-ev-charging.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">can\u2019t go anywhere<\/a> these days, the state still plans to ban the sale of gas-powered cars in just 13 years (your used car is going to be worth a fortune). But since 15 states, including New York and Pennsylvania, have adopted California\u2019s vehicle emissions standards \u2014 a federal waiver under the Clean Air Act allows it to have stronger fuel economy standards than the federal government\u2014a local cult of Gaia in Sacramento now effectively controls the national automotive industry.<\/p>\n<p>If there was any real big organic demand for EVs, the federal government wouldn\u2019t have to keep massively subsidizing \u2014 bribing \u2014 the industry into manufacturing them, and California wouldn\u2019t have to mandate you to buy them. Less than\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/graphics.reuters.com\/AUTOS-ELECTRIC\/USA\/mopanyqxwva\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1 percent<\/a>\u00a0of cars, SUVs, and light trucks on the road in the United States are electric. Right now, electric cars are for wealthy people more concerned about pricey virtue-signaling than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/hybrids-evs\/how-much-do-cold-temperatures-affect-an-evs-driving-range-a5751769461\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">functionality<\/a>. A recent University of California at Berkeley study, for example, found that 90 percent of tax credits for electric cars go to people in the <a href=\"https:\/\/haas.berkeley.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/WP262.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">top<\/a> income quintile.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s fine. Knock yourself out. But Democrats are rigging the market to force you to buy a car that has a 200-mile reach and uses erratic and expensive energy when you already have increasingly efficient models in your driveway and tens of billions of easily accessible barrels of offshore fossil fuels here at home \u2014 and much more around the world. We have centuries\u2019 worth of the stuff waiting in the ground. Which gives us enough time to come up with some better ideas. Because, sorry, transitioning away from modernity and into windmills, choo-choo trains, folding fans, and candles isn\u2019t progress, it\u2019s regression. And California is leading the way.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">\n  David Harsanyi is a senior editor at The Federalist. Harsanyi is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of five books\u2014the most recent, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Eurotrash-America-Reject-Failed-Continent\/dp\/0063066017\/\">Eurotrash: Why America Must Reject the Failed Ideas of a Dying Continent<\/a>. His work has appeared in National Review, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Reason, New York Post, and numerous other publications. Follow him on Twitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/davidharsanyi\/\">@davidharsanyi<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If California, our most populous state, was its own nation, it would rank as the world\u2019s fifth largest economy and boast the highest average household income (outside a handful of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":831,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1635730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/831"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1635730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1635730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1635730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1635730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1635730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}