Every Friday on my KZSB AM 1290 radio show, I interview Steven Greenhut, the western region director for the R Street Institute and a reporter for numerous state and national publications, including the Orange County Register, American Spectator and many others.
We recently discussed two columns that he wrote having to do with the double-edged sword of the overwrought and overbearing regulatory state in California and the mass exodus of 1.5 million people in the past 12 years. Mr. Greenhut quipped that if you don’t want to slog through the classic Atlas Shrugged to see what happens when a socialist government comes crashing down because entrepreneurs would rather flee than be strangled to death, then you can just watch what is happening in California instead. He has a point, as usual.
Regarding the exodus from California, between 2010 and 2020, one million people left the state, resulting in the loss of one congressional district in Congress. That had never happened before, as in the past California only knew growth.
What is more disturbing is that in the last two years, another 500,000 have left the state, meaning the exodus has become a stampede including some of the wealthiest people in the state. And who can blame them? Moreover, this is extremely problematic for state finances as California is nearly completely dependent on taxing the rich to pay its bills.
The exodus has typically been marked by people leaving due to the high cost of living, including housing, taxes and limited opportunities. Crime, homelessness and failing schools would also explain why people are leaving in droves. Of course, the overwrought shutdown of our economy in 2020 because of COVID also created an epiphany-type awareness that the people who work here don’t necessarily have to live here. Hence, the huge number of people leaving for the exit sign marked “Go East”!
We also discussed the two-fold attack on two critical components of our society and economy, energy, and trucking. Truly, every single product affecting every facet of our life depends upon the use of energy. As California would mandate it, state officials want us to become 100% dependent upon electricity while abandoning the use of all fossil fuels, even though the overwhelming majority of electrical generation in America is still produced by fossil fuels, including natural gas and coal. This war against fossil fuels is thereby nothing less than energy suicide.
The second battle against trucking is related. Ninety percent of all consumer goods in our society is delivered somewhere along the supply chain on a truck — a diesel-fueled truck, to be specific. Years ago, by hook and crook, the California Air Resources Board promulgated the “diesel engine rule,” which required all diesel engines to be replaced with a new engine.
This rule cost the California economy some $20 billion as it affected not only the transportation sector, but also farming and construction, because they all use diesel engines. So, after having spent all that money, now CARB wants to eliminate diesel engines altogether (they are merely starting with trucks) and force businesses to go all in with electric vehicles.
There are four obvious problems here.
First, electric motors for these types of uses are cost-prohibitive, costing at least three times as much as a diesel engine.
Second, they are in short supply.
Third, there are virtually no charging stations throughout the state for these heavy-duty motors.
And fourth, California does not and will not have enough electrical generation from renewables to recharge these many vehicles anytime soon.
Only fools would abandon something that works when you don’t have a realistic alternative to replace the same. What would you expect from the same people who continue to spend billions on the high-speed rail to nowhere?
Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.
