Outlawing the sale of new gas and diesel cars starting in 2035 to allegedly stop global warming is just another show of pomp and circumstance by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, according to a Republican Assemblyman.
“This has nothing to do with the pandemic,” said Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Roseville). “The governor is just looking to grab headlines and this is what he landed on. He's trying to connect it to the fires although what would really help with the fires is preventing them in the near term with better forest management.”
Under the executive order signed on Sept. 23, car manufacturers would have to produce zero-emissions automobile models or be phased out of the state.
“This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Gov. Newsom in a statement online. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.”
However, Assemblyman Kiley accuses Gov. Newsom of taking credit for something that has nothing to do with him.
“There's been a lot of innovation with entrepreneurs and innovators out there who have been making great progress in recent years and that progress is likely to continue and will eventually lower the cost of zero-emission vehicles,” he said. “The governor would like to lay claim to a piece of the glory for himself but all he's doing is making this a needlessly divisive and polarizing issue and setting forth a process that in many ways is not practical.”
Kiley added that the legislature should have been involved in the decision making.
“What’s interesting is that he decided to simply do this on his own without involving the legislature of California in any way and that's not the way that things are supposed to work in a Democratic government with checks and balances,” Kiley told the Southern California Record. “It shouldn't just be the governor making new law on his own.”
Gov. Newsom is also pushing the legislature to restrict hydraulic fracking permits in the next 24 years, asking for rules to protect residents located near oil wells that are active, according to media reports.
“Apparently he wants the legislature to be somewhat more involved in that process,” said Kiley in an interview. “I don't know why he's decided to make that distinction. Why doesn't he just do everything on his own? That seems to be what he thinks he can do.”