The state of California ushered in sweeping new climate change initiatives last year that sound good but aren't as important as they appear, according to a former economics professor.
“Everything we do in California sounds good, which I think has to do with our state's background in the entertainment industry,” said Robert Michaels, a retired California State University (CSU)-Fullerton economics professor.
Michaels was reacting to climate and energy initiatives that were either included in Gov. Gavin Newsom's executive order or approved by the general assembly in 2022.
For example, Newsom signed Memorandums of Cooperation with Canada, New Zealand, and Japan, as well as Memorandums of Understanding with China and the Netherlands. But Michaels is skeptical.
“The idea is that somehow there will be added productivity, and technologies will become more efficient over the long haul," Michaels said. "But I find it hard to take that seriously as a result of the agreement between a couple of states and countries when the market for these things is worldwide and it's affected by everything and everybody in it whether you're talking about producers or consumers."
California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a regulation requiring 100% of new car sales to be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035. Roberts, though, argues that electrical vehicles (EVs) are not non-polluting cars.
“These are elsewhere-polluting vehicles that require parts and maintenance, which ultimately goes back into the fossil fuels and other energy markets,” he said. “The actual production takes place in a lot of other places, including pollution havens like countries in the Far East.”
The state is also doubling its EV infrastructure with funding for 90,000 new EV chargers, according to a press release. Michaels, however, questions the cost that's being registered to Californians, and how much is being exported to other locales where the production takes place.
“I think it's much more realistic to assume that people will find politically acceptable ways around the regulation requiring electric cars by 2035 and those old cars will still be on the road,” Michaels told the Southern California Record.
To create pollution control, Newsom also signed legislation creating a 3,200-foot gap between new oil wells and schools and daycares. But Michaels predicts it will likely conflict with federal law.
"The most important oil deposits are under Los Angeles in special buildings and pipes extend in all directions into the oil field,” he added. “You have directional drilling and you have ways of manipulating things downstream, electronically to change the routing of the oil. There's an awful lot of these things that are going to probably continue going on.”