In California, Governor Gavin Newsom has been vocal about his commitment to reducing in-state greenhouse gas emissions, but much of his “success” has been accomplished by “leaking” those emissions to offshore locations with miniscule environmental regulations compared to California.
The state also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest state income tax in the nation, the highest gas taxes in the nation, and record homelessness.
California is probably the most environmentally regulated location on the planet. The state also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest state income tax in the nation, the highest gas taxes in the nation, and record homelessness. The challenges are:
- The state’s population needs cost-effective products in their daily lives.
- The Governor supports manufacturing in poorer developing countries with minimal environmental regulations, i.e., “leakage” of emissions to others to achieve cost-effective products for its population.
By “leaking” emissions to other countries, California successfully reduces its in-state emissions but effectively induces net increases to the world’s emissions!
Newsom’s actions of “leaking” emissions to poorer developing countries violate many sections of the written legal framework of The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32).
The written legal “green” framework statutes in California that Newsom circumvents are:
- A California statute passed in 1970, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), was signed into law by then-Governor Ronald Reagan and was the beginning of the State’s “green” movement.
- Then, in 2006, the passage of the California Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) marked a watershed moment in California’s history. By requiring, in law, a sharp reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, California set the stage for its transition to a sustainable (in-state) low-carbon future.
Of those two voluminous documents, CEQA and AB32, Governor Newsom has chosen just five words from AB32 Section 38562 (4), “reduce toxic air contaminant emissions,” as the foundation of his mandates, and his personal emission policy to clean the “air bubble” inside California borders by leaking those emissions to others outside the boundaries of California.
Here are a few sections from AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, that demonstrate the Governor’s actions that increase the “leakage” of emissions to developing countries to clean the “air bubble” around California:
1 – AB32 section 38564 states: “The state board shall consult with other states, and the federal government, and other nations to identify the most effective strategies and methods to reduce greenhouse gases, manage greenhouse gas control programs, and to facilitate the development of integrated and cost-effective regional, national, and international greenhouse gas reduction programs.”
> A consequence of the renewable electricity (RE) movement is that most of the exotic minerals and metals needed by EV batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels are being mined in developing countries with virtually no environmental or labor laws thus the exploitation of people of yellow, brown, and black skin, and the environmental degradation to their local landscapes, all “unseen” by California eyes.
> Contrary to the wording in AB32 section 38564, “facilitate the development of integrated and cost-effective regional, national, and international greenhouse gas reduction programs,” government-sponsored “SUBSIDIES” are providing financial incentives for those poorer developing countries to CONTINUE their unabated emissions, humanity atrocities to citizens of yellow, brown, and black skin, and environmental degradation to their lands, again “unseen by California eyes!
2 – AB32 section 38562 (2) states: “Ensure that activities undertaken to comply with the regulations do not disproportionately impact low-income communities.”
> Back in 2021, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book Clean Energy Exploitations – Helping Citizens Understand the Environmental and Humanity Abuses That Support Clean Energy. It discusses the lack of transparency to the world of the green movement’s impact upon humanity’s exploitations in the developing countries that are mining for the exotic minerals and metals required to create the batteries needed to store “green energy.” In these developing countries, these mining operations disproportionately impact low-income communities, exploit child labor, and are responsible for the most egregious human rights violations of vulnerable minority populations. These operations are also directly destroying the planet through environmental degradation.
> One year later, in 2022, President Biden provided validation to the books’ message when the Biden administration declared on October 4, 2022, that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could have upended the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of the White House’s bizarre climate policies. However, our government leaders believe that zero emissions at any cost are more important than the environmental and humanity’s abuses that support “clean” electricity.
3 – AB32 section 38562 (8) states: “minimize leakage.”
> Newsom, by continually decreasing in-state oil production, Newsom’s emissions policies continue to force California, the 4th largest economy in the world, to be the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil feedstock to refineries from foreign countries. That dependence, via maritime transportation from foreign nations for the state’s crude oil energy demands, has increased imported crude oil from 5 percent in 1992 to almost 60 percent today of total consumption.
> Since 1995, California’s crude oil demands have been increasing year over year, except for pandemic years. But, given that maritime transportation is one of the greatest contributors of GHG emissions, the state continues to “leak” emissions to others outside the California clean air bubble.
> Rather than drill for oil in California or access the oil offshore via “slant drilling” techniques from land, in 2021, imported foreign crude oil approached 300,000 barrels per year. It took 150 Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) oil tankers, each with 2 million barrels of crude oil, which were required to meet the demands of California—just another example of “leaking” emissions to others just to keep in-state emissions low.
> More to the point, why aren’t we drilling in California? Won’t our drilling practices be more environmentally responsible? And won’t it benefit the environment not to have dozens of oil tankers perpetually belching bunker fuel exhaust off the coast of Long Beach, and that only after they’ve belched their way across the Pacific Ocean?
Is it ethical for the California Governor to blatantly not abide by his own laws and violate his own state’s legal framework to set his personal emissions policies?
His actions have raised concerns among legal experts and environmentalists, as they conflict with the state’s existing legal framework statutes, which prioritize the affordability of products over their international environmental impact.
President Joe Biden and California’s Governor Newsom continue to support subsidies to procure products from locations around the world that have minimal environmental regulations when those subsidies are providing financial incentives to increase worldwide emissions by manufacturing offshore to countries where there are no environmental regulations and emissions are rampant.
I personally thought that President Biden and California Governor Newsom had higher moral and ethical standards that would stop them from financially encouraging developing countries to continue their exploitation of the poor with yellow, brown, and black skin and further environmental degradation to the landscapes in those distant developing countries, and uncontrollable emissions “over there” just to support clean air in “our backyards”!
This article originally appeared at America Out Loud