CA Gov. Newsom is Banning Gas Cars, Gas Stoves, Gas Furnaces, Gas Water Heaters – California Globe

What has clearly become an “us versus them” issue, an issue that only left-wing politicians care about, is about to get really messy.

They come for your gas powered car, gas stove, gas water heater, gas oven, gas dryer, gas grill, gas blower, gas fireplace and any other gas powered appliance or vehicle you can think of.

Who are “they” other than California Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature to impose these policies on you?

California is expected to become the first state to ban natural gas heaters, water heaters and furnaces by 2030, a directive from the California Air Resources Board, made up entirely of governor appointees, as I reported in 2023 in The Tangled Government Web Behind the Push to Ban Gas Stoves, where we network Harvard Health Publishing, the Rocky Mountain Institute, the MDPI International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health and the National Library of Medicine of the US National Institute of Health (NIH). NIH is the world's largest source of funding for medical research. The WHO is named in the studies, as are many Chinese studies.

And She It doesn't matter if it bankrupts you or causes you undue hardship. They don't care if your public transportation system is a hellhole on rails if they take your gas car away from you. They don't care if you have to walk 5 miles to work. They don't care. Remember that they don't care about you. They only care about their autocratic rules – and their power.

A California Globe reader sent me a powerful and poignant email today about the South Coast Air Quality Management District's plans to rid the region of gas heaters and asked if district members had already replaced their heaters:

Their upcoming plans for electric water heaters and home heaters will harm California's poorest residents.

Have you all already replaced all the heaters in your homes? At your next meeting, please let us know what the total cost was and how much your utility bills increased. I am retired and have a fixed income. I need to know how much I can save before I have to take a cold shower and wear a sweatshirt indoors.

Have you required your gardeners to use power tools when gardening?

Do you all only drive electric cars everywhere? (Although you might take the bus).

Are your garden grills completely electric?

Do your swimming pools use electric heaters?

Or do you live by the motto “Do as I say and not as I do”?

Don Wagner, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a member of the South Coast Air Quality Management District board, wrote an op-ed for the OC Register addressing the issue. Here's what he reports:

SCAQMD intends to implement two rules for all homeowners, multifamily residents and businesses – more than 17 million people in total. The goal: the elimination of natural gas appliances. Proposed Amended Rules 1111 and 1121 will require homeowners, landlords and businesses to replace furnaces and water heaters with costly new “zero-emission” appliances.

He said these new rules “seem to do little to clean the air” but will hurt many financially:

If implemented, these rules would impose ruinous costs on already overburdened residents and businesses, potentially cause people to lose housing, and strain an already overburdened power grid.

We're talking potentially tens of thousands of dollars per unit for every homeowner, landlord, and business forced to make these purchases.

Proving my point that these Air Quality District board members don't care, Wagner says:

You will be forced to comply. Purchasing or installing the old technology – the water heaters and furnaces you use today – will be illegal.

Only Southern California's wealthiest residents can afford such extravagance. Don't even think about buying and importing replacement equipment from other states. You are not permitted to obtain a permit to install non-compliant equipment, nor are you permitted to sell any property containing non-approved equipment. You have to comply.

Wagner says the new zero-emission water heaters and furnaces will require a significant increase in electricity use, something we've already heard. But SCAQMD doesn't even have a cost estimate for operating these new electrical devices. But their orders are still carried out. It's another Nancy Pelosi moment: “We need to pass the bill so you can find out what's in it.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has already fallen well short of his promise to build 3.5 million new homes in California during his term. He is a victim of his own party's rules and regulations, but doesn't want to admit it. Because as construction manager Wagner knows, the new purely electrical rules contradict the construction of affordable housing. “They provide minimal air quality improvements, are prohibitively expensive, and ignore the region’s energy challenges,” adds Wagner.

Housing prices in California have risen dramatically since Newsom took office in 2019. And for all his supposed efforts to streamline new housing construction, it simply isn't happening.

“Newsom promised in October 2017 during his gubernatorial campaign that he would expedite the construction and completion of 3.5 million new housing units by early 2025, according to a Medium post by the then-lieutenant governor,” the Daily Caller reported.

“The governor took office in January 2019 when the state had approximately 14,235,201 housing units, and after five years at the helm, the number of housing units has increased to 14,824,626 as of early 2024.” a total of only 589,626according to the state Department of Revenue.”

That's just 117,925 new homes built each year in California between 2019 and 2024 while Gavin Newsom was governor.

And Newsom has publicly berated and sued cities that have failed to follow his orders to build “affordable housing” — even though he can’t even meet his own housing goals. And it's all about the cost of construction, from multiple layers of permitting to the state's absurd and cumbersome regulations and requirements… like requiring all new electrical equipment.

Many or most of the orders, directives and policies issued by Governor Newsom and legislative Democrats are detrimental to California residents. It's clear that politicians are not asking voters what matters to them, but are instead fulfilling guidelines set by higher powers… from people who not only don't care about you, but who also seem intent on doing you harm to the people in California.

And it appears that Gavin Newsom, the legislative Democrats and his appointees are making sure that happens – be it the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the California Air Resources Board, the State Water Resources Control Board, CalEPA, California Coastal Commission, the United Nations or the World Health Organization… behind it.