The wildfire crisis is ultimately the product of a state politics controlled by interest groups whose agenda has drifted out of any cognizable relationship with the daily well-being of the state’s average citizen.
Because California accounts for less than 1% of global emissions, nothing it does will make a difference to climate, but its ratepayers shell out billions for wind and solar that might be better spent on fireproofing. A generation of ill-judged environmental activism has all but ended forest management in favor of letting dead trees and underbrush build up because it’s more “natural.” At the same time, residents resist any natural or planned fires that would consume this tinder before it gives rise to conflagrations like those now menacing Los Angeles and San Francisco.
An activist state Supreme Court imposed on utilities responsibility for any wildfires started by their equipment regardless of negligence. At the same time, state policy obliges them to extend their networks to support housing developments in areas the state designates as “very high fire risk.”
California’s activist one-party government, with its penchant for pretending to be a national government in relation to the hot-button issues of the left, is where all these roads end. Elites subsidize electric cars for themselves while promoting zoning that forces lower-income workers to commute three hours to a job or live in their cars. PG&E can’t keep trees off its power lines but can supply exact numbers for how many LGBTQ workers it employs…
Revolutions are unpredictable, and may start for good reasons and end up doing very bad things. It’s hard to see how 40 million people can go overnight from First World electric reliability to Third World electric reliability without a voter revolt. No conspicuous sign yet exists that either the dominant Democrats or the moribund Republicans are capable of articulating a critique that points in a new direction: toward a government that actually cares about taxpayers and working citizens.
If the state government were focused on doing what’s best for Californians–instead of doing what’s best for Dem politicians and related interest groups–the state wouldn’t have devolved to where it is today.
Time for a statewide revolt. Throw the bums out. Unless Californians really like living in a third-world country.
PS: California also has the highest percentage of people living in poverty compared to any other state, according to Census data released this month. Go here:
A good article. Here’s another:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/revolutionary-california-11572389585
If the state government were focused on doing what’s best for Californians–instead of doing what’s best for Dem politicians and related interest groups–the state wouldn’t have devolved to where it is today.
Time for a statewide revolt. Throw the bums out. Unless Californians really like living in a third-world country.
PS: California also has the highest percentage of people living in poverty compared to any other state, according to Census data released this month. Go here:
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-268.html
Then scroll down to Table A-5 (“Number and Percentage of People in Poverty by State Using 3-Year Average Over: 2016, 2017 and 2018”):
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/268/table5.xls
New Hampshire, by comparison, is looking pretty good.
…..and they keep voting “D”.