Posted on 07/18/2015 10:19:30 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
Gov. Brown Talks To KCAL9 About Bill That Would Mandate Reduction In Gas Usage
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — As Gov. Jerry Brown prepares to travel to Rome next week for an international climate conference, the debate over a bill aimed at reducing gas usage in California is heating up.
Brown fully supports SB-350, which would mandate a 50-percent cutback in California’s gas usage in the next 15 years, arguing that it’s a prime factor in global warming.
“We’ve got a serious problem here,” he told KCAL9 Political Reporter Dave Bryan via satellite. “Burning oil and gas and coal and diesel is a big part of the problem. We’ve got to find new bio-fuels. We have to be more efficient. We’ve got a lot to do. And by the way, if we do nothing, the cost is unimaginable.”
“We think this is reckless legislation and one that people certainly need to be aware of because it’ll impact every single motorist in the state of California,” Tupper Hull of the Western States Petroleum Association said via Skype.
Critics charge the bill provides no specific plan to achieve the massive cutback in gas usage. That would be left up to the California Air Resources Board, which those critics, like the oil industry say, would have no limits on what it could mandate.
The impact on Californians, they argue, could be devastating.
“What are they supposed to do to get to work? To get their kids to school?” asked Hull. “What is supposed to replace all of this gasoline and diesel that’s gonna be taken out of the system?”
“Well, of course, the people who are gonna sell 50 percent less petroleum are not only gonna have questions, they’re gonna have a fierce, unrelenting opposition. So, let’s be clear about that,” said Brown.
Cutting gas consumption in half, though, may be especially difficult in the Los Angeles area, where sitting in traffic jams is a long hated ritual and the rapid transit system is still decades away from being a truly comprehensive regional people mover, like New York or Chicago have.
While the oil industry have been leading the charge and criticizing the bill, Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, a Democrat from West Covina, was quoted in The Los Angeles Times as questioning whether an appointed board should be making the rules for cutting gas consumption, charging the bill would give them a blank check of unregulated and unlimited power over the lives of Californians.
In an interview, Brown asked in response: who do you want regulating the consumption? The oil companies?
“You saw what they did and what? Did gasoline go up 80 cents in the last week? Who’s regulating that? Well, the companies were. So, you can have a company regulate or you can have an agency of government,” Brown said, adding: “You need an authority within government to set the conditions of survivability.”
The bill appears to be well on its way to passage having already cleared the state Senate and some Assembly committees, but the debate over how to cut in half California’s dependency on gas by 2030 is possibly just beginning.
Jerry won’t be here in 2030, or not very much here. I think he’s 78, now. Crazy old coot—burn the bridge behind you, without one going forward.
Anyone that can leave,will.The State will be left brewing in it’s illegal immigrant stew.
They better do it while they can still tank up :)
Sounds like moonbeam is tanked up. Is he back in the “bowl” again.
2 ways to reach that goal:
1. Immediate crash building of dozens of nuclear power plants, coupled with the outlawing of the sale of all gasoline and diesel vehicles and allow electric vehicle sales only.
2. Reduce the population of California by half.
LOL at this =- “could be devastating”.
Part of the problem with California is high housing costs.
There’s some old jokes about California and housing.
One joke is that you can have a great job, earning $100,000 a year, and you still can’t afford a house.
The other is that in the LA area, you keep driving to housing developments further and further away, until you get to an exit where the housing prices are cheaper where you can afford a house.
The point is, sorry to ramble, but land use policies and restrictive zoning ,and supply and demand, cause greatly increased use of gasoline, because so many people end up living so far from work. I bet Jerry Brown didn’t take any of this into account as he decrees that we should reduce gasoline consumption by 50% in 15 years.
Why not combine this with a CO2 reduction?
He should sign an order requiring the population to breath half as much.
Does Jerry Brown take anything into account when he proposes any of his hare brained ideas?
Jerry won’t be here in 2030, or not very much here.
My thought exactly. Easy to destroy your state when you aren’t going to have to live with the consequences. Californians had better wake up and move away as soon as they can and don’t go to Washington for goodness sake as they are going to do the same thing.
The guy is a complete idiot.
I live in Glendale, California.
Our town has a stop sign or stop light on just about every corner. I’ll bet it’s over 98%.
In neighborhoods, that isn’t good enough. They put speed bumps in the roadway.
This town is geared to be completely anti-vehicle.
When do you use the most gas? That’s right, when you go from stop to safe operating speed. What is the net result of stopping at every corner, or having to slow down even in the middle of blocks for speed bumps. That’s right.
This situation increases gas consumption by a factor of three or more.
It’s a real hoot getting a bill from the power company telling us how to save energy, when the town policy is to triple the energy consumption for vehicles.
He’s desperate to figure out ways to get people to ride his high-speed train.
They will just keep charging higher prices for Greenhouse Credits, thus swelling Government coffers (Brown's goal) and forcing everyone to public transportation...yet to be built.
Like the Bullet Train to Nowhere.
You would think Gov. Brown would have more immediate worries, like the drought!!!!
What will become of the Inland Empire?
Some of us were born and raised here. We will stand and fight.
Anyone that can leave,will.The State will be left brewing in it’s illegal immigrant stew.
True enough. but in 15 years there will be no mandates-the Mexicans will ignore or get rid of them.
California will continue to resemble a Third World country in many ways.
I can relate to that,nobody’s going to force me off the family farm either.
To be a bigger idiot,old Jerry would have to gain weight.
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