One-party rule in California continues to produce bizarre, fanciful, and destructive policies. With Democrats maintaining supermajorities in both the California State Assembly and Senate and controlling every statewide elected office, they can do almost anything their leftist hearts desire. One of their latest whims is to replace the use of natural gas with electricity. That California is now importing a third of its electricity doesn’t seem to faze them. Nor do the second-highest rates for electricity in the nation, understandably exceeded only by Hawaii.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District, commonly referred to as the AQMD, covers an 11,000-square-mile chunk of Southern California and wields considerable power over the lives of 17 million people. That’s an area larger than nine states and a population greater than that of 46 states. The AQMD was created in 1976 to regulate stationary sources of air pollution in an effort to reduce Southern California’s notorious smog problem. A coordinated, multi-county agency was certainly needed to address the problem, and the air quality has improved considerably since the 1970s, although regulation of vehicle tailpipe emissions was a far more significant factor in that improvement.

However, like most government agencies created to address a specific problem, the AQMD has extended its reach and grown in size, power, and cost over the years. The AQMD now has more than a thousand employees and an annual budget approaching $200 million. About a third of the budget is paid for by grants from the state of California and from the federal government. The rest comes from fees on businesses for emissions, permits, testing, hearings, and for penalties and settlements. Some 30,000 businesses are subject to AQMD regulations. Compliance can be daunting.

Back in 1976, when the AQMD forced oil refineries to put scrubbers on smokestacks, most people applauded—as well they should have done. There was an immediate and significant reduction in air pollution. However, as the decades rolled on, the agency, having effectively addressed the principal sources of stationary pollution, had to search for less significant sources to justify itself. Then, too, its regulations grew ever more restrictive as it tinkered around the edges. 

Recently, the AQMD, following Sacramento’s lead, decided homeowners and businesses must go all-electric. It’s now proposed that after Jan. 1, 2027, all water heaters, whether for new construction or for replacing old ones, must be electric and not natural gas. Same for furnaces after Jan. 1, 2028. With the cost of electrical power soaring, this could put a real dent in a consumer’s budget. Moreover, it’s particularly galling because emissions from gas water heaters and furnaces are relatively minor.

The largest city in the AQMD, Los Angeles, recently required that only electric water heaters, furnaces, and clothes dryers be used in new construction. San Francisco has done the same, and Berkeley went one step further by banning the connection of gas lines to any new construction. This meant a newly built restaurant couldn’t have gas stoves. The California Restaurant Association took Berkeley to court, arguing the city had exceeded its authority by violating the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975. An Obama-appointed judge decided in Berkeley’s favor.  

On appeal, however, a three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled unanimously in favor of the restaurant association. “By completely prohibiting the installation of natural gas piping within newly constructed buildings, the City of Berkeley has waded into a domain preempted by Congress,” the judges said. One of the three judges, Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, was appointed by President Reagan, and the other two, Patrick J. Bumatay and Maurice Miller Baker, by President Trump.  

The California Air Resources Board, known by the ironic acronym CARB, is also pushing for all-electric water heaters, furnaces, and appliances. With 2,000 employees and a budget of more than $1 billion, CARB wields considerable power. Recently, it announced the sale of natural gas water heaters and furnaces will be banned in California beginning in 2030.

With California’s cities, the state legislature, and various air quality boards dominated by Democrats, it’s clear there will be but little debate over all-electric laws and regulations unless there are challenges in court.

What surprises me most about those advocating for all-electric is their failure to answer the most basic of all questions: where will all that electricity come from? Brownouts are already occasional occurrences, and under certain conditions at certain times of the year, the California power grid reaches the point of catastrophic collapse. The only response I’ve ever heard from the all-electric advocates is, “We’re generating more and more power from solar panels and wind turbines.” That will be a mere drop in the bucket if all water heaters, furnaces, appliances, and vehicles run on electricity only. Meanwhile, these same advocates not only oppose the construction of power-generating nuclear plants but also urge shutting down the one remaining plant in California: Diablo Canyon.

Meanwhile, as we have seen all too clearly this year, even when we have enough electrical power for the grid, brush fires—a way of life in SoCal when the Santa Ana winds blow—cause power companies to shut down the system. As I’m writing this, the power in our area has been off for 24 hours because of the devastating fire in Pacific Palisades. Life at my house, however, continues as normal. I have a natural gas generator that kicks on automatically when there’s an electric power interruption. Let there be light!

A second California agency that, like the AQMD, began with the best of intentions—to protect and regulate the use of coastal land and water—is the California Coastal Commission (CCC). However, from these humble and idealistic beginnings it has become an intrusive, abusive, and politically weaponized agency that makes life miserable for those trying to build homes or engage in business along the coast. 

Late in October 2024, the CCC disapproved an Air Force and Space Force request to allow Elon Musk’s SpaceX to increase its number of Falcon 9 rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base. Did the commissioners cite the harm Vandenberg launches may do to the California grey whale, the sea otter, the Western Snowy Plover, or any of the 850 plant species and 53 mammal, 315 bird, 17 reptile, and 10 amphibian species that are found on the base? No, it was Musk’s politics that upset the commissioners.

“We’re dealing with a company, the head of which has aggressively injected himself into the presidential race,” Commission Chair Caryl Hart said. Commissioner Gretchen Newsom (no relation to Governor Gavin Newsom) declared, “Elon Musk is hopping about the country, spewing and tweeting political falsehoods and attacking FEMA while claiming his desire to help hurricane victims with free Starlink access to the internet.” Referring to SpaceX, Commissioner Mike Wilson said, “This company is owned by the richest person in the world with direct control of what could be the most expansive communications system in the planet. Just last week that person was talking about political retribution.”

Shortly after the CCC rejected the request for more rocket launches, Elon Musk sued the commission for “egregiously and unlawfully overreaching its authority” in attempting to regulate a federal government activity—the Falcon 9 program contributes to Air Force and Space Force intelligence—and for rejecting the request not due to environmental concerns but because of political bias. Musk’s attorneys should have a field day reading the comments of Hart, Newsom, and Wilson into the record, though the commission’s unconstitutional attempt to regulate a federal government activity should be enough to win the case for Musk.

It would seem the only way to make progress against the leftist excesses of Democrats in California is through the courts. Voting them out of office is more difficult than simply having more voters on the Republican side, however. Ever since Congressman Bob Dornan lost his seat in a close 1996 election where it was shown that hundreds of illegal aliens cast ballots, California elections have been suspect. 

One would think we could at least ensure that those who vote in California elections are legal citizens and properly registered. In March 2024, the voters of Huntington Beach—known as Surf City—approved a measure that allowed the city to require identification at polling places.  

The very next month, the state of California filed a lawsuit against Republican-majority Huntington Beach, seeking to enjoin implementation of the measure. The state argued that since California election law did not include voter identification, Huntington Beach could not do so in its city election law. The state then went full woke by concluding, “Imposing unnecessary obstacles to voter participation disproportionately burdens low-income voters, voters of color, young or elderly voters, and people with disabilities.” Voter ID unnecessary? A burden to obtain a form of identification?

Huntington Beach fought back. City Attorney Michael Gates, citing California’s state constitution, argued that as a charter city, state law cannot interfere with Huntington Beach’s elections. On Nov. 15, 2024, Superior Court Judge Nick Dourbetas ruled in favor of Huntington Beach.

Perhaps anticipating problems in court, the state legislature passed a bill in September, which was readily signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom, that prohibits local governments in California from establishing and enforcing laws requiring voter identification. With this new state law in effect as of Jan. 1 and several other charter cities suggesting they might follow Huntington Beach’s lead, courts could be busy during 2025. 

I don’t know anyone who has confidence in the integrity of California elections, especially if an election is close. In three hotly contested congressional races this past November, Republican incumbents were leading when the polls closed and still leading after 24 hours of vote counting. Ballots kept turning up, though, and counting went on for weeks. Democrats flipped all three seats. ◆