County Deceptively Mandates What They Can't Sell
by Andy Caldwell
County Can’t Sell What the Public Isn’t Buying
County supervisors are “encouraging” new construction (and major renovations) to go all-electric. In fact, they used the word “encouraging” five times in describing a new plan to save the planet now that a federal court has ruled that municipalities like the County of Santa Barbara can’t forbid new construction from allowing natural gas hookups as that is the purview of the federal government. So, instead of a prohibition, the board of sups (Das Williams, Laura Capps, and Joan Hartmann) are trying to fool the public by stating that they are only going to “encourage” businesses, farmers, and residents to go all-electric.
The truth is something else altogether. Because people don’t want to buy what the county is selling, the supervisors are in essence making the public “an offer they can’t refuse.” Either that, or the county board and its staff don’t know the difference between a suggestion and a mandate. The proposal by the county will require the public to request an exemption from the ordinance for some uses including agricultural uses (buildings and water wells), emergency backup generators, non-residential cooking and clothes dryers, and a few other uses. For the record, having to ask for an exemption from an ordinance indicates the ordinance is not merely being “encouraged”; it is being mandated.
Mandating that the Poor Remain Poor
So, how does the county plan to get around the federal court’s ban on forbidding gas-powered appliances and the like? They are going to rely on their ability to exceed a state mandate that requires a certain amount of energy efficiency in every new building. Specifically, if an applicant wants natural gas hookups, they are going to have to pay out some big bucks to reduce the energy footprint of the building to offset the ghg emissions generated using natural gas. In other words, county officials plan to make it so expensive to use natural gas that only the wealthy will have that option.
What bothers me most about this ordinance is not the attempt to bamboozle the public into believing they are simply being “encouraged” to go all-electric, nor is it the fact that once again county supervisors have completely ignored the costs to the public of this mandate. No, what bothers me the most is that every single person in America is already free to go all-electric without the county’s “encouragement.” That is, any citizen is free to buy electric appliances, vehicles, solar panels, and battery storage devices, and in more cases than not, they can receive rebates and tax breaks to help pay for the same.
Do you remember the principle espoused in the Declaration of Independence that “just governments must derive their power from the consent of the governed”? County supervisors don’t give one whit about the concept of consent. Even though climate change has been preached to us non-stop for some 30 years, their efforts to “encourage” people to give up on natural gas (and other fossil fuels) as a reliable, affordable, and safe fuel source has fallen on deaf ears. Since they can’t convince people to do what they want them to do, they are relying on coercion sans the consent of the governed. Hence, this action on their part indicates that their actions are unjust.
The beauty of using natural gas is that the delivery of the same is not subject to blackouts, power safety shut offs, or storms that down power lines. Natural gas is also more affordable and abundant than electricity.
Please make a note of the hypocrisy of these three liberal supervisors. They regularly wring their hands over the plight of the poor, yet constantly serve to increase the cost of living upon those who can least afford it by way of their elitist green agenda.
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“county officials plan to make it so expensive to use natural gas that only the wealthy will have that option.”
So once again we see our elected public servants picking winners and losers in their vision for a brave new world that denies basic fundamentals of science and engineering.
Just like the housing mandates, the EV chargers ordinances, and all of these “encouragements”, these public “servants” have completely lost the thread of who they serve and what the end goal is.
What is the end goal?
-To make housing more expensive to build and less convenient to live in? Yeah it does that!
-To cut down on C02 emissions? This doesn’t do that, as the C02 will just be produced over the horizon to produce the electricity to run the appliances. The sky is big and stuff done “over there” tends to blow “over here”…remember the Thomas Fire everyone?
-To stop climate change? Assuming that is the end goal; then before these bureaucrats get involved in our financial decisions, maybe they can tell us what target climate we are shooting for…is it the climate we have now? The climate we had before the Industrial Revolution?? The climate that existed in 1962?? When was it perfect? What is this crap? These people are not scientists and even if they were, their hypothesis will be proven wrong in the end just like they always are…because we don’t know enough and aren’t powerful enough to change the climate for cryin out loud!
Maybe they should turn their attention to things more practical like maintaining our roads, policing our streets, securing new sources of water because we live in a desert, clearcutting forests around homes to cut down on wildfire danger, legislation to get home insurance under control, lowering the cost of medical care (not the same as forcing insurance companies to offer insurance)…like Captain America, I can do this all day!!
But telling us we have to pay more and make sacrifices in our standard of living and that will somehow “fix” the climate on a planetary scale?? This is insanity. These people are clueless bureaucrats on a power trip virtue signaling tour that never ends.
At a recent city Council meeting in Goleta, I was treated to an ordinance that will demand all new construction over $200,000 will require at least 20% of the parking lot be equipped with EV chargers… except for the hospital who will be exempt because…reasons??
Never mind, the fact that the EV chargers, they are demanding being installed are 10-year-old technology standards for 20 year old EV battery designs that will be superseded over the next few years and will add cost to the “affordable” housing they wish to build here.
It’s literally like mandating every car maker install 8-track cassette systems in cars after we have already moved on to CD’s!
So now they want to “encourage” us to go all electric? Why? Have the “encouraged” the universe to change the laws of physics to provide us free electricity or something? Or just shifting the pollution from one area to another?
Andy, thank you once again for your sanity in a beautiful city that's being threatened by the insanity of its officials. Das Williams, Laura Capps, Joan Hartmann are so driven by their desire to rise in the Globalist Green Elite dictatorship that they've lost their marbles. If they're so high on us going all electric, then they should stop flying in jets on our tax money and instead use e-transportation to travel.