(Mr. Frank publishes “California Political News and Views” online; the following is a summary written by him of an article written by Don Wagner of the Orange County Register, entitled, “The government's new furnace and water heater rules are coming for you,” dated 12/27/2024.
Bankrupting Homeowners One Step at a Time
“The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has found a way to bankrupt families and businesses in one move.
“As proposed by SCAQMD, under rule 1121, if your gas water heater breaks after January 1, 2027, the government will force you to replace it with an electric model. These contraptions are prohibitively expensive, requiring major home or business electrical upgrades, and very likely, will impose lengthy permit wait times and wait times for manpower and materials to do the work.
“Likewise, Rule 1111 targets Natural Gas furnaces – if your furnace fails in 2028, or beyond, you must replace it with electrical technology.
“The costs to implement these rules? We're talking potentially tens of thousands of dollars for every homeowner and landlord and business owner. The overall cost to implement these rules is at least $20.4 billion throughout the entire SCAQMD service area. While staff promises that costs will come down over time, that won't help consumers of today or tomorrow. these rules make Southern California even more unaffordable.”
Note: while over time the costs of the electric water heaters and furnaces might come down over time, inflation will drive up the cost of labor and materials to make the conversion installations more likely to increase.
“If these rules are implemented, the value of your home will go to zero. The value of your small store will go to zero. This is the one action the government can take to totally bankrupt and force families to leave the state. Can you afford to spend thousands of dollars to meet these new rules?”
Note; Note the federal government is putting in place similar rules for gas-fueled appliances such as gas stoves, gas clothes dryers, gas fire[places], and any other gas-fueled appliances.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in government controls to force through very expensive changes in the rush to introduce wind and solar monopolies of power generation.
Rules Written to Benefit China?
There are 35,727,841 vehicles registered in California in 2024 according to the DMV. According to the Department of Energy, 1,256,646, are EV vehicles.
Soon, the owners of the remaining 34,471,195 non-electric vehicles will be gradually forced to convert to electrically powered vehicles at an average price of $45,000 per vehicle. By then there will be little trade-in value on the used gas-powered vehicle.
It is highly probable that the California government will force the pace of conversions to electricity in cars and appliances at a faster pace, than the required rate of improvement necessary in the power distribution grid and solar/wind systems capability.
Many – if not the majority – home and business owners will have to maintain the integrity of their power supply by installing solar panel generators on the roofs of their homes and business buildings and many will need battery storage systems to guarantee constant supply of electricity when the sun does not shine, and the wind does not blow. In a number of cases, this will require a new roof as well.
A new solar roof panel will cost between $10,000 and $20,000 for a 1,500 sq ft home.
A new solar roof panel, plus a storage battery system can cost between $22,000 and $35,000 depending on the variables.
Many homes are likely to need a new roof installed before installation of a solar panel power generating system. A new roof for a 1,500 sq ft home can cost between $15,000 and $25,000.
The very nature of the forced change-over of so many costly variables over a government-dictated-timeframe is a recipe for social upheaval and a disastrous outcome.
You do the math for your own circumstances and see the result you get.
One must ask an obvious, fundamental question. Why is the U.S. – and particularly California – rushing headlong into causing a massive social and economic crisis in multiple dimensions, when most of these current American remedies for global warming are being nullified by the majority of the BRIC countries still burning vast amounts of coal, oil and gas way into the future?
It seems that China wins when most of the manufactured components and special materials necessary for car batteries, wind turbines and solar panels come from, or are controlled by China.
Isn't the Chinese Communist Government our most probable adversary on almost all fronts in materials, manufacturing, and war, not to mention an owner of great tracts of land in the USA, some in strategic locations?
With 8.2 billion people in the world, the demand for modern lighting, heating, water, transportation, etc is greatly desired, particularly by those in less developed areas. It seems to me, a popular cultural behavior has always superior to a government mandate. In other words, if our family behavior were to conserve energy (turning out lights at night, not letting water run unnecessarily at the kitchen sink, etc etc) then we would use less energy. Government mandated laws would be silly. Culture is more powerful than laws.
Instead of burying your head in the sand and ignoring climate change, perhaps you should begin a gradual transition to energy efficiency and wean yourself off fossil fuel? That would spread the cost out over several years. Also, by waiting until the imposed deadline arrives you will be competing with all the other procrastinators and deniers, which will make your transition even more expensive. Many homeowners with foresight have already adopted many of these changes, and they did so without "forced" government requirements. My own brother has been living "off the grid" for several years now, and I am headed that way. Just like my grandfather, who hung up his buggy whip and put his horse out to pasture to acquire a 19th century internal combustion engine, I am "hanging up" on fossil fueled vehicles and appliances and living in the 21st century. If you wait until the deadline arrives, you will be only exacerbating the cost to yourself and the harm to our planet.