California ups the ante on cars and trucks and their owners and operators

We know, it is a long headline. Hopefully it attracted your attention.

As mentioned several times recently, we seem to always be hammering on California and San Francisco (and other cities and regions in the People’s Democratic Republic).

So here is another one.

As reported in the GB News, California drivers will see amazing increases in taxes on gasoline and Diesel in the next two years: “The California Air Resources Board Low Carbon Fuel Standard 2023 amendments impact assessment suggested that drivers would feel the squeeze over the next two years.Prices are estimated to jump by 47 cents per gallon in 2025 and 52 cents in 2026 – excluding the existing gas tax in the state. On Monday, the average cost per gallon in California was $5.286, compared to a national average of $3.619.”

Californians (and visitors and travelers to and through California) already pay FIFTY-EIGHT cents per gallon in state excise taxes. However, you also pay sales tax (unlike most states). The GB News says this will nearly double. With the sales tax (which is a percentage of price, not per gallon), the average total excise tax on gasoline is 77.9 cents: a huge amount. Since sales taxes in many jurisdictions are 10% (state, county, city, special districts), that adds another 50 cents to $5.00/gallon of gasoline. (Gas Buddy says that on Wednesday 15 May the average price for gasoline in California is $5.28)

By contrast, Nevada charges 23 cents, Arizona charges 19 cents, and even Woke Oregon charges just 36 cents. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for Diesel. Supposedly the money all goes into a Highway Trust Fund (HTF), which is used to pay for construction, maintenance and repair, and replacement of highways across the Fifty States and the territories. The amount of money from “Federally-Assisted” Interstates, Primary, and Secondary roads is usually 80-90% Federal, 10-20% State.

But the HTF gets ripped off frequently by Congress and the State legislatures to use for other things. Very popular is mass transit: buses and light rail and such. But some is taken to provide for “art” on the highways – much of which is unrecognizable and ugly. Despite all the money extorted from people and companies and organizations that buy gasoline and diesel, it seems like the highways and bridges of the States are constantly in disrepair: a huge backlog of maintenance and repair (BMAR) exists in every State. While the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the various State Departments of Transportation bureaucracies grow and grow.

However, this massive new rip-off in California is for a “superior” reason. It is supposed to be a punishment for people who are so backward, so primitive, and so callous to the good of others and Mother Earth (Gaia) and our climate, that they insist on burning fossil fuels on their rattletrap vehicles.

Yes, it is yet another weapon in California’s battle against manmade climate change (formerly known as global warming). After all, they can’t wait until 2035 when fuel-burning cars and trucks can no longer be sold in California. Chicken Little and her allies say it will be too late then, and the Big (Central) Valley will again become Lake Corcoran.

But don’t expect the money in this latest rip-off to go to actually “combatting” manmade climate change or preparing for the flooding of coastal areas, the Imperial Valley, and Central Valley in California. Nope. After all California and its counties and cities are running up massive debts and deficits. And need to keep the unions and the contractors and the campaign donors – parasites all to some degree – happy. And let the legislators spend even more money. On booze for the homeless, or forgiving student loans (not just a Fed program), offering more free education classes in basketweaving, female empowerment, gay and lesbian culture studies, and PhDs on classic 1960s sitcoms.

And of course, anyone who studies air quality rules and regulations knows that the CARB, the California Air Resources Board, is the power behind the EPA throne when it comes to air pollution. Many States require that the diesel engines operated in their State must meet CARB requirements. It is CARB that wants to or is banning gas-powered lawnmowers and leaf- and snow-blowers and wants to ban backyard grills and letting new homes have natural gas. All to fight global warming.

As the Sun (that is, Sol, that big lightbulb in the sky) reminded us this week, solar weather and conditions do more to cause global warming (or stop it from warming) than billions of humans can or do. But that is another subject.

The stupidity of government, citizens, and special interest groups astonishes. As usual. And especially in California.

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