The "California Tax" on all US motorists

Eric Peters points out the effect of California's ecological dictates about vehicles on the rest of the country - particularly our wallets.

California regulators have acquired de facto control over the cars you’re allowed to buy – even if you don’t live in California – by decreeing their own California-specific mileage and emissions standards. These end up having the force of national standards because the car industry – which wants to sell cars in California – can’t afford to build cars for just California and then another set of cars for the rest of the country.

So they build all their cars to meet California’s standards – which are even more corseting then federal (national) standards.

The cost of complying with them amounts to a “California Tax” levied on everyone – including those who don’t live in California.

It is literally taxation without representation – as well as legitimate justification.

And the state just raised taxes – again.

By issuing a fatwa that all new cars sold in California must average at least 50 miles-per-gallon by 2026. Several major car companies – including Ford, Honda, VW and BMW have already bent knee.

. . .

There will be fewer vehicles available nationally that don’t meet California’s MPG fatwa because it be harder for the car companies to internally justify building them when they’re not able to sell them (without repercussions) in one of the country’s biggest markets.

But the rest of the country isn’t California – and can’t vote in California. Why should the rest of the country be subject to what California decrees?

. . .

California has thus acquired de facto regulatory control over the entire country – and, effectively the power to tax American drivers in every state to pay for what the state of California decrees.

This taxation without representation is about to increase ... California’s fatwa that all cars sold in the state average 50 miles-per-gallon by 2026 will effectively mean that cars sold in every state must also average 50 miles-per-gallon, because the car companies will have to build them that way if they want to sell cars in California – which they do – and because they can’t afford to build them just for California (and the other states that have adopted California’s standards) and then another batch for everywhere else.

So we will all get California cars – and California costs.

Without having asked for them. Without having been given the chance to say yes – or no – to them.

So much for the consent of the governed.

There's more at the link.

This is just the latest attempt by California to undermine and nullify the Trump administration's attempts to ease stringent environmental standards in many areas.

California's sweeping deal with four major automakers last week to boost gas mileage standards and cut tailpipe emissions wasn't the first time the Golden State has outmaneuvered the Trump administration, which has been planning instead to loosen pollution rules for car companies nationwide.

Rather than a one-time tactic, the agreement … is the latest in a growing list of ways that California has blunted, blocked or shut down entirely nearly all of the Trump administration's major efforts to rewrite environmental policies in California from the moment he took office.

Yet more than halfway through his term, experts say, the president has had almost no lasting impact on California's major environmental rules despite making broad promises and appointing former industry officials into top jobs. The reason: California, a quasi-country with 40 million people and the world's fifth-largest economy, has been aggressively passing its own state laws, filing lawsuits against the federal government and cutting deals with other states and countries to go around the Trump White House.

Again, more at the link.

I think there's a simple solution to this problem.  If California insists that manufacturers and others must adhere to its over-the-top environmental standards, then the state of California must pay them for the added costs involved in meeting those standards - in other words, the difference between what it costs (or would cost) to build a widget for the rest of the country, and building that widget for California.  It must pay those costs for all widgets made to California standards, whether or not they're sold in that state;  and those costs must be borne by California taxpayers, not the rest of us.  If California can't or won't pay those costs, then manufacturers must be allowed to sell their non-complying products in California without penalty or hindrance.

Sounds fair to me!

Peter