(With apologies to Albert Hammond)

Anyone with half a brain saw this coming from at least a mile away and was told either 1) they were crazy that would never happen or 2) shut up, infidel.

Bad enough that the Golden State has sold everyone a bill of goods on their solar panels. They're not for your convenience anymore, nor advantageous, nor the "right thing to do" for Mother Earth. You are at the "paying for the privilege" of serving the state stage. 

California pulls the plug on rooftop solar.

Solar installations drop 80% in 6 months after cutting incentive payments to households with solar panels.

Without subsidies, rooftop solar doesn't make sense.https://t.co/wOyDPGywwS pic.twitter.com/HkGIC0wNOy

— Brian Gitt (@BrianGitt) December 2, 2023

As John posted this spring about the new Net metering, solar installation has "fallen off a cliff."

...The backlash to the initial plan was strong enough that Net Metering 3.0 was revised but eventually it did pass and went into effect on April 15, 2023. Since then, rooftop solar installations in California have indeed fallen off a cliff. The NY Times wrote about it in January of this year.

Newsom's EV mandates - in a state where he can't keep the lights on for all the expensive electricity generated by "cheap" renewables - have people purchasing EVs as their primary vehicle when replacement time comes. Again, sold as a cheaper, Earth-friendlier, right-thing-to-do $70K average purchase, it's a not inexpensive way to get your Green credits on and warm internal fuzzies. 

Granted, an EV also can pose logistical problems if you need a juice-up and you don't have a garage at home or are out somewhere, and schmaybe the charging stations are few and far between...or vandalized.

California Charging Stations pic.twitter.com/3gIYU6dTl3

— Toe Knee (@TonyMoonLander) May 13, 2024

BUT, HEY!

You're not paying $6+ gal for gas and road taxes like all those other suckers.

Californians pay, on average, $1.53 MORE per gallon of gas than the national average. On July 1, the gas tax will go up. And, in early 2025, thanks the CARB, an added 47 cents tax will be added. Yup, by Spring, 2025, the cost of gas in California will be a minimum of over… pic.twitter.com/zZ03EwC2V0

— Mike Netter (@nettermike) May 29, 2024

...Yup, by Spring, 2025, the cost of gas in California will be a minimum of over $2.10 a gallon more than the national average.  Any wonder families and businesses are fleeing the State?  Any wonder you pay more for everything in California.  Then in ten years with trucks and trains ONLY using electric for fuel power, the supply chain collapses and California will be one of the worst Third World States in the world. The average price of gas nationally is at $3.60 per gallon, far less than the $5.13 average in California.

Or so you weren't. It might be that your days of paying your little road fee at the CA DMV when you register that EV are rapidly coming to a close. And it looks as if EVs may have been the camel's nose under the tent to tracking all Californians' mileage going forward.

Thanks to the plethora of EVs sold, gas tax collection has also damn near dropped off a cliff in a state that's headed for a fiscal one itself. How better to recoup those lost monies, penalize everyone in the interest of fairness, and launch a surveillance program of state residents at the same time?

A mileage tax for registered vehicles, with a pilot program coming in August.

and they plan to begin testing this system by launching a pilot program in August 2024.
Note that California plans to ban the sale of gasoline-powered cars by 2035, so its gas tax revenues will fall to zero.

— Pat Fisher (@HD_PatFisher) May 27, 2024

The inexpensive-to-operate EV sales pitch is going the way of the dodo and the solar panel.

The ongoing EV disaster is about to get worse:

In California, you may soon have to pay for every mile you drive. Texas has already brought in an extra registration fee. New South Wales is planning a form of road pricing, while tariffs imposed in the US and soon the EU as well… pic.twitter.com/o3H97ikI87

— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) May 29, 2024

Now, CA's plan just sounds so darn reasonable, doesn't it? I mean, they're only charging you for what you use, right?

...Now California is proposing what it’s calling a Road Charge, where drivers would be exempt from state fuel taxes and, instead, would pay a fee based on how many miles they drive. The state is asking residents if they’re willing to sign up for a pilot project to assess the viability of such a program.

“Just like you pay your gas and electric bills based on how much of these utilities you use, a road charge – also called a mileage-based user fee – is a fair and sustainable way to fund road maintenance, preservation, and improvements for all Californians,” reads a website dedicated to the program. “Instead of paying the state’s gas tax, which disproportionately impacts those who cannot afford more fuel-efficient vehicles, everyone would pay a per-mile fee for how much they use the road, regardless of what kind of car they drive.”

The site adds that about 80 per cent of highway and road repairs are funded by gasoline taxes paid by drivers at the pump, and on average, each driver pays about US$300 per year. The state also charges US$118 per year to those who own zero-emission vehicles (ZEV), such as EVs; a transportation improvement fee that’s applicable to all drivers; and weight fees for drivers of commercial trucks. Some counties charge local sales tax, or bridge or highway tolls, which also go to road or transit funding.

The state estimates that drivers rack up a combined 350 billion miles per year in California, and most of those are in gasoline or diesel vehicles. Raising the gas tax would only be a short-term solution as vehicles increasingly become more fuel-efficient or no longer needed to be gassed up, since California has also mandated that all new-vehicle sales must be ZEV by 2035. While a rate per mile hasn’t been set, the project is potentially looking at between US$0.02 and $0.04 cents per mile (about CDN$0.017 and CDN$0.034 per kilometre).

Come on, sign up already. And look here - the state says if you do, you'll be exempt from state fuel taxes. In fact, at the end of the program, the state gives you $400 back to refund those. And it's only three measly cents a mile!

What's not to love?

The California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA) is running a voluntary pilot program where participants can earn up to $400 for testing out this mileage-based system. But there’s a catch.

To track your miles, you’ll have to choose between manually reporting your odometer readings or using a plug-in device or in-vehicle tracking system – both of which could include GPS.

That’s where things get a bit creepy.

What's not to love?

California is going to try to implement a $0.03/mile tax. Right now the pilot program has drivers self reporting.

They claim this is to pay for road maintenance, but Who thinks this won’t lead to a future of the state tracking where people go?

pic.twitter.com/TPJ9TnhAQD

— Mayor (@Mayoralpodcast) May 23, 2024

Lots of state promises and assurances here. CA is going to exempt you from paying state fuel taxes, and don't you worry your pretty head about any "privacy" issues.

The state has you covered.

WAIT, WHUT?

...Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst and FOX Business contributor, points out that having GPS tracking in cars “raises some of the same concerns that we saw with privacy that we have had with social media companies and cellphone data.”

CalSTA claims that they have security measures in place to protect personal information and that GPS data will be anonymized.

Yeah, not like we haven't heard all this before. 

WHY SO PARANOID

It's all "anonymous" until it's not, and the state's not tracking YOU until it is - or the feds ask them to. 

But I didn't say that, even though you all thought it, too.

I think it's a great idea, California!

I gotta go now.

*waves from Florida*