Is there anything Donald Trump can't do...or can't be blamed for?

I just finished a post on how his mere election was enough to lift economic confidence boats across the choppy waters of commerce, from consumers to small business to the like of Goldman Sachs.

And now comes this news that the state willing to put off taking care of their suffering wildfire victims because it's more important they 'Trump-proof' their whack-job woke policies...has suddenly thrown in the towel at the looming inauguration of that very nemesis/

Really?

What gives?

I thought California and oleaginous Governor Gavin 'The Shimmy' Newsom were wedded to electric vehicles and the climate cult vision of utopia to the death...or at least the death of the state.

They been going gangbusters trying to destroy it so far.

The results of California’s climate policy:
- highest electricity and gas prices in the continental US
- highest cost-adjusted poverty rate in the US
- lower electricity per person than in the 1970’s
- only “reduced per capita emissions at about the same rate as the U.S.” pic.twitter.com/7A62Om3nbR

— Russ Greene (@GreenPlusAnE) January 6, 2025

And Newsom's Electric Truck mandate was going to be nearly the final nail in the commerce coffin. The additional 30% in reduction of greenhouse gasses after all the electric vehicle mandates were in force would polish the state off completely.

California’s climate plan calls for a 30% reduction in car use AFTER their EV mandate is fully in place.

They will do this through “road diets” that cut traffic lanes and increase commutes, in order to nudge people onto public transit. pic.twitter.com/8IUvym9XTD

— Russ Greene (@GreenPlusAnE) January 6, 2025

Everyone was going to be on foot eventually and the Biden administration was just fine with that. Shoot, they even bought off on it last month.

GREEN LIGHT, GO

Biden administration greenlights California’s 2035 ban of new gas car sales in move likely to be revoked by Trump

In one of its last major actions on climate, the Biden administration on Wednesday finalized a key waiver allowing California to set its own vehicle pollution controls – effectively allowing the nation’s most populous state to implement its 2035 ban on selling new gasoline cars.

The Biden EPA also granted a separate waiver allowing California air regulators to significantly cut emissions of polluting nitrogen oxides from heavy trucks and off-road vehicles.

“California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in a statement. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”

For decades, federal law has granted California the authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards. President-elect Donald Trump revoked that authority during his first administration in 2019, but President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022.

Later that year, California air regulators voted to phase out sales of new gas vehicles by 2035, the first regulation of its kind in the US.

With Trump fixin' to take office again and all three branches of government, a Republican Congress was dusting off consumer choice legislation that hadn't passed a Democratic senate, knowing it was good to go this time.

The Biden Admin’s decision to provide a waiver for California’s EV mandate restricts consumer freedom and stifles innovation.

I’m proud to reintroduce legislation to remove this waiver and ensure one state can’t tell American families what kind of car they can drive. pic.twitter.com/VYkMjZ8vmQ

— John Joyce, M.D. (@RepJohnJoyce) January 14, 2025

I can't believe Newsom and Co. have given this dreamy scenario up. But it seems like it is true, and why?

NEW: California is withdrawing a request for the Biden admin to approve its EV truck mandate. Under the rules, a large share of truck sales in CA and other states would have been forced to be electric by 2035. Less than 1% of truck sales are EVs.

A major setback for activists. pic.twitter.com/UyEe4SY2gb

— Thomas Catenacci (@ThomasCatenacci) January 15, 2025

ORANGE MAN BAD

Thank God.

...The withdrawal comes after the Biden administration recently approved the California Air Resources Board’s mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars by 2035, but had not yet approved other waivers for four diesel vehicle standards that the state has adopted.

President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to revoke or challenge all zero-emission vehicle rules and California’s other clean-air standards. By withdrawing its requests for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval, the Newsom administration is signaling a dramatic step back as the state recalibrates in anticipation of the new Trump era.

“California has withdrawn its pending waiver and authorization requests that U.S. EPA has not yet acted on,” Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph said in a statement. “While we are disappointed that U.S. EPA was unable to act on all the requests in time, the withdrawal is an important step given the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate, and has said will continue to oppose those programs.”

Many people don't realize what impact the California standards have on the rest of the country. This isn't just good for CA,,as much as they may hate it. It saves everyone money and headaches, particularly in states with agreements to follow the insane CA  Advanced Clean Car (ACC) II standards.

For instance, this past June, to the moaning and hair-rending of cultists, Glenn Youngkin pulled Virginia out of a 2021 agreement. Virginians should kiss the ground he walks on for that, but how many even realize what he saved them from?

In 2021, under the benevolent eye of uber-prog Democratic black-face aficionado Gov Ralph Northam, the completely Democratic-held VA legislature decided to commit the state to follow the California emission standards, which, as everyone knows, are tougher than the federal ones. Progs of a feather flock together. 

In 2022, doubling down on their infinite wisdom, VA  lawmakers saw fit to impose what's known as CA's Advanced Clean Car II regulations on their fellow Virginians. In essence, what that was going to do was impose a 100% EV mandate on the state by 2035.

...The California 2035 ban, first announced by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2020 and made official by the state in 2022, is staggered over the next 11 years. According to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) plan, 35% of all new cars sold in California in 2026 are to to be electric or hybrids, with the amount climbing to 68% by 2030, and 100% by 2035. Following California’s official 2022 announcement, many other states quickly joined California either due to quick acting state legislatures or trigger laws that would bind them to standards in the Golden state. New York was the first to follow California, creating their own California style 2035 zero emission vehicle law in September 2022.

The states that have adopted ACC II (California's light and heavy-duty vehicle regulations), listed on the California program site, haven't been updated since June of 2024, when Virginia declared their independence. I wonder if they knew something was going to happen in November? Virginia is still listed - maybe the CA administrators didn't get the 'We are out of here' message.

Governor Youngkin today announced the end of the California electric vehicle mandate in Virginia, effective at the end of 2024 when California’s current regulations expire. An official opinion from Attorney General Jason Miyares in response to a request by the Governor and Senate Republican Leader Ryan McDougle confirms that Virginia is not required to comply with expansive new mandates adopted by the unelected California Air Resources Board (CARB) set to take effect January 1, 2025.  

“Once again, Virginia is declaring independence – this time from a misguided electric vehicle mandate imposed by unelected leaders nearly 3,000 miles away from the Commonwealth,” said Governor Glenn Youngkin. “The idea that government should tell people what kind of car they can or can’t purchase is fundamentally wrong. Virginians deserve the freedom to choose which vehicles best fit the needs of their families and businesses. The law is clear, and I am proud to announce Virginians will no longer be forced to live under this out-of-touch policy.” 

I'm assuming Oregon is next. They have an EV mandate and a company that builds diesel trucks in the state has just announced it - Daimler-Benz - will no longer sell those trucks in the state in which they're made.

I mean, how much insanity can a business take?

The EV mandate is an insurmountable debacle and the only way out is to roll back these idiotic laws. We will not implement EV infrastructure. We will not transition to EVs. All this is about is crushing business and tax payers. https://t.co/zmQ4qpgKWS

— The Murdertown (@RealMurdertown) January 10, 2025

And Trump sure seems to cast a long, orange shadow.

If the blowhards in California couldn't fend him off, I don't see who could.