Scroll down to read this post.

 

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


California to ban all gas-powered vehicles

This is not the Babylon Bee: California Democratic governor Gavin Newsom today announced that as of 2035 the state will outlaw all gas-powered vehicles.

Newsom said that his new executive order would “eliminate” the sales of “internal combustion engines” and move to electric vehicles — a move that he said would create jobs and allow California to “dominate” the market, and address climate change. Those who currently own gas-powered vehicles would still be allowed to operate them and to sell them on the used market.

2035 happens to be the same year that former Vice President Joe Biden has set as a deadline for the U.S. to eliminate fossil fuels from electricity production, five years later than originally proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in her “Green New Deal.” Ocasio-Cortez led the climate change panel on the “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force” earlier this year.

The ignorance displayed by this policy decision is spectacular. These Democrats obviously believe that the power from electric cars comes from magic. They also seem to believe that new technology can magically be decreed, by government fiat.

What this degree will do is bankrupt California, and make living there a living hell, suitable only for the very very rich or the very very poor (whose survival will be wholly dependent on those very very rich).

Remember this when you go to vote in November. Newsom, Ocasio-Cortez, and Biden are very typical of the modern Democratic Party. Give it power and it will do the same for the entire nation.

The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.

 

Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation:

4. A Paypal subscription:


5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.

25 comments

  • Edward

    Robert wrote: “The ignorance displayed by this policy decision is spectacular. These Democrats obviously believe that the power from electric cars comes from magic. They also seem to believe that new technology can magically be decreed, by government fiat. What this degree will do is bankrupt California, and make living there a living hell,

    This is actually Astonishing Stupidity Part II. California tried a lesser version of this two decades ago, wanting 5% of auto fleets to be zero emission. This occurred just as they had changed the way electricity is bought and sold in the state. Two problems became serious simultaneously. First, there was not enough power to charge all the electric cars that were showing up, resulting in rotating blackouts.

    Second, the state government had to spend $9 billion of its surplus money buying electricity from power companies in other states. California’s poor power management strategy helped enrich various electric companies, and probably helped lead to the Enron fiasco, which led to the Arthur Anderson downfall. I would say that California learned its lesson back then, but it didn’t.

    To call California’s Democratic fearful leaders “stupid” would be an insult to stupid people.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg3S3G1Vr1o (6 seconds)

    California already knows that technology cannot be magically decreed, but they just aren’t smart enough to not do it again. Where is Newsom planning on getting all the gigawatts needed to charge all those cars? Interestingly, between posting my last comment in another thread and reading this post, I had a discussion with a friend in which we both said that there is a hell, and it is California.

    From the article:

    Newsom cited ongoing wildfires, as well several recent record-breaking high temperatures in the state, in explaining his push for “ambitious goals”

    Except that the worst wildfires in the past three years, such as the one that burned down Paradise, started because of power lines that move electricity from the producers to the users, such as zero emission cars. It is so bad that the state occasionally has “Public Safety Power Shutoffs,” meaning planned blackouts in order to prevent new fires started by power lines. This new policy means that we will need even more power in the state, and thus more power lines, thus more wildfires or more power shutoffs. California is already a third world country that is run so badly that it cannot keep the power turned on. How Venezuelan can a state get without a revolution?

    He also slammed those who were in “denial about science, denial about facts” regarding the human role in climate change.

    Except that the science shows that North America hasn’t warmed in two decades, and the fact is that climates don’t change very fast. If climate change were the cause of California’s sudden increase in wildfires, then why have they only become so bad over the last five years, and why aren’t the rest of the American continent’s forests also burning out of control, too? These out of control wildfires are only happening in the three west coast states, which recently changed their forest management so that there is much more fuel for these fires.

    Right now I am tempted to insult idiots, too, but that would only be complimentary to gruesome Newsom.

  • They didn’t learn a dang thing from CARB’s attempt to mandate mere fleet percentages of ZEV’s in the 1990s.

    Human society is not a Field of Dreams … neither “if we mandate it, it will come” nor “if we subsidize it, it will come” can override the reality of physics and economics.

  • I lived in San Francisco in the mid-80’s. You could see then the trends dominant today. Can we agree that California has become a caricature? The folks moving to the Northwest aren’t laughing. Neither are the people having to deal with them. You all ruined your state. We should be happy about you moving here? No.

    You voted for it. You live it.

  • LocalFluff

    I would not at all like to see them prohibited, but gas vehicles do have their problems. They tend to explode and burn when they collide. In Sweden gas busses are popular among the politicians who procure such things:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pVStENP_Y4
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyT7uJKzLtQ

  • Executive order?
    California has banned nothing. One psychopathic lowlife seems to have decided that the opinion of one man should be the law. Just like the various psychopathic lowlife governors have decided to impose versions of house arrest and travel restrictions without the legitimizing action of our elected legislatures.
    I thought we had settled this in the Putney Debates.

    ‘What would you say if I said your governor was a psychopathic lowlife?’
    ‘I would say that is an insult to the psychopathic lowlife community.’

  • TGeorge

    Aaand this is how “external combustion engines” will make a comeback in the middle of the 21st century :)))
    Steampunk stuff…

  • TGeorge

    Is it true that former californians, after moving to another state, are expected by Cali to continue paying taxes towards California?

  • David

    I had to follow links three articles deep to get “vehicles” clarified as “passenger automobiles” and I’m still not sure that’s 100% correct. I’d love to see just what the limit here is. What about busses, local delivery vehicles, interstate trucking, farm vehicles, motorcycles, recreational boating? It says people will be allowed to buy and sell their used vehicles, how about buying used vehicles from out of state?

    Everyone has already pointed out that the power grid has no chance of being able to charge all these electric cars. The elephant in the room everyone misses is that electric cars have no resale value, there is basically no used market for them at all. And none of the near-term tech is going to change that, batteries have a limited number of cycles and that’s it. And from what Musk talked about at the battery day presentation yesterday, the batteries are becoming more integrated into the car, not less, so just replacing the battery is out. So either you can afford a new electric car every 5-10 years, or you’re riding a bus.

  • Milt

    Per David’s commentary —

    “either you can afford a new electric car every 5-10 years, or you’re riding a bus.” —

    is precisely the point. In the new People’s EcoRepublic of California, “riding the bus” will be the lifestyle of all but a tiny elite. Paradise on earth at last achieved.

    Per TGeorge’s question, yes, I believe that California is indeed looking at ways of taxing former residents:

    https://www.westernjournal.com/california-bill-apply-wealth-tax-residents-fled-state-last-10-years/

    As in the lines from Hotel California,

    Last thing I remember
    I was running for the door
    I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
    “Relax,” said the night man
    “We are programmed to receive
    You can check-out any time you like
    But you can never leave!”

  • Max

    Obama says;
    You can double the mileage on your car by adding some air pressure to the tires… There, the gas shortage is averted.

    I read somewhere a detailed analysis of the efficiency between gas and electric vehicles. The end result was electric cars are 25% as efficient.
    Another Greenie weenie solution to a problem that doesn’t exist… Destroying the planet in the name of saving it.
    Just like solar panels that take more energy to create then It will make in its lifetime. That’s right, a negative energy creator. Same with modern windmills, overhyped and under performance.

    This declaration was made by executive fiat, a dictator move. He said if you have a gas car you can keep your gas car… We’ve heard that before. Next year they’ll be another executive announcement that all gasoline cars are being phased out, perhaps a buyback program funded by taxpayer money. We’ve seen that before.
    He wants to bring new industry to California… Musk is moving his tesla operations out of California. Somehow I don’t think the power fluctuations and the lockdowns are inspiring any corporations.

    Another announcement was made from San Francisco, in a few years, all snack foods will be banned. You’ll have to pay a smuggler from Mexico to bring you your Doritos and M&Ms.

  • James Stephens

    I have wondered which produces less emissions per kilowatt generated. An internal combustion powered vehicle which today produce only scant emissions or a centralized power plant. Bare in mind for every kilowatt of electricity produced from renewable sources their has to be an equal amount of fueled capacity on hot standby ready to kick in within milliseconds should renewable sources sag or cease. If not the distribution grid will become unstable and power outages will result along with substantial and dangerous damages to the electrical infrastructure, which in California is already in poor condition. This is why renewable sources at best can only supplement electrical generation capacity and can never even in theory achieve 50 percent of the electrical energy mix. Powering a home is one thing supporting a state wide energy grid is quite another. The average automobile gas or electric operates at energy outputs ranging from about 5 KW to over 100 KW. I doubt California’s electrical infrastructure as it stands today is up to the task. But by the year 2035 though I doubt it the citizenry of California may come to their scenes or they may be powering their automotive fleet with unicorn farts.

  • Jeff

    Reply to James Stephens
    The CA answer is to rely on neighboring states to provide for the shortage. At extremely high rates.
    Based on 15M cars and the fact that Diablo Canyon will be shut down by then leaving 0 nukes in CA, the state will run a 100,000 GWh deficit annually. At least.

    What he has done is put a deadline out there for people to exit the state. 2030 is the absolute hardline in his scenario, if you can cope with all of the other BS in the state.

    You won’t be able to get a UHaul or Ryder to get out of hell. There will be mercenaries driving trucks from neighboring states for your black market needs.

    For all in CA, if you don’t have an exit strategy, you best get busy building one.

  • James Stephens

    100,000 GWh. Wow! Lights out! California was a great place when I was a kid. I remember when Diablo Canyon came on line. I was in L.A. for business just before all this Covid insanity and have no desire to return. The company I did business with is moving to San Antonio. And in L.A. their wasn’t a U-haul to be had. Rates for outgoing U-Hauls were about double that for incoming. I have seen eighteen wheelers loaded with U-Haul fifth wheels hauling them back to California from D/FW. Take the politics back with you too please. We don’t want it here. What’s that line? Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven. OK Gavin you’ve got it.

  • wayne

    Red Hot Chili Peppers
    “Californication”
    https://youtu.be/YlUKcNNmywk
    5:21

  • TGeorge

    @Milt thanks for the link. That’s why Maloney says here “get out of dodge while you can”: https://youtu.be/2WrrTuaQYGs
    Couldn’t remember earlier exactly where I heard about that idiotic emanation of a proposal.

  • pzatchok

    The last power plant proposed to be built in California was fought for so long they just built it over in Mexico. Just over the boarder.
    Now instead of being US and California regulated. Its pumping out pollution like a steam train. And everyone gets to watch that pollution float right into California anyways.
    Plus no tax money for California.

    Plus add in the fact the the 9th court ordered out of state power producers to keep California supplied even though they were not paying their bills. The same with their water.
    Who would ever want to build a power plant just to keep California running.
    You notice not one other state has rolling brownouts. Just California.

  • MDN

    What lunacy. Simple math says that nationally we have about 260M cars and replace them at the rate of about 15M a year. That means it takes on average about 260/15, or just over 17 years to roll over the entire fleet. So Newsome’s dictate is impossible to achieve unless we started selling nothing but electric cars over two years ago, and the average cost per unit is the same, which as we all know it is not.

    Also, it’s going to be really fun when the next big earthquake strikes and evacuating any reasonable distance will be monumentally impeded, and Californian’s cars won’t have much utility outside the state’s border until the rest of the country follows suit about 100 years from now. And you still won’t be able to go further the Tijuana in Mexico.

  • “Those who currently own gas-powered vehicles would still be allowed to operate them . . .”

    Well, sure. But at what cost? Not just from the monetary ones imposed by the State, but in public opinion. Even rolling up in a Nissan Sentra would get you side-eye. A Hummer would be legal assault. Ya’ll voted for it.

  • pzatchok

    The average house uses 30kWh per day.

    That is 2000 sq ft of solar panels to make that power. Thats a flat area 40 foot by 50 foot. Some Californians don’t even have that much yard.

    Plus you need a battery pack to store some of that power for the night.

    Add some extra panels for those short days and long nights.

    And add a few more for those shady days. In California you can count smoke as a cloud.

    Total cost. Almost 40,000 dollars. Plus maintenance.

  • LocalFluff

    Now I understand that by gas is here meant gasoline, petrol. Not natural gas. The context made it hard to make that association. Combustion engine cars will not be gone in 2035, that’s ridiculous. By then flying cars will be common, and they need petrol power.

  • pzatchok

    My two friends operate CNG cars for daily use.
    Its actually better for the engines and oil lasts longer.
    But your riding in a virtual bomb. Unlike in the movies Gas never explodes in a car crash. I just burns. But natural gas……

    One of them actually found some extra tanks in the junk yard and added them to his car. He now has as much mileage on CNG as he does on a full tank of petrol. He did weld up a crash box to help protect the tanks.

    The car with a flip of a switch goes from CNG to petrol and back on the fly. They are old police cars.

  • Greg the Geologist

    “But, but, but . . . Trump is the dictator!!!”

  • Cotour

    YOU LIKE THE CLEAN BETTERY TECHNOLOGY?

    Battery technology, its clean, its efficient, it is the future: https://youtu.be/5r-yN8SugWM

    So clean, and no carbon released into the atmosphere during operation. Zero carbon footprint.

    Just don’t be caught inside any of them if it happens to burst into flames!

    Wow!

  • Cotour

    WANT TO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND THE ENERGY ISSUE?

    Mark Mills, physicist, mining, battery, energy expert: https://youtu.be/sgOEGKDVvsg 47 minutes.

    This is a rational and actual scientific, economic, real world understanding of the issue, no delusion, a master class.

  • Cotour

    “Zero” emissions / California specifically: https://youtu.be/4sa5JkeerRo

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *