Senate Confirms Nancy Skinner to California Energy Commission Despite Legislative Record Creating High Energy Costs

“California’s Legislative Swamp Selects Senate Swamp Dweller for California Energy Commission” is the title I really wanted. Here’s why:

Former State Senator Nancy Skinner, a Democrat from Berkeley (redundant, right?), was just confirmed by the Senate for an appointment to the California Energy Commission. Nominated by Governor Gavin Newsom for the California Energy Commission, Skinner was an institution in the California Legislature, having served since 2008, and known for supporting some of the most radical policies: pro-abortion any time in the pregnancy, global warming, climate change and radical environmentalism. Skinner even authored SB 345 which provides legal protections for medication abortions and “gender-affirming care” – dangerous, irreversible hormone treatments for gender-confused “trans” persons.

Nancy Skinner is reason for term limits, and why voters never bargained for termed-out lawmakers to get appointments to cushy boards and commissions.

Opposition to Skinner’s confirmation was split along party lines, with Republicans very concerned that her specific bills greatly contributed to California’s skyrocketing energy costs and affordability crisis.

Senate Republican Leader Brian Jones brought 5 binders of Skinner’s bills to the Senate floor saying, “We disagreed with 2/3 of them, but on energy, it was a 90% disagreement.”

“Many of the state’s current energy problems stemmed from her legislation,” he said noting, “government bureaucrats come first and constituents come second.”

Senator Marie Alvarado Gil (R-Jackson) said Skinner was being rewarded with a post at the very agency she expanded through legislation. “Those who toe the line get rewarded with very comfortable appointments.” Adding “imagine what she will do without accountability by the public.”

“Californians are paying more and getting less, and now we are being asked to reward the colleague who wrote most of the bills that caused this.”

Sen. Skinner did receive some love from fellow Berkeley-dweller Sen. Jesse Arreguín, Berkeley’s former Mayor. He said there is no one better for the post because of the “climate emergency,” and Skinner’s legislation addressing the need to move away from fossil fuels.

Skinner’s Real Record

Last year, when Senate Democrats rejected a bill to make purchasing a child for sex a felony, Senator Nancy Skinner actually attempted to offer cover to perps for buying and selling sex:

“Selling sex has been within human cultures for millennia,” Skinner said. “It is a very difficult area of law to get into.”

Really? Was Skinner serious? The short answer is Yes.

Last year, the ghoulish Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) authored SB 233 “to allow Arizona abortion providers to temporarily provide abortion care to patients from Arizona who travel to California for that care.”

Isn’t that special. Skinner and Gov. Newsom turned California into an Abortion Sanctuary State, and started working on Arizona.

In 2023, Skinner authored a bill signed into law by Gov. Newsom to require venture capitalists report to the California Civil Rights Department the diversity of the founding members of the businesses they invested in.

Sen. Skinner, “a social justice advocate, clean energy and climate change trailblazer,” who has never run a business or signed the front of a paycheck – claimed SB 54 will “bring transparency to venture capital investments in California and is designed to help more women- and minority-owned startups access vital VC funding.”

The bill had nothing to do with the business of investing in start-up businesses, other than to harm the practice. Venture capital investing has made it possible for many businesses which had a solid business plan, but needed the capital: Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Whole Foods and many others.

In 2023 the Globe reported that Senator Skinner must despise the oil and gas industry as much as Gov. Newsom. The California Assembly hosted a side show, when after jamming SBX1-2, authored by Sen. Nancy Skinner, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Gas Tax, through an expedited hearing, pretended that was enough exposure to the public, and debated the bill and voted on it. Skinner and Newsom’s SB X1-2 will create a new panel of unelected bureaucrats with subpoena power, to investigate oil and gas companies, impose penalties, new costs and regulations, which would inevitably lead to gas shortages, rationing and price spikes. The bill creates a new government agency to arbitrarily decide how much profit oil and gas businesses are allowed to make, disrupting California’s energy market and threatening the reliability of the state’s fuel supply, according to Assembly Republicans.

Gov. Newsom signed SB X1-2 into law, growing state government again.

In 2023, Sen. Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), called for a tax increase on major corporations, such as Coca Cola and Walmart, in order to fund middle-and-lower-income tax cuts, as well as infrastructure projects in the 2023-24 budget. And Senate Democrats praised the budget raising taxes on California businesses.

The businesses headquartered in California which employ 10,000 or more in California include Wells Fargo Capital II which employs 274,000 workers. Ross Stores employs 88,000; Vons markets employ 44,000; Applebees has 28,000 employees; Petco has 24,000 employees; Raleys employs 14,000 – all

In 2023, the California Legislative Women’s Caucus and the California Future of Abortion Council announced their 2023 bill package on “reproductive justice” and abortion rights. Because of “the zealots on the United States Supreme Court,” who according to Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), “overturned a 50-year right,” the package includes 17 pieces of legislation “that will expand access to reproductive health care and strengthen California’s standing as a safe haven for abortion, contraception, and pregnancy care.

And this gem:

In 2013, covering then-Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner in a hearing, I reported on Assembly Bill 48 authored by Skinner, which bans the sale of magazine parts kits that can hold more than 10 cartridges, and requires mandatory reporting of law-abiding citizens who purchase more than 3,000 rounds of ammunition within a five-day period. “Bullets are the very thing that make guns deadly,” said Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner from Berkeley. However her bill expanded the definition of “large-capacity magazine” to include disassembled parts even if the parts only “appear” to hold more than 10 rounds. It was really a bill to outlaw ammo for scary looking guns, to the Assemblywoman from Berkeley. Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 48 into law.

This is who Governor Newsom and Senate Democrats gifted with an appointment on the very powerful, totally unaccountable, unelected California Energy Commission.

A longtime legislative staffer quipped: “Let me get this straight – a Berkeley Democrat who literally wrote numerous laws constricting the supply of gasoline and sources of electric power is who they approved for the California Energy Commission?” 

“Are they not hearing their own people suffering with record high gas prices and energy costs? And with the two refineries closing, that’s 20% of the gas supply.” 

“That’s who they want on the CEC? This will be a gift to Republicans running for office from Democrats for years.” 

Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Huntington Beach) expressed his dismay: “Her policies did create the energy costs squeezing the pockets of residents. We can’t afford these policies of hers, and her regulations make California unaffordable.”

Strickland said the two refineries closing are because of her bill. “Gas is going to cost $8.43 per gallon.” And he said Skinner’s SB 1014 will get rid of gas-powered cars and force people to purchase $60,000 electric vehicles they can’t afford.

“Food, utilities, taxes – the highest cost of living – are the major driver of the highest poverty rate – many of Senator Skinners policies.”

Sen. Strickland said the California Legislature abdicated its oversight power to unaccountable boards like the energy commission (and CA Air Resources Board).

Skinner was confirmed 29-10 by the California Senate, entirely along party lines.