California’s Carbon Crusade: A Reckless Assault on Prudence

California’s single-state war on human-produced carbon emissions is a case study in policy without prudence. From Sacramento, lawmakers tilt at climate windmills, imposing draconian measures that harm residents while achieving little globally. The state’s cap-and-trade program, punishing electricity taxes, and regulatory overreach drive up costs for those least able to afford them, exacerbate the housing crisis, and ignore the irony of wildfires dwarfing their efforts. This column critiques the worst of these policies, highlighting their futility against the backdrop of California’s self-inflicted wounds.

The cap-and-trade program, billed as a market-based fix for emissions, is a bureaucratic mess. It caps total emissions, letting companies trade allowances to pollute within that limit. In reality, it’s a hidden tax, inflating costs for businesses that trickle down to consumers. A 2023 study pegged its impact at 10-15 cents per gallon of gasoline—painful in a state with sky-high fuel prices—while hiking electricity and heating bills. Small businesses drown in compliance costs, while corporate giants game the system. For all this, the climate impact is negligible: California produces less than 1% of global CO2, and even zeroing out its emissions wouldn’t sway the global trend when nations like China add coal plants weekly. Yet policymakers cling to this scheme, oblivious to its regressive sting, as if symbolic wins trump real-world harm.

Electricity prices, already crushing, showcase California’s disdain for affordability. At 32 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2024—double the national average—the state’s rates stem from relentless regulations and taxes. Mandates for wind and solar, which demand costly grid upgrades for their intermittency, and the phase-out of reliable natural gas plants have triggered blackouts, like those in 2020 and 2022. Low-income households suffer most; a 2024 California Public Utilities Commission report found 1 in 4 families struggle with electric bills, many facing shutoffs. Prudence would balance green goals with keeping the lights on, but California’s leaders let the poor subsidize their eco-fantasies, driving misery for minimal gain.

This war on carbon also fuels California’s housing crisis, a catastrophe of affordability made worse by reckless policy. Stringent environmental regulations, layered atop emissions goals, inflate construction costs. The California Environmental Quality Act, often weaponized to block development, delays projects for years, adding legal and compliance expenses—estimated at $100,000 per housing unit in some cases. Cap-and-trade and renewable energy mandates raise utility costs for builders, passed onto renters and buyers. In 2024, median home prices hit $850,000, while rents in cities like Los Angeles average $2,800 monthly. For working-class families, these costs—compounded by green policies—make homeownership a pipe dream. Prudence would streamline approvals and prioritize housing supply, but California’s climate obsession chokes development, leaving millions priced out.

Meanwhile, wildfires mock the state’s efforts, spewing carbon far beyond what regulations curb. In 2020, fires released 127 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent—triple California’s annual industrial emissions. Decades of forest mismanagement, including restricted burns and logging bans, have left landscapes primed to blaze. Yet instead of tackling this, Sacramento fixates on tailpipes and power plants. It’s like mopping the floor in a flood—resources squandered on optics while forests burn. Prudence would fund firebreaks and brush clearing, but California’s carbon tunnel vision prevails.

Contrast this with the Trump administration’s pragmatic energy policies. From 2017 to 2021, and resuming in 2025, Trump prioritized domestic production—oil, gas, coal—and cut red tape, lowering electricity costs and boosting self-sufficiency. By 2019, the U.S. was a net energy exporter, enhancing security without California’s punitive taxes. Emissions still dropped, driven by market shifts to natural gas, not mandates. This balance—growth and affordability—highlights California’s folly.

California’s leaders, with Governor Gavin Newsom atop the pack, lack the humility to see their limits. Their anti-carbon crusade ignores the state’s poverty, housing woes, and global insignificance—less than 1% of emissions. Cap-and-trade burdens the poor for no climate gain. Electricity costs crush families to fund shaky renewables. Housing grows unattainable under regulatory weight. Wildfires expose the absurdity of it all. Prudence demands focus on what works—affordable energy, fire prevention, homes people can buy—not a quixotic quest to save the planet alone. California’s reckless policies harm its people, proving that good intentions, unchecked by reason, pave a ruinous path.