Tag Archives: California Energy Commission (CEC)

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Posted on by

California has just created a black market for tires. They didn’t mean to, but they did.

On Wednesday, Issues & Insights posted an article on the new tire regulations in California.

The article reports:

Which state has the highest retail tire prices in the country? It’s not a data point that anyone, as far as we know, compiles, but artificial intelligence suggests that it’s California. What we can be sure about, though, is that in about three years, California drivers will be paying more for tires than they are today. 

Significantly more. 

It won’t happen because the tire makers and retailers will suddenly raise prices. It will happen because California’s hyperactive government launched yet another new rule last week. Beginning in 2029, all new replacement tires sold in the state will have to be “at least as energy efficient, on average, as tires sold on new vehicles,” according to the California Energy Commission, which bragged that it had “approved the nation’s first replacement tire efficiency standards.”

Supposedly the rule will help consumers pocket extra cash due to the tires’ low rolling resistance. The CEC estimates the savings will reach $1 billion a year in gasoline and electricity costs.

Companies that actually make tires and therefore might know what they are talking about say that the savings are a third-rate tall tale. The new compliant tires will cost far more than the few extra dollars each the CEC reckons. During the rule’s comments period, Goodyear said prices could spike by hundreds of dollars per tire while the rule will eventually eliminate about 70% of current replacement tire market.

The article concludes:

It’s painfully obvious that California will regulate anything, without conscience, without prudence, without remorse, with no regard for the consequences. It’s a single-party state where elected officials and unelected functionaries know no bounds.

There are state lines, though, and Californians will cross them to buy the tires they want and the tires they can afford. Enterprising off-the-books merchants will buy contraband tires in Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and elsewhere and sell them in California outside the normal channels to avoid the regulators.

Who knows, some might feel the rule is the straw that finally breaks their backs and sends them fleeing the state as so many others already have because policymakers continue to make living in California an intolerable burden.

The California legislature is giving residents another reason to leave the state.

The Nanny State Strikes Again

Posted on by

On Tuesday, Fox Business posted an article about new regulations about tire purchases in California.

The article reports:

California regulators on Monday approved new rules that will restrict which replacement tires can be sold across the state in an effort to meet energy-efficiency standards.

The new regulations, unanimously adopted by the California Energy Commission (CEC), will phase out tires that fail to meet these standards — a move that could restrict a large portion of the tires currently available to drivers.

“This ultimately is about protecting consumers,” said David Hochschild, Chairman of the California Energy Commission, as reported by KCRA-TV. “I see this as sheltering the public from higher costs in the long run.”

…The new rules target rolling resistance: the amount of energy it takes for a tire to roll down a road. Lower rolling resistance allows vehicles to consume less gasoline or electricity.

While factory-installed tires on new vehicles typically feature low rolling resistance, drivers often replace them with cheaper, less efficient tires. The new rules aim to ensure that replacement tires maintain energy efficiency levels similar to those of original factory tires.

As long as the tires I put on my car are safe, the state has no business telling me what those tires should be. It would be interesting to check the campaign donations to the people who passed this bill. The tires now required evidently are more expensive than the tires people normally buy. There are also some questions as to the performance of the required tires in inclement weather. What is the profit margin on these tires? What campaign donations have the companies who manufacture these tires recently made? I hate to be cynical, but eighteen years of research for rightwinggranny.com has taught me that regulations often happen for reasons other than those stated.