Make California Post a Preferred Source Let’s hope the US Senate makes time to second the House’s move to cancel a carbon tax that California imposes on the rest of the country.
Under the Congressional Review Act, the House recently voted to nix a Biden-era waiver that allows the Golden State to order any large ship in one its ports to shut off its diesel engines, forcing them to plug into expensive shore electricity, install pricey emissions-control tech, or pay a hefty fee.
Ostensibly, this “Vessels at-Berth” rule aims to reduce air pollution, but its backers are the same crowd who war on all fossil fuels.
And in this case it’s not Californians who pay for the green agenda, but people across the country who must pay more for imported goods.
In other words, the Vessels at-Berth rule is like a national carbon tax.
Except nobody voted for it — not even in California.
The regulation comes from the rogue California Air Resources Board, which only gets impose it because Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency OK’d it.
But there are other ways to reduce pollution at ports.
Just ask Pete Buttigieg, who was secretary of transportation during the cargo crisis of 2021.
Buttigieg was on leave (an unannounced paternity leave, to be precise) when cargo ships began piling up outside the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, overwhelmed by post-pandemic import demand.
It looked like a scene from Star Wars, with the Imperial Fleet hovering outside the ports.
To cut air pollution from the engines of ships waiting to dock — and make the backlog less visible from shore — local authorities had the ships spread out, way out to sea.
The issue of pollution near the ports is largely a pretext to regulate carbon emissions generally. And the Vessels at-Berth rule is a sneaky way of passing on the costs to American consumers.
The rule’s fans claim consumers barely notice the added expense, and that it’s a small price for the rest of the country to pay to benefit Angelenos.
But the country is struggling with inflation and affordability, and California shouldn’t be able to raise prices at will.
Senate chief John Thune should put this on the calendar, and let California’s senators tell Americans why they should subsidize Cali’s environmental regulations.
It’s time to sink the Vessels at-Berth rule.
