California Democrats continue to jack up gas prices and tell Californians what kind of cars they are allowed to buy. Now, the state also wants to dictate what kind of tires people are allowed to buy as well.
The California Energy Commission voted unanimously to impose new, strict “efficiency standards” for tires, based on their rolling resistance. This is an environmentalist decision pushed under the guise that it will save California drivers a few hundred dollars a year, based on the idea that tires having less rolling resistance will help Californians save on gas (which is too expensive because of California’s astronomical gas tax and burdensome gas regulations).
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According to tire manufacturer Goodyear, though, this will cost Californians hundreds more instead. That is because of a little-known economic concept called “supply and demand.” The new rule would ban 70% of the tires sold in California by 2033, which would mean that either the tire market in California would be artificially limited or that tire manufacturers would need to dedicate their resources specifically to California-approved tires, which would not otherwise be sold in other states in large quantities.
Either the supply remains low, causing people to pay more, or manufacturers spend more to provide Californians with tires, causing people to pay more. This is exactly what California has done with gas, mandating a special California-specific gasoline blend that is more expensive to produce, and thus more expensive for California drivers.
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All of this is being done under the pretense that the commission wants to reduce costs for California drivers. As commissioner Nancy Skinner said, “You think about how much gas is per gallon, and we don’t see it going down.” California Democrats made gas more expensive, and they don’t want to do anything to actually lower those costs, so they will make you pay more for replacement tires and call it a day. It’s worth noting that Skinner was also a member of the Democratic Socialists of America in the 1980s when she was on the Berkeley City Council.
The California Energy Commission has never regulated tires before, but California has never seen a prospective regulation that it doesn’t adore. That is how you end up with California Democrats artificially increasing the cost of tires to address the artificially increased costs of gas brought on by the last set of regulations. The only question now is which aspect of cars California will valiantly regulate next when it becomes clear that this supposed cost-saving regulation predictably backfired.