Much more of this is on the way as the green mandates heat up

Climate Cult Laws in CA Stomping All Over Locals and Landscape

The full article is behind the San Francisco Chronicle’s paywall, but HotAir has the gist of it:

In the sprawling green hills of California’s far north, where the politics run red and rowdy, a new state law designed to clear a path for climate-friendly energy projects is facing a tough debut.

State officials are using their authority under the law, for the first time, to gain approval powers over a plan to build 48 giant wind turbines in Shasta County — powers typically held by local officials. In doing so, they’ve encountered not only opposition to the project but broader anger in a region known for its distaste of heavy-handed government and, in particular, Sacramento Democrats.

Previously, the county Board of Supervisors here rejected Gov. Gavin Newsom’s COVID mandates, scoffed at the state’s support of tighter gun restrictions and vowed to take on the Legislature over whether the county could hand-count ballots amid concerns, though unsubstantiated, about fraud in President Donald Trump’s failed reelection bid.

Now, the new climate law, Assembly Bill 205, has rural Shasta County in yet another dust-up with the state. The confrontation was cemented late last month with a lawsuit filed by county officials, challenging the California Energy Commission’s jurisdiction over the Fountain Wind Project.

As their self-imposed deadlines for converting the country to variable energy approaches, look for both state and federal politicians to panic at the delays in building new networks of transmission lines, solar farms, windmill plantations, and CO2 pipelines, and simply override environmentalists and powerless citizens.

As far back as 2008, City Journal’s Max Schulz nailed it:

California’s Potemkin Environmentalism

Schwarzenegger’s reputation as an environmental trailblazer is in keeping with California’s recent history and self-perception. California’s political leaders, business titans, academics, and environmental activists proudly point to the fact that the state has infused its public policy over the last four decades with an environmental consciousness unmatched in the United States, while also maintaining a dynamic economy, arguably the eighth-largest on the planet, with a gross state product of more than $1.6 trillion. The widely shared assumption is that forward-looking Athenian wisdom has nourished awesome Spartan power.

In truth, however, the Golden State’s energy leadership is a mirage. California’s environmental policies have made it heavily dependent on other states for power; generated some of the highest, business-crippling energy costs in the country; and left it vulnerable to periodic electricity shortages. Its economic growth has occurred not because of, but despite, those policies, which would be disastrous if extended to the rest of the country.

Things have not improved in the fifteen years since.