California's 'green' image came out of necessity, not altruism. LA became one of the dirtiest cities in the world. It was clean it up, or die trying. Tourism and Hollywood were in trouble due to the poor air quality.
Our state is not really good with money. Just to keep our 80 part-time Assembly officials in support staff and materials is about $160,000,000 per year. This does not include the elected officials salaries or what they spend campaigning. It's just their helpers and 'stuff' they 'need' to deal with minor political issues in minor areas under the control of a state level government. A lot has to do with redundant level of redundancy. California has nearly all the departments of the Federal, County, and City governments. So anytime you deal with anything at the Federal level, or county, or city, you must also normally fund a California dept to do the exact same thing. We even have California Veteran's Affairs. Now, I'm all for helping veterans, but understand that California does not have a military. All funding for the National Guard and all our Armed Forces bases in California comes from Washington DC. But even our Assembly officials need Veterans Affairs staff members for their own use, then another California office with other workers to actually staff the CalVet. This is there simply for votes and to garner more Fed funding. It is 100% redundant, three times over. Assembly, Senate, and CalVet then the actual governing body in Washington. This is repeated again and again for virtually all government agencies, CalVet Affairs is one of the smaller ones.
This $160 million is just the money that is required to keep 80 part time state employees from having to do much work themselves. Many members of the State Assembly (and Senate) have jobs besides their elected post. This becomes apparent when conflicts of interest kick in and nepotism problems occur.
All the state had to do was to extend the existing low level of EV funding if they actually meant what they say in speeches. But of course, they do not. They will get their Sacramento EV Showcase City, and EV chargers from VW after they guzzle down a good % for their own families and friends.
But nobody in Sacramento is going to admit to being hypocrites. Nobody is going to stand up and say: "Screw clean air and advancing American technology, I need the money for my campaigning, which means supporting organizations and industries that will give me donations. EVs simply do not provide me with anything, so why as a California Legislator should I bother with them?"
