California Environmental Mandates, National Guard Turmoil Not Protecting Our Country

Members of California National Guard stand guard outside City Hall in Los Angeles, in a file photo. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

Commentary

California’s state policies tragically are advancing our enemies’ interests, especially in two areas: pushing draconian green policies and debilitating the California National Guard.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen the past week traveled to communist China, begging them to stop sending to the United States cheap green-technology products such as solar panels. In an immediate rebuff to her and President Joe Biden, headlined The Epoch Times April 9, “China’s Xi Meets With Russian Foreign Minister in a Show of Solidarity Against West.” It reported, “Data from China’s commerce ministry show that trade between the two neighbors hit a record high of $240 billion last year, up 26 percent compared with 2022.”

Due to state policies, Californians especially will have to: 1. Pay the high cost of transitioning to green energy from draconian state mandates imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature. 2. Pay an even higher cost if China limits its exports, thereby raising the prices of similar green products sold here. It’s a double whammy.

And as I reported several times in The Epoch Times, China builds the solar panels and other green devices using coal plants belching out greenhouse gases at record amounts. It’s true China itself is switching to green energy in some areas, such as solar electricity. But even that’s another double benefit for Beijing: 1. They generate more energy (although not enough to offset building even more coal plants). 2. They test, improve, and perfect their green products before exporting them in mass quantities.

Ms. Yellen insisted, “China is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this enormous capacity. ... When the global market is flooded by artificially cheap Chinese products, the viability of American and other foreign firms is put into question.”

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But although America can regulate the imports of subsidized, cheap Chinese products, it can do little to nothing about what is exported to the rest of the world. Indeed, when America limits imports, that just means more Chinese goods flow into the rest of the world, increasing the supply of such goods there, thus reducing prices. As an economist, Ms. Yellen has to know that.

According to Statistia, the United States is only China’s third largest export destination, at 14.8 percent. That leaves 85.2 percent going to the rest of the world.

An LGBT flag flies in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

California Guard’s DEI Nonsense

Add to California’s pointless enviro mandates all the PC, DEI, and ESG nonsense being foisted on the military. California boasts the country’s second largest Army National Guard and Air National Guard contingents, totaling 18,136, after Texas’s 22,007.

Recent deployments include Poland and the Middle East, two hot spots of world turmoil. But here’s what Cal Guard prioritizes under “Mission and Vision”:

“California Military Department Valuing diversity Inclusion, Belonging, Equity, Sustainably: Our vision is to cultivate a culture where all employees can bring their best selves to work while contributing to building a more equitable and inclusive workplace; where employees/servicemembers don’t just work here but feel and know they belong here.

“We do this by ensuring that we are always improving our efforts in recruiting, retaining, and promoting those who are representative of all communities across the diversity of California.

“We sustain our efforts by continually supporting our employees/servicemembers to practice cultural humility and become stronger IDEA Warriors.

“Our service is to all of California and anywhere we are called to serve, and so is our workplace.

“We are diverse.

“We are intersectional.

“We are inclusive.

“We are the California Military Department.”

California National Guard Turmoil

California’s National Guard also has suffered turmoil in recent years. For example, Air Force Times reported on Jan. 31, “A one-star general who was fired from the California National Guard last year has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against his former commander, alleging he was ousted for submitting a complaint about a pattern of antisemitism.

“The removed Guard leader, retired Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Magram, filed the lawsuit Jan. 24 against the adjutant general of California, Maj. Gen. Matthew Beevers, and Gov. Gavin Newsom in a Los Angeles court.

“Magram seeks at least $1.6 million in compensatory damages for back pay and other lost employment benefits.

“Magram alleges that, over a two-year period, Beevers created a hostile work environment through several antisemitic statements and ultimately pushed for his removal ‘because of Magram’s Jewish heritage and in retaliation for Magram’s complaints.’

“The California Military Department denied the allegations in a statement emailed to Military Times on Tuesday, calling Magram’s complaint a ‘retaliatory and baseless lawsuit.’”

California Army National Guard soldiers in Mountain View, Calif., in a file photo. (Paul Sakuma/AP Photo)

Obvious Solutions

The obvious solutions for California and America would be, first, to ease off on the green mania mandates. California should stop its disdain of electricity generated from natural gas. Doing so would reduce the need to import Chinese-made solar panels. The state also should end its requirement by 2035 all new cars must not be run on gasoline or diesel—meaning almost all will be electric, with a few hydrogen or similar cars. That also would increase the demand for electricity.

It’s going to be hard meeting the mandate anyway because there is a limited market for electric cards. Last week the Detroit News reported, “In another sign the auto industry is downshifting its transition to electrification, Ford Motor Co. will delay the launch of new three-row electric vehicles in Ontario, adjust the timing of its next-generation electric truck and offer hybrid powertrains across its entire internal combustion engine lineup in North America by the end of the decade. .. the majority of customers are showing they aren’t ready for EVs, complaining they’re expensive, lack enough accessible and reliable charging infrastructure and take too long to charge up.”

Second, we should start rebuilding our American industrial base. Its small size also has been revealed in America’s inability to deliver enough weapons, especially such basics as artillery shells, to Ukraine’s army. The Arsenal of Democracy from World War II, about which President Biden keeps boasting, is much smaller that he and others thought. Although some of us have been warning about this for a long time.

I believe America’s involvement in the Ukraine situation was a mistake and we should negotiate an immediate cease fire, as former President Donald Trump has proposed. But one good result is it has revealed the sorry state of American industrial power. The situation also has been made worse by the military infrastructure also having to ship weapons to Israel in its war against Hamas.

A potential war with communist China would be severely hampered by today’s shortage of material. The old adage, “If you want peace, prepare for war,” certainly applies. Here’s how President George Washington put it in his First Annual Address to Congress on Jan. 8, 1790: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”

It’s the motto, in Latin, of the 96th Communications Squadron at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida: Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum.

Third, California needs to get its National Guard in order, first by ending the DEI mandates, second by clearing up the scandals plaguing it.

Conclusion: Time for California and America to Get Serious

Unfortunately, wars are a part of human existence. A way to get involved in a war, and to lose it, is to perpetrate the kind of nonsense advanced foremost in California.

It’s clear California, and America in general, need to get serious about defending our country. The environmental delusions aiding China, combined with scandals and DEI and ESG, are no way to run a military in these perilous times.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.