This policy followed the tried-and-true ‘progressive’ pattern: deny that anyone wants to do this thing, insist that it’s not REALLY so bad, then make it mandatory.
The ‘progressive’ is in quotes, because all of their progress takes us backward, just like the old joke about what the Communists used before they used candles? Answer: Electricity.
That old joke happens to be really on point for this story, because it’s about the insistence on eco activists to micromanage your life.
It was a little more than a year ago when rumors of a push to ban gas stoves in kitchen made headlines. The left mocked the idea and then, before you knew it, there was a ton of stories about how dangerous gas stoves were not just for the environment, but for people in kitchens. Biden’s administration didn’t outlaw them, exactly, but they did make changes to regulations that would impact which models of gas stoves might be sold to American customers.
Berkley, never one to lag behind in all of the latest Progressive fads, took the hint right away, and ran with the implicit marching orders. They changed the zoning laws to prohibit new natural gas hook-
That was not a well-thought-out plan on their part. That change threw restaurants under the bus. So they took the law to court.
Berkeley, which introduced the nation’s first natural gas ban, is now agreeing to repeal the law after legal defeat at the hands of the California Restaurant Association.
The CRA and the City of Berkeley reached a settlement in the case relating to the city’s 2019 ordinance banning the installation of new gas lines in buildings with Berkeley agreeing to halt enforcement of the ban and the City Council taking steps to repeal the ordinance.
[…] After an earlier federal district court dismissed CRA’s case, CRA appealed to the 9th Circuit Court, which unanimously ruled Berkeley’s ban violates the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which allows users to use “covered products in their homes, kitchens, and businesses. Berkeley appealed that ruling, which the 9th Circuit voted not to rehear.
Following Berkeley’s ban, over 70 cities across California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco adopted similar ordinances. With Berkley and CRA’s settlement to put the case on pause as the city stops enforcement and takes steps to repeal the ordinance in the coming months, it’s likely the state’s other cities will have to take a similar course of action.
There is nothing in our lives the activist left thinks is beyond their right to control.
That’s how we can know THEY are the authoritarians the Framers warned us about.
cross-posted with Clash Daily
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