Gavin Newsom just got the message loud and clear from the people who actually have to live under his rules. Nearly two-thirds of Californians want nothing to do with his 2035 ban on new gas-powered cars.
According to the latest Public Policy Institute of California survey, 66 percent of adults and 65 percent of likely voters oppose the governor’s executive order that would outlaw the sale of new gasoline vehicles. Only 34 percent still back it. That is a 17-point jump in opposition since 2021, when the state was split down the middle.
Republicans reject it by a staggering 91 percent. Independents sit at 69 percent against. Even Democrats have collapsed into a near-even split. The climate cult is losing its own base.
This is not some abstract preference poll. Californians are staring at their utility bills and gas pumps and deciding the green dream is not worth the cost. Sixty-three percent now call energy costs a big problem in their part of the state. The same share says current gasoline prices are a major problem. Both numbers have climbed sharply in just one year.
Electricity in California already runs nearly twice the national average. Residential rates hover around 35 cents per kilowatt-hour, the highest among the contiguous states. Newsom’s answer? Force everyone into electric cars that cost more upfront, take longer to “refuel,” and depend on a grid that struggles to keep the lights on during heat waves.
The same poll shows only one in five Californians is extremely or very confident the state will build enough charging stations. Nearly half say they have little or no confidence at all. People are not stupid. They know what happens when politicians promise infrastructure they never deliver.
Scripture has a word for this kind of planning. “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28).
Newsom never counted the cost for ordinary families. He counted the applause from coastal elites and climate NGOs.
The governor and lawmakers just threw another $135 million at EV rebates. First-time buyers of cheaper new electric cars can get $3,500. Used ones get half that. Automakers are supposed to split the bill. Anyone who believes those costs will not land on consumers has never watched how California works.
Meanwhile, the federal $7,500 EV tax credit expired under President Trump and a Republican Congress. California is left holding the bag for a transition its own residents increasingly reject. The state still leads the nation in EV registrations, with about 1.3 million on the road.
That has not stopped the backlash. People who already own them are one thing. Mandating the rest of the population into them is another.
Californians still say they support broad climate goals. Nearly two-thirds back the net-zero emissions target by 2045. Majorities favor carbon taxes on corporations and renewable electricity requirements. The difference is simple. Abstract targets cost nothing today. Forcing working families out of reliable, affordable cars does.
This is what happens when ideology collides with the grocery bill. Newsom’s marquee climate policy has become a political liability in the bluest big state in the country. The people who have to pay for it are done pretending.
The New York Post called it a gut punch. That is polite. It is a rejection of the entire top-down climate regime that treats citizens as subjects to be managed rather than free people who count costs for themselves.
Newsom is term-limited. His successor will inherit this mess. The question is whether California’s political class finally learns that reality has a way of interrupting the sermon.
