The California Energy Commission voted unanimously to make roughly seventy percent of the tires sold in the state illegal.
Not immediately. California is patient. In 2029, a replacement tire has to come in under 9.1 newtons per kilonewton of rolling resistance. In 2033, 7.2. If you don’t know what a newton per kilonewton is, congratulations, you’re a normal person. It means most of what’s in a warehouse in Fontana right now becomes contraband by the time your kid finishes high school.
Back up. The original plan was to ban the gas car outright — Advanced Clean Cars II, one hundred percent zero-emission new sales by 2035, with quotas along the way. Benchmarks started this year… By 2026, 35% of new cars sold in CA needed to be EVs.
Actual EV share in the first quarter: 13.7%, the lowest since 2021. So… long way to go.
The good news is that, considering its absurdity, Congress passed a resolution killing the federal waiver that would have been the enforcement mechanism for this ridiculous goal of banning gas-powered cars. California sued and the case is still live, but the front door was closed.
Enter Nancy Skinner.
Newsom appointed her to the Energy Commission in January of last year. Before that, Berkeley’s assemblywoman, then Berkeley’s senator. In 2013, she authored a bill to license ammunition dealers and log bullet purchases with the state. Her pitch: “Bullets are what make a gun deadly.”
Sit with that logic. You can’t ban the gun, so you go after the components. The gun stays legal. It just becomes a paperweight with a trigger.
In 2026, she can’t ban the car BUT… what about tires?
The authority for Monday’s vote comes from a law passed in 2003 that directed the Energy Commission to look into regulating tire efficiency. The argument she’s making is that more efficient tires (judged by their rolling resistance coefficient) will save people money.
The directive sat untouched for 20 years — three governors, multiple commissions. Skinner gets appointed, the drawer opens. The commission’s chairman admitted he didn’t know the law existed until she brought it up.
Her claim is that it will save money… but will it?
Short answer: no.
Tire industry experts including Goodyear told the commission the number runs into the hundreds and wipes out seventy percent of the market by 2033.
You don’t need a tire engineer to referee this. Delete seventy percent of the supply while demand stays flat and the price goes up. And that cost increase is passed on to the mom sitting in traffic every morning who buys the cheapest four that pass inspection. But now she can’t, because those tires are illegal.
Thirteen years ago the target was the ammunition. This week it’s the four round things holding your car off the ground. Same move, different aisle.
Give it another decade and Sacramento will notice a car is just a couch that goes places, and we’ll be arguing about upholstery.
Get more of Jobob’s perspective on today’s most important stories on Turning Point Tonight, which airs Monday through Friday evenings on Real America’s Voice.
