Who will steer your driving choices? 

You, based on your needs?

Or Gavin Newsom and Sacramento bureaucrats, based on their green whims?

The answer’s as plain as a road sign.

This week, the CEO of Dunlop Tires North America blasted the state’s latest climate decree: energy-efficient-tire rules.

Those rules, approved last week by the Newsom-appointed California Energy Commission, will ban the sale of replacement tires that fail to meet new energy-efficiency benchmarks. Starting in 2029, only tires that meet California’s “rolling resistance” standards may be sold in the state.

The mandate is set to drive up costs, curb consumer choice and park up to 70% of California’s current replacement-tire models, industry leaders say.

It’s no wonder Californians hate it: They’ll have to buckle up to spend perhaps hundreds more per new set of tires –– a big expense that can hit unexpectedly. And for what?

So Newsom and the California Energy Commission can pretend to make a difference in the Earth’s temperature? 

Even as the fourth-largest economy in the world, the Golden State cannot budge global climate patterns –– despite a vast tangle of costly green regs that help politicians preen and their pals collect tax-funded green pork.

Truth is, the state’s tire rules are emblematic of an out-of-touch, overreaching, self-obsessed ruling class in California, led by Newsom.

The governor, legislators and regulators would do better to stop meddling, quit the backseat driving and let Californians make their own decisions on which products to buy.

Linda, an EV owner who stirred debate online this week by lamenting the high cost of charging her Rivian at Costco, underscores the point.

EVs, which are pricey to charge away from home –– among other costs and trade-offs –– are not for everyone.

That’s why polling shows that Californians have turned against Newsom’s 2020 executive order that all passenger cars and trucks sold in California be ZEV (zero emission) by 2035.

What will the Newsom and his nanny state wheel out next? 

Regs on brake pads? Body work? Air fresheners that dangle from the mirror?

Besides: If EVs and “energy efficient” tires are such obviously preferable choices, won’t motorists buy them on their own –– no coercion required?

As Dunlop Tires North America CEO Darren Thomas noted, the state-mandated tires fail to account for real-world conditions and likely will falter in areas like traction and tread life.

Great.

And motorists have varied needs and enough other bills as it is. They benefit not from vapid uniform mandates, but from a broad range of consumer choice. 

BTW, if energy savings were truly the tire-rule destination:

Proper tire inflation can achieve the same energy-efficiency goals as the new tire regs, said Thomas, making education –– not orders –– the simple and cost-effective way to go.

But for Sacramento scolds, where would the fun be in that?