It’s not a major news story (somehow) that California is boycotting a variety of states for dissenting from its sexual identity politics in even the most minor of ways. The prosecution of the undercover investigators who exposed Planned Parenthood’s body parts business was blatant thuggery.

But California just doesn’t stop.

The state of California is taking aim at GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan and other automakers that are aligning with the Trump administration in its battle over emissions rules.

“Car makers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of California’s buying power,” said California Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement. “In court, and in the marketplace, California is standing up to those who put short-term profits ahead of our health and our future.”

General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan, among others, formed a group to intervene in federal court cases to argue that there should be a single set of emissions and mileage rules nationwide. Currently, the Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency are seeking to strip the right of California to set tougher emissions rules for itself and for 13 other states that follow the rules California sets. The 14 states that follow California’s rules have about a third of the US population.

California issued a statement late Monday saying that as of January the state would only buy vehicles from automakers that recognize the California Air Resources Board’s authority to set tough greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles. California also pledged only to do business with automakers that committed to stringent emissions reduction goals.

 

Doing the latter is one thing. The former however explicitly punishes companies that oppose you in court.

That’s blatant thuggery and a violation of legal and political norms. Governments are run by elected officials. When those officials punish companies for lobbying for their rights or taking the opposing side in a court case, that’s an abuse of power. 

It ought to be a bigger story than it actually is.

Arguably California’s abusive governance is one of the big stories that nobody is talking about. We’ve had media whines that Amazon lost the JEDI contract because of Trump. But here there isn’t any doubt about why GM and other carmakers are losing out on auto sales. It’s a press release.