Comment Log Display

 I would like to take this opportunity to expose the flaws in the
current proposal, authored by CARB and the Newsome Administration,
that will require the sport fleet to re-engine their boats. I am a
proponent for saving the planet but it must be done with science
and common sense. That being said I would like to use math to prove
my point, math never lies.
  Per CARB, there are 352 commercial vessels and 3,153 Harbor Craft
in CA affected by this proposal. Per the DMV there are a total of
669,191 vessels registered in CA. This figure does not include
vessels documented by the Coast Guard. Placing Draconian
overreaching regulations on 352 commercial vessels and 3,153 harbor
Craft (3,505 total) equates to impacting just .005 or one half of
one percent of the total vessels. The impact of drastically
eliminating the polluting effects of one half of one percent of the
total vessels will have almost zero impact on the perceived
pollution problem. When you look at it from a national perspective,
there are 11.88 million boats in the U.S. as of 2018 per Statista,
impacting this small number of CA boats will only be .00029 or 2.9
hundredths of one percent of boats in the U.S., probably the
equivalent impact on the national environment of asking a town of
3,500 people to stop barbequing. Does this nonexistent change to
the environment warrant the severe economic impact to the
livelihoods and recreational activities of millions of people
because of this proposal? No sane person would answer that in the
affirmative.
  So we have to ask why would anyone propose something so
nonsensical? I can only come up with two reasons, giving them the
benefit of the doubt on understanding simple mathematics. First,
the overall plan is to require all CA vessels, commercial and
privately owned to re-engine. This would still only be a small drop
in the pollution bucket for the nation and the world, especially
when you add in cars, trucks, planes, trains, etc.. Second, and
more disturbing, is that per his own words Gov. Gavin Newsome likes
CA to be the first in overbearing orders, i.e. Mask mandates,
Vaccine mandates, etc. This may be yet another instance of that.
  Instead of this proposal perhaps we can come up with something
similar to the Biden Administration's edict to have all new cars
sold be electric by 2035. I'm not in total agreement with that, but
at least then we have 14 years to engineer suitable solutions in
lieu of a requirement to significantly impact the sport fleet and
others starting in 2023 with no acceptable and equitable
engineering solution available.