If you think about it, the state with the nation's worst roads shouldn't come as too big a surprise. It's right here. Alaska. There's a good reason for that. Our winters, which are not to be taken lightly in any respect, are very hard on roads. Between the scraping by plows moving snowfalls that can be measured in feet, and the frost-heaving, our roads get torn up every year, and the state and the various boroughs struggle to keep them in repair. Add to that that many of our roads aren't paved - the famous Denali Highway, for instance, is a lightly graveled dirt road for most of its extent and is closed in the winter - and you have good reason for the roads being in the state they're in. That's OK. We may gripe about it when we bounce through a new pothole, but at the end of the day, it's worth it, because we're still in Alaska.
But the state that comes in 49th shouldn't. But California has the worst roads in the country, after only Alaska, and now the impeccably coiffed Governor Gavin Newsom wants to divert road repair funds for "alternative aviation fuels."
The Reason Foundation’s latest highway report ranks California 49th. From abysmal urban interstate surface conditions to battered urban arterial roads to rundown rural interstate pavement quality, California’s roads are in lousy shape. At least the state’s bridges fall in the middle, with only 6% judged to be structurally deficient.
Baruch Feigenbaum, one of the report’s authors, says the state’s highway system ranks so low because it “is one of the top per-mile spenders on highways” yet still “has some of the most pothole-ridden roads in the country.”
“The state,” says Feigenbaum, “needs to be improving efficiency by selecting projects using a more quantitative metric and spending fuel tax revenue on highways.”
That last sentence is a little jargony, but you could say in plain language, "Fix the furshlugginer roads." Now, I haven't driven on California roads in ten years or so, but I remember them being pretty bad; in 2018 my wife and I had cause to drive from Silicon Valley to Hollywood, and I remember that highway, Interstate 5 most of the way, being pretty bad. I hear tell it hasn't improved.
Here's the onion:
Despite the obvious need, Gov. Gavin Newsom apparently wants to redirect resources away from road repair. He has proposed a $1 to $2 credit for every gallon of alternative jet fuel, also known at sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), “produced for use in California,” an arrangement that CalMatters says will be funded “by raiding your road repair budget.”
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office is not on board with the governor’s proposal. The program would cut into tax revenues that fund “the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and its highway maintenance and rehabilitation programs” (a $70 million yearly reduction), as well as dollars transferred to cities and counties for local street and road needs (they’d lose about $49 million a year). Because the governor’s office anticipates that the credit could grow, possibly reaching roughly $300 million a year, there could be a near doubling of “the reductions and corresponding fiscal and programmatic impacts.”
This is stupidity on steroids.
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What's more, the cash will be diverted to only two companies that produce this "green" fuel.
Only two companies currently produce state-certified jet biofuel and also owe diesel excise tax in California — the conditions required to claim the credit, said
Andrew March, a Department of Finance budget analyst. Of those, only Phillips 66 has publicly confirmed it would qualify for the credit. The company spent $1.25 billion converting its Rodeo refinery in Contra Costa County from traditional petroleum refining to biofuels.
Here's how it would work:
Jets do not run on gasoline; they run on a fuel refined from petroleum by oil companies that also produce gasoline for cars and diesel for trucks. Because jet fuel requires less processing than gasoline or diesel, it is generally cheaper to produce. But sustainable aviation fuel, made from products like used cooking grease and animal fat, costs significantly more, roughly twice the price of conventional jet fuel, due to the expense of converting refineries and processing organic materials.
Under the proposal, producers would earn credits for selling the fuel here and use those credits to offset the diesel taxes they owe.
The formula for credits isn’t flat — the cleaner the fuel, the bigger the credit, ranging from $1 to $2 per gallon.
And this is in a state that already has the highest gas prices in the nation, just to pile on the aggravations felt by California motorists. Between the highest state gasoline taxes and the ridiculous custom blends the once-Golden State requires, filling up your benzene-burner may require a second mortgage.
California was, once upon a time, the destination for car nuts. When I was in high school, we soaked up California cruising movies, like American Graffiti and The Hollywood Knights, the latter of which featured a very young and amazingly cute Michelle Pfeiffer. California was all about the automobile: Not only the urban cruising destinations, but the miles and miles of great scenic drives, from the Pacific Coast Highway to the western end of the famous Route 66.
No longer. California's roads are falling apart, and unlike here in Alaska, they don't have harsh winters to excuse it. This is political malfeasance of the first water, and if California drivers are peeved, well, they should take a good, hard look at their choices in this fall's elections.
In the meantime, the potholes are still unfilled - but hey, California will have "green" jet fuel. It looks like, for some time to come, nobody much will be getting their kicks on Route 66.
