Four months ago, the Palisades fire destroyed more than 6,800 homes in Los Angeles. Three months later, only four permits had been issued to rebuild the community. Clearly, California just isn’t working.
The radical environmentalism, wokeism, and unionized bureaucratic micromanagement that Sacramento has imposed on the whole state is distorting reality and grinding things to a halt.
I talked with Environment Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin about the fire and recovery. He was surprised at the tiny number of permit approvals. Under his aggressive, dynamic leadership, the EPA already cleared the burned-out neighborhoods for federal permits. Of course, as he noted, the federal permits require city and county permission.
This permitting logjam is happening even with a supposed one-stop local permit office and other efforts to cut through the red tape.
But this is only the latest part of the story. Years before the fire, two new reservoirs were approved to ensure there would be enough water for firefighting. They were never built. Some fire hydrants simply did not work. Further, emergency vehicles were trapped in government parking lots because they needed oil changes. They could not be used to fight the fires because the bureaucracy’s firm rules about routine maintenance overruled common sense and public safety.
And fire is a real danger in the whole state. I spoke with Laguna Beach Mayor Alex Rounaghi and Fire Chief Niko King on my Newt’s World podcast. They shared their strategy for fire prevention. Laguna Beach brought in 400 goats to eat underbrush. It was a low-cost solution to clear out the vegetation that leads to hot uncontrollable fires. The California government is trying to eliminate their goat fire prevention because the goats might eat endangered plants. (You have to wonder: What do state bureaucrats think fire does to endangered plants?) The powers in Sacramento want Laguna Beach to switch to human vegetation removal, which is four times more expensive. Meanwhile, a couple hundred goats might have saved the Palisades.
