Over the holiday season a federal judge canceled California’s parental exclusion policies. That gift to parents was not the only story that failed to get the attention it deserved. Gov. Newsom’s executive orders have not included an independent investigation of government fraud in the Golden State. “Several San Francisco neighborhoods were impacted by a massive power outage on Saturday that left nearly a third of the city without electricity,” reported CBS news on December 20. The massive power outage shut down two Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) stations and affected commuter trains and traffic lights. Mayor Daniel Lurie told people to “please stay off the roads and stay inside,” with good reason. “Dozens of autonomous vehicles stalled at intersections, some with passengers inside,” Planetizen reported. Waymo, which bills itself as “the world’s most experienced driver,” said it was “focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event, and are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day.” This was not the first energy event to affect California drivers. In the summer of 2022, California called on drivers not to charge their electric cars from 4-9 p.m., the after-work time when 80 percent of EV drivers do in fact plug in. California’s frequent blackouts add to the threat for all drivers. In 2020 Gov. Newsom issued an executive order mandating that “100 percent of in-state sales of new passenger cars and trucks will be zero-emission by 2035.” Last year the incoming Trump administration canceled that rule, so in June Gov. Newsom signed a new executive order to “reaffirm commitment to accelerate the deployment of zero-emission technologies” as directed in the 2020 order, reinforced by state bureaucracies. In 2022, the California Air Resources Board announced a plan to ban new sales of natural gas water heaters and furnaces by 2030. In blackouts like the one in San Francisco last December, that could leave residents gasping for gas in the darkness, with no internet, no microwave oven, no garage door openers and such. The Teslas and other EVs would not be charging, and it’s possible that Waymo vehicles would be stranded with passengers on the streets of San Francisco and other cities. Gov. Newsom and CARB are shrink-wrapped in climate-change dogma and ignore the need for trade-offs and the dynamics of the market.  Californians, not politicians or government bureaucrats, should select the cars they drive and the appliances they believe best meet the needs of their families. The recent blackout in San Francisco confirms that the state’s electric grid is far from flawless. As Californians will recall, in 2019 Gov. Newsom picked his former cabinet secretary, Ana Matosantos, as state “energy czar.” The Puerto Rico native, with degrees in political science and feminist studies, was hailed as a woman of “unrivaled professional accomplishment,” but blackouts and energy shortfalls continued. In 2022, the state urged drivers not to charge their EVs during peak hours. In late 2025 a blackout left self-driving cars stranded on the streets of San Francisco, and shut down electric appliances. Gov. Newsom’s executive orders have not included an independent investigation of government fraud in the Golden State. Such a probe could target the $32 billion in unemployment fraud under Julie Su, Newsom’s Labor and Workforce Development Agency boss. Su became Biden’s “acting” labor secretary, without Senate confirmation, and is now “deputy mayor for economic justice,” in New York City under socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani. As Megan Barth of the California Globe reports, President Trump has created a new Department of Justice division to combat fraud nationwide. Gov. Newsom’s administration has presided over “tens of billions in unemployment fraud, $37 billion squandered on homelessness with exploding encampments, and a high-speed rail boondoggle ballooning to over $130 billion with little to show but empty promises.” If Californians thought such an investigation was long overdue it would be hard to blame them. As the president likes to say, we’ll have to see what happens. READ MORE from Lloyd Billingsley: Is Minnesota or California the Fraud Capital of America? Christmas for California Parents Gavin’s Angels: From Masks to Mandates to Millions Lloyd Billingsley is a policy fellow at the Independent Institute in Oakland, Calif.