Spencer Pratt, the reality TV personality and registered Republican who was narrowly kept out of the Los Angeles mayoral runoff, is drawing attention for his take on California’s new tire regulations — arguing the state’s real goal is not efficiency but forcing drivers out of their cars.
Pratt’s comments came after California became the first state in the nation to pass new tire efficiency standards. The California Energy Commission says the rules will improve fuel efficiency, but tire manufacturers warn they will drive up the cost of tires.
‘The Cost Increase Isn’t an Unfortunate Side Effect’
In a social media post, Pratt said the framing of the rules as “efficiency standards” masks the true intent. “California doesn’t do these things for ‘efficiency’, and the cost increase isn’t an unfortunate side effect… it’s the whole point,” he wrote. “CA leaders deliberately make driving financially painful with the goal of forcing you onto public transport. They brag about it in legislation.”
Pratt’s critique landed amid a broader push by California lawmakers, who in 2025 advanced multiple transportation-related measures — including cap-and-trade regulations that raise gasoline prices, fast-tracking housing projects near public transit, and allowing higher-density housing development in transit corridors.
The Institute of Transportation Studies, which endorsed those changes as beneficial in the fight against what it called the climate crisis, also touted Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of SB 71. That bill extends exemptions from the California Environmental Quality Act for public transportation, bike, and pedestrian infrastructure projects that “reduce car dependency.”
‘Reducing Car Dependency’ as a Policy Aim
Pratt and his supporters see that phrase — “reduce car dependency” — as the tell. The goal, they argue, is to make private car ownership so expensive and impractical that ordinary Californians have no choice but to use public transit, while the state’s political class continues to drive freely.
“Gavin Newsom is never going to switch entirely over to public transit; he just expects all the peons to do so,” the PJ Media piece noted, echoing Pratt’s broader point.
The argument ties California’s approach to global efforts. Critics say the state’s elites share the same goals as the United Nations and World Economic Forum globalists who, according to some forecasts, have drafted plans to eliminate private transportation and private property for ordinary citizens by 2030. Under that view, the environmental and safety justifications are secondary to a deeper desire for control over personal mobility and property ownership.
A Familiar Political Divide
The tire-rule fight fits a familiar pattern in California politics, where Republicans and some independents have long accused Democratic leaders of using regulation to reshape personal behavior. Pratt, who has been vocal about his own experience in the L.A. mayoral race — where he alleged Democratic-backed fraud kept him out of the runoff — has become a prominent voice in that criticism.
Tire manufacturers, for their part, say the new standards will add to consumer costs without delivering the fuel savings the state promises. The California Energy Commission counters that improved tire efficiency will reduce fuel consumption and emissions over time.
For Pratt, the debate is simple: the regulations are not about helping drivers. They are about making driving painful enough that people give it up — and that, he says, is the point.
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2026/08/19/spencer-pratt-nails-dems-reason-for-tire-regulations-and-its-a-truth-about-elitism-n4956313
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