Gavin Newsom and Arnold Schwarzenegger couldn’t have looked happier slapping backs — but it’s Californians who suffer

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Gavin Newsom and Arnold Schwarzenegger bonded this week as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of AB 32, California’s cap-and-trade — excuse us, cap-and-invest — program.

AB 32 has raised the price of fuel in California by 5%, or 26 cents per gallon at current prices. Working Californians suffer most.

Meanwhile, AB 32 has done nothing to help the climate. In fact, California’s wildfires have emitted so much carbon dioxide that they have canceled out decades of emissions reductions through AB 32 and other measures.

And California is a negligible factor in global climate anyway, despite its large economy.

So AB 32 is a failure. A big one.

It is said that failure is an orphan, while success has many fathers. But not this time.

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These two fathers of California’s green agenda, Newsom and Schwarzenegger, seem eager to claim credit for a policy that continues to make life in the state unaffordable. 

The question is why. 

One answer is that Newsom’s presidential ambitions are becoming more urgent as the nation moves closer to the midterm election.

Sharing a stage with Schwarzenegger is a way for him to burnish his bipartisan credentials — even though he has governed from the left.

For Schwarzenegger, appearing alongside Newsom is a way to stay relevant.

Few Californians have fond memories of Schwarzenegger’s terms in office. 

He was elected on a promise of reform, but turned and ran the moment the unions put up a fight. 

He left office with the state in fiscal disarray, and his personal reputation in tatters.

He emerged to shout insults at Donald Trump, who won the presidency anyway.

Schwarzenegger, in other words, is a political failure.

But every year or two, the sitting governor invites him to a climate event.

And suddenly, he’s a hero again, saving the planet.

And that points to the real reason Newsom and Schwarzenegger are celebrating AB 32.

Cap-and-trade is the ultimate virtue signal. It is a way to look like you are doing something good for the world, even though, at best, you aren’t doing anything at all.

The climate emperor has no clothes.

But no one will state the obvious, as long as both of them — the Republican who launched it, the Democrat who extended it — agree to keep pretending. 

So they united to blow out the proverbial candles on AB 32’s birthday cake.

Carbon-free candles, we presume.