-
Our Hero Barbara Boxer
June 8, 2010 | 33 comments
-
John Kerry’s Big Business Buyoff
June 3, 2010 | 44 comments
-
Kerry Looks for a Legacy
October 23, 2009 | 19 comments
-
ACES Up Her Sleeve
June 29, 2009 | 59 comments
-
Farmer Brown Fights Back
June 17, 2009 | 21 comments
The Public Policy
You Stay Classy, Sacramento
The centerpiece of California’s energy policy is really the absence of energy.
In many countries, electric utilities struggle to keep up with demand, and often fail. The World Bank estimates that almost 1.5 billion men, women, and children lack reliable access to electricity. They want it, but they can’t have it. In new-agey California, it’s the other way around. The centerpiece of California’s energy policy is really the absence of energy.
If that sounds crazy — and it is! — consider this impressive web of regulation that the government has spun: Elected officials enacted a moratorium on new nuclear power plants. New coal plants are illegal. Large scale hydropower is unthinkable for California’s environmentally sensitive voters, because it harms fish. Natural gas plants emit half as much carbon as coal plants, but they are banned in much of California because they cannot get air quality permits for particulate emissions.
In 2006, the State Water Resources Control Board ruled that 19 coastal natural gas power plants were in violation of the Clean Water Act for using a process called “once-through cooling,” by which ocean water is pumped into a power plant in order to condense steam into water to be reused. This can harm aquatic wildlife, so, at the behest of environmentalist groups, the SWRCB ordered coastal power plants to make costly refurbishments. According to the Energy Commission, “[I]t is likely that plant operators will choose retirement in the face of costly retrofits.”
California doesn’t have generation capacity to spare, so it will have to replace these plants, most of which are located in the southern part of the state. But the south California air basin is out of compliance with air quality standards for particulate emissions. It is well nigh impossible for utilities to obtain an air quality permit for a natural gas plant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Existing nuclear power is also under attack. In 2006, the legislature passed a bill requiring the Energy Commission to assess the nuclear plants’ vulnerability to earthquakes. In fact, the legislation was designed to stack the deck against nuclear when these plants come up for relicensing. It is unlikely that California utilities can meet demand for electricity without these 21 power plants. Yet California’s elected officials, in Sacramento and elsewhere, seem to think that conventional energy is unnecessary as long as the Golden State aggressively pursues conservation and renewable energy.
That’s the theory anyway. However, the state’s pro-green, anti-energy policies make it difficult even for the generation of alternative energy.
California is the country’s leading dairy state, and the Energy Commission has identified methane emitted by cows as a major source of renewable energy. But it is impossible to make use of this “bio-methane” from California’s dairy farms because air quality agencies refuse to permit a generating facility. The state’s deserts are obvious locations for generating solar power. Yet California Senator Dianne Feinstein is trying to block the construction of solar power plants in the Mojave in order to protect a species of turtle.
California’s mountain ranges are ideal for wind power. For many environmentalists, however, wind turbines are unacceptable, because the giant, rotating blades kill things that fly. The New York Times recently quoted a California wind power developer saying, “Regulators are concerned about birds; now they’re concerned about bats…” Next they’ll be concerned about taxpayers.
Just kidding on that last point. Renewable energies are far more expensive than burning fossil fuels but that’s only a start. To meet the state’s current renewable energy targets (20 percent of the state’s electricity was supposed to come from renewable energy sources by this year), the Public Utilities Commission reports that California utilities would have to build seven transmission lines, at a cost of $12 billion, to move electricity generated by renewables in remote regions to the urban centers where the electricity is consumed.
However, there could be a catch. Transmission lines are almost impossible to build in California due to the onerous permitting process designed to mitigate environmental impact.
No problem! said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. When it became clear that the state couldn’t meet its 2010 goals, he simply moved the goalposts. He signed an executive order that increased the unworkable renewable energy targets and postponed them — by a decade.
California’s story should be a cautionary tale of how not to manage energy policy. Instead, it is touted by politicians and all too often swallowed hook, line, and sinker by gullible journalists.
There is something like a consensus among economists that “greening” the energy industry harms economic growth. But Schwarzenegger claims California “can grow the economy and simultaneously protect the environment” and Sen. Barbara Boxer maintains that California’s energy policies have boosted employment by creating “green jobs.”
Los Angeles congressman and chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee Henry Waxman ushered major climate change legislation through the House of Representatives last year. He based the renewable energy parts of the bill on the flawed model of his own state.
Barack Obama bragged in an Earth Day speech last year that the average Californian uses 50 percent less energy than the average American because the state government “put in some good policy early on that assured that they weren’t wasting energy.”
About the Author
Jeremy Lott is editor of RealClearPolicy.com, RealClearBooks.com and RealClearReligion.org and associate editor of RealClearScience.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (87) | Leave a comment
More Articles by William Yeatman
More Articles by Jeremy Lott
More Articles From The Public Policy
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/11/you-stay-classy-sacramento
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
H/T to National Review Online
ADVERTISEMENT
Bram| 3.11.10 @ 9:48AM
I used 50% less energy when I lived near the beach in Southern CA. It never got hot or cold!
basur | 10.27.10 @ 6:42AM
I'm thinking that the pols in Sacramento are counting on an inexhaustible supply of hot air to power their energy future.
Tim| 3.11.10 @ 11:05AM
Can't wait for the next Enron to bend them over and rape them.
Matt Morehouse| 3.11.10 @ 11:05AM
I have a remote ranch in N.W. California. Getting permission to build a half mile of private gravel road across my private land required three years of harassment by the various state agencies, almost $7,000 in legal fees and paperwork totaling literally hundreds of pages.
I was planning on building a Nuclear power plant but now I'm not sure...
dissent555| 3.11.10 @ 11:39AM
I'm thinking that the pols in Sacramento are counting on an inexhaustible supply of hot air to power their energy future.
Now why shouldn't we believe them? Sounds like they have plenty.
Marc Jeric| 3.11.10 @ 11:54AM
I am a retired engineer who spent most of my career designing power plants - coal-fired, oil & gas-fired, nuclear, geothermal, solar. California is sentenced to a dismal death under the club of its eco-nazis. San Francisco will end up relying for its winter heat on masturbatory efforts of its population.
L. Ross| 3.11.10 @ 12:32PM
Nice.
C.J. Taylor| 3.11.10 @ 1:51PM
Just love pithy and witty!
Right On!!!
Blackwatch| 3.11.10 @ 1:54PM
I live 35 miles outside Sacramento for a reason--its not classy. It's a pit.
If we could just split this state in three pieces and let the libtards "own" their sh*t for a change. I would vote for that!
Pingback| 3.11.10 @ 2:48PM
The American Spectator : You Stay Classy, Sacramento capital university links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.11.10 @ 3:28PM
The American Spectator : You Stay Classy, Sacramento American Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John II| 3.11.10 @ 4:54PM
The great majority of busybodies who run the state of California belong to a relatively small class of degenerates whose tyrannous eco-frenzies make up a kind of substitute for morality. Their enthusiasms exist in a realm beyond rational discourse; you can't argue with the creeps because, as Swift pointed out, you can't reason a man out of a position he never reasoned himself into.
Their personal lives are a staggering disaster: broken marriages, abandoned children, casual abortion, serial "partners" in every conceivable "relationship" outside of the normal, colossal neuroses, minutely cultivated nihilism and narcissism, icy hostility to traditional religion and to the human species at large. The consequent vacuum in their hearts is then stuffed with their prim green politics as a cheap substitute for interior moral order.
We are witnessing a civilizational crisis precipitated and driven by a toxic mixture of fanatic immoralists and acquiescent opportunists. California's at the cutting edge, all right, and decent people are leaving the state at the rate of about 3,500 per day. It remains to be seen how much longer such people will have someplace else to go.
Matt Morehouse| 3.12.10 @ 10:41AM
Good and productive citizens are leaving only to be replaced by illegals from "South of the Border Down Mexico Way"
PCP Smoker| 3.11.10 @ 6:22PM
But don't you get that green regulations create jobs. Millions and millions of "high- tech, sustainable" jobs.
Who cares? Let them starve to death or end up on the welfare rolls. This is the hard school of knocks for those fools, and school is in session.
sfsean| 3.11.10 @ 7:11PM
I live in the East Bay. If I can hang on for 9 years, I can retire out of state. There is no way I will stay in California any longer than I have to. What an armpit this State has become. I am thinking about moving to another country because I believe that what is happening to California now, will happen to the rest of the country. All thanks to our incompetent and corrupt politicians.
Fecal McStool| 3.12.10 @ 5:53PM
I like to talk about stool.
Pingback| 3.11.10 @ 9:18PM
Jesuit Ruins – San Ignacio, Argentina Travel Blog | Argentina Traveling links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.11.10 @ 9:19PM
The American Spectator : You Stay Classy, Sacramento Tools links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
GHD | 3.11.10 @ 10:46PM
ghdPurple and ghd
straighteners Black are hot items of ghd hair straighteners
Pingback| 3.12.10 @ 4:41AM
Mariah Carey -I Stay Love | Mariah Carey Celebrity Monitor links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.12.10 @ 1:13PM
Sacramento Home Sellers Can Fix Tax Record Inaccuracies by Calling … | Sacramento Cou links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.12.10 @ 2:26PM
This is where the fun begins! – Waitomo Caves, New Zealand Travel Blog | New Zealand links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Big Elk| 3.12.10 @ 11:58PM
Californians can thank Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown and John Burton's Frisco political machine, and crooked county registars of voters (they count the votes in California and they are dishonest as hell!) for the feces-laden hole California has become. And now, crooked Jerry Brown is running for the governorship again. For those who don't know or can't remember; Jerry Brown was the worst governor of the 20th century, aster his crime boss father, the criminal Pat Brown. Other states and the Federal government should not bail out California. As a Californian, I say, let California go bankrupt!
Big Elk| 3.13.10 @ 12:02AM
As for Feinstein, she and her husband Richard Blum have made millions of dollars for Blum's companies off of the taxpayer, Feinstgein is a crook, and the reason she doesn't want solar energy in the deser is because either she and Blum arewn't going to make any money off of the deal, or they aren't going to make enough. Feinstein and Blum belong in jail!
Pingback| 3.13.10 @ 7:46AM
Helen Rivard- Great West GMAC Real Estate | Placer County CA Real Estate links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.14.10 @ 11:34AM
Sacramento Real Estate Market | Sacramento County CA Real Estate links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.17.10 @ 12:33PM
Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Powering Down links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Mike H| 3.17.10 @ 11:28PM
Interesting. I worked on an upgrade to Mirant's Potrero plant about 10 years ago and we ran into a similar issue. An old coal fired unit was going to be converted to a combined cycle unit. Although the plant already had a permit for their once through cooling, the new project was essentially litigated to death over water use issues.
The entire facility, including its peaker units is scheduled to be closed in a couple of years. The lost generation will be made for via a new transmission project. What I find deliciously ironic is that the existing plant is one of the few black start units in the area, and considering the Bay Area’s vulnerability to seismic events, even a modest earthquake could sever the Bay Area’s power supply and leave them in the dark for weeks … even months.
Pingback| 3.17.10 @ 11:37PM
California in a state of stupidity « Standing Pat links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.22.10 @ 4:54PM
Kerendian and Associates Release » Blog Archive » Powering Down links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.23.10 @ 3:24PM
The American Spectator : You Stay Classy, Sacramento | El Dorado County CA Real Estat links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ghdmanufactoryoutlet | 4.4.10 @ 3:45AM
dgfh
sunglass | 4.4.10 @ 3:48AM
hgjj
paulsmithoutlet | 4.4.10 @ 3:59AM
hgh
burberryoutlet | 4.4.10 @ 4:02AM
hfjh
andy k| 4.15.10 @ 6:41PM
Interesting. I worked on an upgrade to Mirant's Potrero plant about 10 years ago and we ran into a similar issue. An old coal fired unit was going to be converted to a combined cycle unit. Although the plant already had a permit for their once through cooling, free WoW cards the new project was essentially litigated to death over water use issues.
Microsoft Points | 4.28.10 @ 11:30PM
The entire facility, including its peaker units is scheduled to be closed in a couple of years. The lost generation will be made for via a new transmission project. What I find deliciously ironic is that the existing plant is one of the few black start units in the area, and considering the Bay Area’s vulnerability to seismic events, even a modest earthquake could sever the Bay Area’s power supply and leave them in the dark for weeks … even months.
Pingback| 5.10.10 @ 3:55PM
Cooler Heads Digest 7 May 2010 | GlobalWarming.org links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
John| 8.20.10 @ 3:52AM
Goedkoop Mobiel Abonnement
Mobiel Abonnement
iPad to iTunes Transfer | 11.21.10 @ 12:26AM
iPad to iTunes Transfer ia an all-in-one ipad transfer tool. United four tools into one, this iPad to iTunes Transfer can be considerred as the best assistant when dealing with iPad stuffs. As an iPad uer, you can use iPad to iTunes Transfer as a iPad to Computer Transfer, Computer to iPad Transfer, iPad Converter, DVD to iPad Transfer, even it can be used as a hard drive to manage iPad files in good order.