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Special Report
California Descends Deeper Into Self-Destruction
Self-esteem has run amok in Jerry Brown’s state — with active Obama administration participation.
California — it’s the best place to live and it’s the worst place to live. The physical climate is almost ideal and the political climate, if you’re a conservative, is surreal. Through their politicians and bureaucrats Californians seem hell bent on destroying the state’s vast potential. It’s a painful sight to witness.
The latest, all too typical, example is a law signed by Governor Jerry Brown last week mandating new renewable energy requirements for electric utilities in the state. The new law requires that 33 percent of electricity generated be done with “renewable” sources, essentially wind mills and solar panels, by the end of the year 2020. What’s the objective of this “ambitious” new regulation?
To answer that question you first need to understand that California has a wildly inflated sense of self-importance. Californians actually believe they have the ability and duty to save the planet. Humility is clearly not their strong suit.
California has a population of roughly 37 million. That is barely half of one percent of the world’s population. If Californians reduce their “carbon footprint” by a third (a very tall order), that will reduce humanity’s carbon footprint by one sixth of one percent. I hate to tell my fellow Californians, but there is no way on earth that will make an iota’s worth of difference.
Some Californians will point out, however, that that misses the point. Because they think California is the center of the universe, what happens here will change behavior and attitudes throughout the world. California is a place where self-esteem has run amok.
At the signing ceremony Governor Brown said, “It’s about California leading the country. It’s America leading the world. There are people who think we can drill our way to happiness and prosperity. Instead of taking oil from thousands of miles away, we’re taking the sun and converting it.” Brown went on to say quite proudly, “I didn’t get my name ‘Governor Moonbeam’ for nothing.”
A recent Public Utilities Commission study found that previously imposed renewable energy regulations have added $6 billion to what utilities have had to spend generating electricity since 2002. Has there been any measurable or identifiable benefit for spending that unnecessary $6 billion? The benefit-cost ratio of those expenditures is a close to zero as it’s possible to get. This has been absolute folly and we are about to multiply it by who knows how much.
Such costs are even worse than increasing taxes. Taxes at least have the potential to create value when spent on, for example, teachers’ salaries. Taxes redistribute wealth, mandates destroy wealth.
When the utilities are forced to buy several times more power generated by windmills and solar panels, the price is bound to go through the roof. Not to worry, however. The new law further requires the utilities commission to place limits on how much can be spent on renewable power. When one kind of coercion isn’t enough, follow up with another kind of coercion. Of course, the only real result of a price ceiling is to create shortages. Shortages do even more economic damage than rising prices. Keep passing laws until the entire economy is in a straightjacket. One interference with the market always necessitates another, as Fredrich Hayek demonstrated long ago in The Road to Serfdom.
As is usually the case (Obamacare, for example), the spineless lawmakers left the ugly details to the bureaucrats. According to public utilities commissioner Mike Florio, “Our staff is already figuring out what we’ll need to do. It’s clearly a priority for the state, so we’ll get it done as fast as possible.” The politicians and the bureaucrats have not the vaguest idea what they’re doing. They know nothing about what’s involved in providing electricity to the state’s residents and businesses, and they don’t really see why they need to.
The legislation demonstrates the liberal faith in and willingness to use force. The assumption is that solar panels and windmills can suddenly increase their output just because a law has been passed. It’s not that simple. The politicians have no more understanding about how technology works than they do about how the economy works.
If it’s California’s responsibility to save the world, and if force works, why such a modest target? Why not, for example, a 100 percent renewable requirement by 2015? The 33 percent mandate by the end of 2020 is totally arbitrary. How was it arrived at? When you’re operating in a realm where costs don’t matter and objectives are utopian, numbers are a mere afterthought. The targets are unlikely to be achieved even after billions of dollars have been squandered. According to Gino DiCaro, spokesman for the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, industry in California already pays electricity rates about 50 percent higher than the rest of the country. That, of course, is one of the reasons for the exodus of businesses from the state.
Although California politicians fail utterly in their basic responsibilities—balancing a budget, for example—they arrogantly believe they can save the planet. Their attitude is, “We can’t possibly focus on the state’s economy. We’re too busy stopping global warming!” Just as they recklessly overpromise on government-employee pensions, they overpromise on their ability to cure the world’s maladies.
In a spot-on Wall Street Journal column last year entitled “California: The Lindsay Lohan of States,” Allysia Finley (a former resident of California) pointed out that our government here is being “run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums.” Her article followed the November elections that made California a one-party state. She said the state is like “a prima donna who once showed some talent but is now too wasted to do anything with it.” I fervently wish her words weren’t so true. As a resident of California, it breaks my heart to see the state’s vast potential being squandered. As an economist it pains me to see resources so grossly misallocated and wasted on such a massive scale.
I wish this self-destructive behavior were confined to California. Ominously, the renewable mandate signing ceremony was attended by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. It isn’t often a state-level bill signing is attended by a U.S. cabinet officer. The Obama administration obviously believes California’s lunacy is just what the rest of the country needs. God help us.
About the Author
Ron Ross Ph.D. is an economist who lives in Arcata, California. He is the author of The Unbeatable Market. Reach him at rossecon@gmail.com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (116) | Leave a comment
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Robbins Mitchell| 4.21.11 @ 6:09AM
Well, a good part of the blame rests with Governor Musclehead for spending so much time wetting his girly-man panties over 'global warming'
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 8:05AM
I thought that it was great yesterday when Arnold Kennedy admitted that he'd pardoned a murderer as a personal favor to some scummy state legislator rather than on any legal basis.
The victim's family already has a lawsuit in place. Hopefully this will give them A LOT of fuel for their fire.
Dave | 4.21.11 @ 10:41AM
I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in any verdict or outcome from ANY of the usual judicial suspects currently presiding in this growing cesspool of P.C. appointed hacks. Even if the decision goes in favor of the plaintiff, you can, pretty much, count on some cretin attorney to have the initial verdict "shopped around" on appeal to a panel of Code Pink judges sitting on the 9th Circus Court of Left Wing Appeals.
Actually, the only judge with a function pair of thoughtful, judicial stones in named - - Judy. Unfortunately, she only hears small claims cases, not the ones that (a) get the defendant off Scott Free while (b) raking in a dung-load of fat pesos for some ambulance chasing attorney.
The California JUSTICE system? Right! Ask Ron Goldman's family how that works.
No No bomba kare| 4.21.11 @ 4:01PM
Yes, you are right. The 3 branches of the Cal govn are corrupted to the core. How about that gay Judge Walker on Prop 8? God help us. Indeed.
drudge ette obama| 4.21.11 @ 6:18AM
Why don't the utilities just stop altogether or reduce output so thta one stupid solar panel's output equals 30% of energy produce?
Let California implode. Let the budget ceiling be unraised. Then sort the mess out afterwards.
SC Mike| 4.21.11 @ 8:08AM
The utilities get a guaranteed rate of return. Increasing their costs by forcing them to purchase inefficient and expensive alternative energy generating capacity means that they’ll have even greater revenue and even higher profits.
For all practical purposes, they’re another arm of government: that’s the dirty little secret about public utilities.
Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 9:28AM
The dirtiest of the little secrets is the corporations were captured by the State long ago.
The State uses the corporations as operational control of the populace and the fall guy when things goes bad.
For example the IRS has long used the corporations as the primary means to collect taxes making the corporations an de-facto arm of the government.
ENOUGH ROPE| 4.21.11 @ 11:54AM
When Obama won in 2008, I consoled myself with the belief that O and the Democrats would hang themselves with enough rope. Let's hope the ensuing hyperinflation and depression causes the people to choose a Lincoln instead of a Hitler.
Obama is a SMILING MARXIST THUG and a SMILING LIAR.
old white guy| 4.22.11 @ 7:16AM
californa will have to be completely destroyed before you will get any change. then those who destroyed it will think they now have the best of all worlds.
John Daniel| 4.21.11 @ 6:44AM
Thought all the rational people had already bailed out to Arizona. The current federal administration seems equally intent on squandering resources (e.g., coal and uranium) in following CA to third world stauts.
Mike D.| 4.21.11 @ 7:14AM
Thats Schwartzy being Schwartzy. He knows he couldn't get elected anything anywhere anymore so he's tied his ego and power hungry ambition to the global warming Titanic as his next way to some kind of relevence. He's in it for the power trip. In the end its always been about Schwartzy and nothing else. He's the complete populist.
Mike D.| 4.21.11 @ 7:21AM
And we get "Californialized" with Pelosi and Waxman and the rest of the political lunatics from that west coast insane asylum.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 9:17AM
I think the word you meant was "Californicated". That's usually the way it's written.
Teaghan| 4.21.11 @ 10:53AM
Such a damn shame. 50 years ago, it was an ideal place to live.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 1:01PM
Yep, it was the most beautiful place I have ever seen, circa 1985.
"Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier ;
We have got to make it here."
"They called it paradise.
I don't know why
you call someplace paradise,
then kiss it goodbye."
Don Henley, inadvertantly, like a broken clock, but quite right about the fate of a former paradise.
(In other words, his reasoning was all wrong, but it was a great song about (partially) California, called "The Last Resort", off of Hotel California.)
Ore Gone| 4.21.11 @ 3:03PM
We tried to keep them out of Oregon when I was a kid but now it is getting hard to tell Oregon from California and Washington is well on its way. We blame it on Interstate 5. Every major city along it is full of granola's. (flakes and nuts with a few fruits thrown in) I spend a lot of my time heavy sighing! I miss my state!
Ned| 4.21.11 @ 11:57AM
You DO realize, Mike, that Arnold isn't governor anymore...?
Mike D.| 4.21.11 @ 12:35PM
Yeah, I know he's not governor anymore. You don't have to be an elected official to be hungry for a top stooge position in the global warming movement. He's already made overtures for being the UN global warming advocate. Look at Gore, he's been positioning himself for the big global watming payday for years. Schwarzty wants a piece of that action.
figusja| 4.21.11 @ 7:40AM
Let them go to pot. I think this would be a perfect object lesson for the country. Too bad it will be too late when they fall. The whole country will be behind them heading for the cliff.
Mitch Angoop| 4.21.11 @ 5:07PM
Does anybody really wonder why barry the muslim is sneaking around behind the scenes to get our 2nd Amendment rights destroyed? Unfortunately, it looks like the only thing that will potentially stop these power mad hitler "wannabees' is a violent response to their criminal acts. We're much closer the death of America as we know it than anybody will admit. Obama and his fellow demoncrap thugs have given up ANY pretence of using the rule of law and our Constitution to complete their violent take-over of our Country. Their unlawful and criminally brazen acts in Wisconsin have just proved that they know they can no longer pretend to be legitimate. So, they're taking over through violence and lawlessness. This truly is the end of the "Late, Great, United States of America".
I wonder how many of our military and police will obey the politicians when they're ordered to come after their friends and families?
Strider| 4.21.11 @ 11:07PM
Here's hoping the Oath Keepers can throw a monkey wrench into the regime's machinations. However, I'm afraid passive disobedience won't be enough in the long run (reference to another Eagles song with a hat tip to Mel!).
Michael Tomlinson| 4.21.11 @ 7:41AM
I wonder if we could sell California to the Mexican narco terrorists for a few trillion dollars to offset some of the Obama/Democrat Federal debt?
California should also pay the Texas utilities they've robbed over the years.
Ventura Capitalist| 4.21.11 @ 3:10PM
At least the Mexicans would drill out the oil. After all, they're governed by mere drug mobs, not enviro-nazis.
Nunya| 4.21.11 @ 5:03PM
Not to mention the water from Utah....
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 7:43AM
California is a lost cause in every way. Anyone who thinks that they're ever going to dig their way of the hole in which they put themselves is a fool, particularly as the middle class and wealthy (aside from the Hollywood scum) leave the state.
I say, give it to Mexico. It's essentially a foreign country anyway in every respect. Let the illegals have it. Then we can see just how hard working they are. Let's see what they make of it. The only restriction is that the illegals cannot ever step foot on U.S. soil.
I know this will never happen and it wouldn't work since illegal invader are everywhere anyway and not much is done about them. I can dream though, can't I?
Shermans riding again!| 4.21.11 @ 9:26AM
I agree larry.
RichTex| 4.21.11 @ 11:26AM
Instead of giving California to Mexico, I say give it to China in exchange for redeeming the bonds we have sold them. Most of the California Leftists would love living under communism, although Chinese communism may be a little too capitalist for them.
Actually, if we were to keep San Diego and a pathway from there to Arizona, I’d throw the states of Oregon and Washington into the deal, also.
RAMIII| 4.21.11 @ 11:45AM
As a matter of fact it's China's already. A LOT of the "renewable" energy products are manufactured in China. So our dollars are going over there even for the materials needed for this boondoggle. The problem with Politicians is that they never have to incur the consequences of their "decisions" and actions.
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 2:32PM
Tex, they only SAY that they would love living under such a system. Even the stupidest of lib scum would hate it. What's there to like?
Stammon| 4.21.11 @ 7:49AM
20 years ago when we started to have children, my wife and I fled Northern California for an Indiana farm on the Ohio river. I drive a 45 year old car, our heat is from wood grown on our farm, and we feed our 4 kids from our 1 acre garden plowed with our 1948 Gravely.
To the average Californian we are evil Republican breeders who are dumbstruck by the myth of Christianity. They think this while they shop at Starbucks, drive their Prius's (Priuie?), and vote for that consummate ass; Jerry Brown.
I love California but it's time to let it go. When we have a conservative President again I will take it as a personal affront if he bails out my home state. I want them to wallow in the rancid ideological sewage they have made where they eat. Meanwhile our big worry is how to move our asparagus patch. The shoots are coming up but we do have to put it elsewhere.
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 7:55AM
Wow. It sounds like you have a great life Stam. I'm envious! :-)
Stammon| 4.21.11 @ 8:15AM
Thanks Larry, (I think?), anyone can do this, we are not special. but what annoys me is the "holier than thou" crap from the wannabes in CA. They are just so perfect, but they can't power themselves. Much of PG&E's power comes from it's neighbor states who don't have the regulatory restraints the CA does. I just want the libs to drown in their own swill. But I think I said that already. Growing up in CA, I have seen this all first hand. F'em, let them starve. Maybe then they will learn.
Wow, I sound angry. I am sorry but I am tired of paying for other people's fantasies.
Mitch Angoop| 4.21.11 @ 5:25PM
California's neighboring states should boycott them; providing (especially) ZERO power and water. Then we'll see how wise and all knowing the morons are in the land of fruits and nuts and flakes.
How much longer are the productive Americans that are left going to continue to pay their taxes so jerks like most Californians and libs/dems can sit on their collective asses and piss it away? It's about time that Americans institute an effective boycott of California, buying nothing from them and finding ways to do without things we think we need from them.
America is broke and that moron barry continues to bray on and on about the evil GOP trying to force granny to eat dogfood and starve babies. I have a note for the incredibly stupid among us who consider themselves libs/dems:
The democrap party is the party of death. They kill babies with abortion and want to kill seniors with their illegal, communistic obummercare. Democrats have become evil incarnate; and anybody who supports them or votes for them are just as evil.
The band of murderers and thugs stomping all over the law in Wisconsin has nothing to do with the democratic party of FDR or Harry Truman. These sub-human animals are brainwashed idiots who are just footsoldiers in the communistic drive to erase America from the face of the Earth.
They are using violence daily to get their way. How long will REAL Americans put up with their criminal ways before fighting back? Dems have already stated publicly that it is time to break heads and get blood in the streets. They'd better be careful what they ask for; they just might get it.
Shermans riding again!| 4.21.11 @ 9:27AM
You blessed my friend.
Old Soldier| 4.21.11 @ 7:53AM
When I was a kid, my friends and siblings would make up games. To establish the rules of the game we would yell out “I call…” followed by an arbitrary rule.
I grew up and learned the rules of the real world (science, logic, human nature, statistics, etc…). Leftist never grew up and never accepted any of those rules. They are still yelling “I call…” and making crazy arbitrary rules – like the children they are.
bluecollarbytes| 4.21.11 @ 8:03AM
Ron Ross-"One interference with the market always necessitates another, as Fredrich Hayek demonstrated long ago in The Road to Serfdom."
And govt interference with individual liberties always necessitates greater interference as time goes on. Americans must decide, for real, whether they value freedom or govt control. The American spirit is threatened with extinction.
Anthony| 4.21.11 @ 11:21AM
Americans have already decided, they elected Obama, Brown and the rest of the delusional left and will continue to vote that way as republicans prepare to nominate some mild party hack or inexperienced orator.
Tina B| 4.21.11 @ 5:43PM
No that was the Dems that nominated an inexperienced orator, BHO, and a mild party hack, sleepin' Joe B.
Patzer| 4.21.11 @ 8:13AM
"Renewable" electricity would be insufficient to power the grow houses in the auhor's home town of Arcata- never mind the rest of the state.
JFGalt| 4.21.11 @ 8:16AM
Have you seen the size of some of those turbines? they're huge! And whole fields of them? I wonder if someone yet is claiming that too many of them will disrupt the earth's rotation?
John Navratil| 4.21.11 @ 2:15PM
JFGalt,
A scientist or engineer surely would not. One little old tsunami will shift the earth on its axis, not a bunch of tiny little fans. If they could, the mountains would have done so already.
Nunya| 4.21.11 @ 5:21PM
No, but I can guarantee you they'll start crying about the birds they kill, and all kinds of other crap. Libs like to make rules without thought as to the ramifications of those rules, and when they find out there ARE ramifications they make up more rules without thinking about the ramifications of those rules...ad infinitum. Like has been said above, we are dealing with children. Or possibly just under-developed minds that got stuck somewhere around age 6 that can't think critically and believe everything their woderful leaders tell them. In California I think the medical marijuana has a lot to do with it... ;-)
JFGalt| 4.21.11 @ 8:14AM
Something that I don't understand about the renewable energy debate is this - IF oil production is seen as declining and that will cause energy prices to eventually skyrocket - won't we need other sources of energy? If we develop these now it may ameliorate the problem later. If we wait for something to save us and it never comes around then we're screwed. The wind and wind farms are here now we just need to tap them. It may not be a perfect solution but at least it is accessible. It is better than doing nothing. I'm trying to get a handle on this debate but both sides seem to argue on the disengenious side. Wind, at least gets us somewhat out of the clutches of the Arab despots and oil companies.
Stammon| 4.21.11 @ 8:24AM
We have 600 years of known coal at the present rate of growth. We have unlimited Nuclear power. We have trillions of tons of fossil fuels untapped. We have hydrothermal, geosolar, and so on etc. The problem comes down to those who hate modern society, hate modern science, hate modern life. They want to live the romantic notion of the noble savage. They are a bunch of self deluded illogical know nothings who think Christmas and the tooth fairy are just around the corner if those evil greedy productive people will just get out of the way. I think we should give them their dreams and let them starve.
Wow, sorry guys I am done. enough bile for one day.
Melvin| 4.21.11 @ 8:40AM
On the contrary, please keep it up.
Michael Tomlinson| 4.21.11 @ 9:24AM
Amen.
Butch | 4.21.11 @ 3:10PM
That about sums it up in a nutshell, Stammon. But I don't believe these unrealistic people are capable of imagining just how miserable and brutish life in the stone age will be.
Nunya| 4.21.11 @ 5:22PM
Or was.
John Navratil| 4.21.11 @ 3:31PM
JFGalt,
The first difficulty is the concept of finite oil. Of course it is finite as the earth is finite, but this isn't very informative. Oil was initially recovered from very rich deposits into which wells could be dug and buckets used to lift out the oil. Recovery was technically cheap, but expensive as everything was manual. Today oil is recovered from structures from which recovery would have been impossible years ago. The recoverable reserves of oil and gas are completely dependant on price. Oil recoverable at $500 per barrel simply does not exist as a recoverable reserve even at todays high prices, but it most certainly exists in the earth. Venezuala has the world's largest crude reserves at $100/bbl, but doesn't place at $40/bbl.
A second difficulty is presented in the concept that oil is energy. Oil is an energy source, as is wind, solar, biomass, tidal power, and, indeed, food powered muscles. Obviously, when one source gets more expensive, others become more attractive. Consider that in order for manual labor to become expensive, other cheaper energy sources are required. Slave labor was the best source of "energy" in sugar production until mechanization appeared. A better concept is that energy is wealth.
A review of the industrialization of the world shows that energy crises have been with us since the dawn of time. During the period from the colonization of the new world, iron ore smelting moved from England to the colonies because there was a cheap source of firewood available. Once coal reduced the cost of production in England over the cost of production in the colonies along with transportation, iron smelting returned to England. I say that to observe that energy costs drive production and innovation.
Now to markets... Solar and wind would not exist without subsidies. Why? Because the cost of "free" wind requires a tremendous up-front investment. In the same time, shale gas is proving to be a tremendous resource and natural gas trades today at $4.50 / MMBtu which compares favorably with the $2 price in the 80's when compared to the change in the price of crude. It's a bit like GM - anyone can make a profit if they don't have to pay their debts.
Wind does not get us out of the clutches of the Arabs unless you are willing to turn your lights off when the wind doesn't blow. Every watt of electrical power generated by wind must be covered by the equivalent generation capacity in some other form (generally natural gas turbine). The alternative is to suffer brown-outs or black-outs when the wind is still. So we are actually investing in infrastructure which we cannot rely upon. Will we get a return on investment? We will see. In Texas where we can choose our power providers, green power is the most expensive at the retail end.
You suggest waiting is not an option. Agreed! It also isn't being done. The "evil" energy companies are doing what they do best - making a profit from the production of energy to suit our demands. The pricing signals from the market spur exporation and production - indeed, in the long run, expect prices to drop for a period of time until reserves begin to dwindle again.
As a final point, observe that we have been moving to cleaner and cleaner fuels without the exhortations of government. Why? Greater energy per gram. We no longer cook our food over stick fires or cow dung. We are already moving from crude to gas based fossil fuels. Research into hydrogen has been underway for decades and without a command from the DoE.
You do not have to worry about waking up one morning without being able to turn on the light.
Alex P. Keaton| 4.21.11 @ 8:18AM
Let these millionaire hypocritical do-gooders lead the way: "Avatar" directer James Cameron (the movie made millions for, wait for it, Rupert Murdoch, ha ha ha!), the obese sicko Micheal Moore, Susan Surrandon, Mrs. James Brolin, et al, can all put up wind turbines next to their Malibu beach houses. Praise Obama and don't bogart the bong, Moonbeam!
Pat Spooner| 4.21.11 @ 8:37AM
From an email I just received in response to a letter to the White House - "To secure our Nation's energy future, we also need to increase production of clean energy. I have set a goal that by 2035, 80 percent of our electricity will come from clean energy, including renewable sources like wind and solar power, nuclear energy, efficient natural gas, and clean coal. ".
Talk about morons! Don't they have a clue - 80% from clean energy! The natural gas and nuclear, and even clean coal, can help but these type of plants typically take many years to site, permit, construict and begin operations. The other generators are unreliable, and need backup and are thus very costly.
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 8:54AM
I don't think that Comrade Golfer is such a moron. He's not smart, but he plays at being stupid under the guise of doing what he feels is best for this country. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, his goal is destroy this country. Who doesn't know that? He can't come out and say it though. Instead, he institutes policies which simply lead people to believe that he's stupid, uninformed, etc. He's accomplishing everything that he wants to though.
Rush's words have resonated with me since day 1 of this regime: "I hope he fails."
RAMIII| 4.21.11 @ 11:52AM
Right On! Right On! You have nailed it I think!
Melvin| 4.21.11 @ 8:38AM
Why do they do what they do? Because there is no accountability. A man or men can destroy a state or destroy a country, and they can just walk away with no form of retribution from the masses.
There was a time in the political process, that a politician or politicians whose powers were limited in scope as to not be able to bring about damage if they were so inclined.
These inept, or cold calculating politicians were held back by the Separation of Powers, and the numerous checks and balances.
As I had noted politicians must not be allowed to just walk away from the carnage they personally created. They must be judged, they must be sentenced, and justice must be handed down.
I'm not talking justice in the sense that we all are used to, but I'm talking justice that was handed down to Benito Mussolini by the Italian people after he and his party single handily destroyed Italy.
"What we once knew, is not what we live now, our Country's fate lies within our outstretched arms, will we clench our fists to fight, or will we open our palms and surrender?"
Dee See| 4.21.11 @ 8:58AM
BTW ---as Fuksihima and the MASSIVE fallout
issue continues to be covered up by our entire 'EUGENICS friendly' media, really
DO start working on that fertility insurance
policies ---NOW.
REALLY
Bill| 4.21.11 @ 9:12AM
Governor Brown is unquestionably right about one thing: he's not called "Governor Moonbeam" for nothing.
Jim| 4.21.11 @ 9:23AM
I really believe the intent of all this legislation is to eventually drive out all producers as well as population and to create a feudal state where only the rich movie stars and starlets reside along with the well-to-do politicians and media types!
Michael Tomlinson| 4.21.11 @ 9:29AM
Jim, feudal lords were physically tough and able to intimidate others. There may be a few tough dykes in Hollywood, but can you really picture that panzy George Clooney intimidating MS13 or the Bloods? The latter will rule feudal California while George Clooney and James Cameron will be their bitches.
Larry| 4.21.11 @ 9:31AM
That would be fine with me, as long as I'm out. The politicians will eventually eat and destroy the Hollywood scum.
Dan Hirsch| 4.21.11 @ 9:35AM
Mr. Ross;
I suggest that the renewable energy mandate does not destroy Californians' wealth. It transfers it to others that profit from the arbitrary decision to purchase their non-economic products, i.e. General Electric's wind turbines.
The real beauty of the renewable energy scam is that in the main, renewables are short term unreliable - the wind does die unpredictably at various times, clouds unpredictably cover your solar array. Electricity demand does not vary so much, nor so unpredictably. So when you install an 'unreliable renewable', you must also install duplicate backup generating capacity.
This duplicate backup capacity is referred to as "spinning reserve." It is actually a generator, usually a natural gas turbine, that spins under no load while the wind blows or the sun shines - when that stops, the "spinning reserve" picks up the load that the 'unreliable renewable' has dropped.
Who profits from this? The manufacturers and operators of both types of generators. In an economically sane world (e.g. USA 20 years ago), you would install the spinning reserve as the base generating capacity and forget about the 'unreliable renewables'.
A simple illustration, how many times have you driven through one of those eyesore windfarms and seen all, most, or even half of the turbines actually turning? Rarely has been my experience.
Who profits? General Electric is a major manufacturer of electric generators, both gas driven and wind driven. Did you see that last year they paid no corporate income taxes and first quarter this year they exceeded their profit expectations by almost 18%?
'Unreliable renewables' transfer Californians' wealth to General Electric and mainly out of state electric utilities.
GREEN DUPES! BOY ARE YOU SAVING THE PLANET!!!
Jack Olson| 4.21.11 @ 9:47AM
It takes ten years to design and build a power generating station. Yet, 2020 is only nine years away. Much of the ten years is required to dedicate and build the transmission lines which serve the plant, including all the eminent domain lawsuits. So the nine-year goal can be met in only two ways. Build the renewable generators, such as windmills, along existing transmission lines. Or, disperse the renewable generators, such as photovoltaic arrays, close to the point of use such as on residential and commercial rooftops. However, a transmission line isn't necessarily a good spot for a wind turbine generator. It was located to transmit rather than generate power, not necessarily in the windiest location. You cannot expect a wind turbine generator on a transmission line to produce as much power as if it were on a better site. And, according to the state's own energy website, a photovoltaic array installed by a homeowner in Palo Alto would have a 22.7 year payback even after the taxpayers paid for a third of it. Short of an invention as revolutionary as Edison's incandescent light bulb, there simply is no way to meet the one-third renewable power requirement by 2020.
Dustoff| 4.21.11 @ 9:52AM
I guess Mr.Moonbeam didn't read the EU/Canada/Spain report on windmills and how they are failing to meet any of their power demands. can you say "waste of money"
Plus from what I've read. The solar panels require a fare amount of water to keep them clean (sun rays). OK now, were talking CA here, that always has water problems, so let's use up even more of it. Not including the eco-freaks who are fighting to stop these panels.... because it wrecks the land. God such morons, their the fools pushing for this and now they don't want it?
I'm a former Calif person, but NO more. Let the dang place sink into the ocean and do all of us a favor.
Roy Allen| 4.21.11 @ 10:07AM
I have lived in California for 58 years and to see what this state has become is embarassing. Apologies to my fellow Americans.
Ed| 4.21.11 @ 10:16AM
Don't forget, California invented Looney Tunes and the" The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" song.
Sometimes, life really does imitate art.
Eddie| 4.21.11 @ 11:16AM
I foresee the government taking over private utilities in order to mandate changes in how energy is used and in fact how it is obtained. THEN we're all in BIG trouble! Sad to watch the Golden State tarnish and go down the tubes but blame the voting majority there. It's their fault and nobody else's.
DRed| 4.21.11 @ 11:28AM
"California has a population of roughly 37 million. That is barely half of one percent of the world's population. If Californians reduce their "carbon footprint" by a third (a very tall order), that will reduce humanity's carbon footprint by one sixth of one percent. I hate to tell my fellow Californians, but there is no way on earth that will make an iota's worth of difference."
I hate to tell Mr. Ross that he's either a liar or an idiot, but you don't calculate the carbon footprint of a state by comparing its population to the global total.
Controse| 4.21.11 @ 11:44AM
So how do you calculate it?
DRed| 4.21.11 @ 11:54AM
Well, according to wikipedia, carbon footprint is the "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person." So you'd figure out California's share of global greenhouse gas emissions, and then reduce that by 33%, right?
Brian B| 4.21.11 @ 12:44PM
Excellent point, Red.
According to Wiki, California is responsible for less than 1.5 % of worldwide GHG emissions.
So heroic Gov Moonbeam will, using your proposed formula, save the world by reducing GHGs by approximately .4%, as opposed to the authors rough calculation of just under .2%.
So for all practical purposes the author's calculations were close enough to make zero difference to the argument and were perfectly adequate for the purposes of this essay, correct?
DRed| 4.21.11 @ 1:15PM
Using your numbers would demonstrate that the author knows what he's talking about, which would help make the rest of his arguments stronger-that's my point.
Thomas Paine| 4.21.11 @ 1:15PM
As if any of it will matter ... take a look at this graph, and tell me where temperature is heading:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/earth history temperature graph/majorcombs/globaltemp1.jpg
Or sea levels (ka is 1000 years):
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo...../fig68.jpg
Not to mention, even if one buys the CO2 argument (I certainly don't since it LAGS temperature rises, not leads, Al) ... what about AUTOMOBILES...?
The CA Franchise Tax Board had the stones to send me a notice, demanding I tally all purchases from out-of-state sources so I could pay them sales tax. That was the last straw: I opened a new company in NEVADA last week ... this week I'm putting together the asset sale of my CA company, then shutting it down....
Buh-bye, Jerry.
Thomas Paine| 4.21.11 @ 1:16PM
Apologies - the first link posted wrong, you have to cut and paste both lines through the "jpg"
skip| 4.21.11 @ 12:21PM
No doubt, it is continually evident you are an expert on liar and an expert on idiot.
Lucky for us all, thirty one thousand four hundred eighty seven actual bonafide experts have truthfully revealed their opinions on the matter at petitionproject.org (and .com).
Liberal gospel takes as given carbon dioxide is a global warming evil that must be stopped, preferably through EPA edict.
Humanity accounts for as much as 3.4% of the carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.
After liberals have successfully eliminated all humanity from exhaling all earth killing carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, I wonder how they will stop the remaining 96.6%.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 1:14PM
True dat, but your operating on some kind of dicked-up assumption that CO2 is anything but a natural part of the atmosphere. It is one of the 2 products of all combustion of hydrocarbons - water and carbon dioxide. The O's from the O2 combine with the H's to give you the water, and more O's combine with the C's to give you the Co2.
Hell, I'm not even a chemist. This ain't rocket science, people!
If Co2 is a pollutant, than so is water. But neither is. I'd be more worried if the percentage of either Oxygen or Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere was going DOWN. We need the former and the plants need the latter, like there's no tomorrow.
Global warming/cooling/staying-too-much-the-same/what-have-you is now officially the biggest scam in human history (I say "human", as I don't know what all kind of sorry scams the dinosaours were involved in - some kind of "no death for oil" thing, as I recall). This scam has surpassed Enron, Bernie Madoff, Mr. Ponzi, Social Security, "Diamonds are a girl's best friend - you should spend 2 mo. salary on a worthless ring", and rap "music" to the top of the Billboard Chart, and is now number 1 with a bullet, or my name ain't Kasey Kasem.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 1:14PM
Dammit!
WAS: "True dat, but your ...."
S/B: "True dat, but you're ..."
I HATE when people do that!
skip| 4.21.11 @ 2:02PM
Ironic indeed 'The Velvet Fog' opines on the 'coarse fog' of the global warming greenhouse gas effect.
If this cite allowed 100 strikes on grammatical errors before banning all further posts I would have been banned long ago. I hate sloppy grammar yet hypocritically commit mistakes with reckless abandon.
Maybe, just maybe, as the global population passes 7 billion individuals, with forecasts to double to 14 billion in the next hundred years, these individuals will be fed by the increase of plant and animal food available, due to the increase of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, that provides for more plant growth, which expands the nutrition accessible by both humans and animals, this all happening according to the will of the Creator of all creation to begin with.
If only Al Gore would expound on this for my edification.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 3:45PM
"If this cite ... "
Should be "If this site ..."
There you go, #101; you are outta here ...
just joking, and I know that most of the errors people make are typos more than truly grammatical errors.
You're right that you don't really hear any good reasons why a coupla degree C increase in average temp. would necessarily be a bad thing, even if we did have control over it. I know personally a scientist (head of a university research group) who studies sea level rise at the coastline, but yet his group can't really distinguish between sea bottom settling and actual surface rise. You think these guys are smart, but then talk to them in engineering terms (where you have to get actual, you know, working right answers), and all of a sudden you realize they ain't the brightest. I can also see how they are completely in it for the grant money. It is shameful to even behold. Truthfully, for the professors, it's all about the money and access (to hot coed graduate students' _____).
skip| 4.21.11 @ 5:01PM
Mr. V. Fog,
Granted, as far as sophisticated humor goes, my stab at it wouldn't even make the low end of the scale, but I just couldn't really help myselph.
I was beginning to wonder if anyone would even catch it.
You are spot on about grant money. The perfect example is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC of 2,500 anonymous 'scientists' unintelligently and dishonestly justified ignoring the scientific method to achieve the results consistent with keeping the flow of grant money coming. They aren't scientists, they are frauds, unintelligent and dishonest ones.
Even more pathetic, every month in the mainstream media are new reports revalidating manmade global warming, alleging, despite the 'unfortunate troubling doubts created by skeptics', this phenomena is real.
Ore Gone| 4.21.11 @ 3:25PM
This scam is amazing simple to see through but I can't believe the number of people that believe it. If you have taken any higher level math classes you would know that the statistics are insignificant. Reading tree rings for climate information is as scientific as reading tea leaves. People can't be this stupid! I prefer to think that the progressives are changing the vote by controlling the outcome. Allowing homeless people to vote encourages all sorts of voter fraud. I think more dead people are voting than even during LBJ's elections.
cowgirl| 4.21.11 @ 11:40AM
Governor Moonbeam (doesn't that just say it all) sent Gavin Newsome (who helped put the Stupid City San Francisco into a financial crisis) along with some other politicians from California (God Help US) to Texas to find out how Texas is creating so many jobs in a down economy. Just think - The governor of the bluest state in the US sent people to the reddest state in the US to find out how to create jobs.
Liberalism is a mental illness and you can't fix stupid.
Controse| 4.21.11 @ 11:43AM
Someone once said that if circumstances can't continue they won't. I'm sure that applies here. What are we to do with all the pols, union bosses, non-essential public employees and sycophants once it all crashes down? Interment camps springs to mind but bad press would rule them out. Any ideas anyone?
DanH in Alaska| 4.21.11 @ 6:20PM
We could form them into permanent chain-gangs to pick up trash from every alley, street, boulevard, highway, interstate and back-country road in America. (To start with) Then we can split ‘em up after their done with the first round (That ought to take a few years) and half can start removing the graffiti that blights so many big cities, a quarter of them can begin rebuilding Detroit and the remaining ones can clean all our yards, starting with mine of course. Our grandkids would appreciate us for forcing these two-bit chicken-s#1ts to make this sacrifice for them.
It is after all “For the Children”…
Strider| 4.21.11 @ 11:43PM
Now for the really big question: What to do with all the newly unemployed military personnel after it all crashes down? As this column makes clear, they will be a very dangerous element that will not take kindly to the notion of chain gangs and dogrobber grunt work.
DanH in Alaska| 4.22.11 @ 6:19PM
What a crock of crap. His answer to his own question "The American people, inculcated to a blind worship of those "who serve" and long habituated to constant encroachments to our liberty (all excused by the necessity of "security" and military exigencies), this combined with the extreme unpopularity of the denizens of Congress makes me ask; who among us would be willing to risk it all in defense of the likes of Pelosi, Clinton, Obama, McCain, and Boehner?
Certainly not me." speaks volumes.
I fear not our standing military (just so happen to be a retired one) so much as the hordes of government dependant 'takers' when it finaly comes crashing down. Those of us who took a solemn vow "that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;" know damned well why the Constitution takes precedence over "that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States" . No President in our lifetime, especially this one will succeed in turning the military's weapons on our fellow CITIZENS. I am no-ones SUBJECT! Niether are my brothers and sisters nor should you be.
J.C.Eaton| 4.21.11 @ 11:53AM
King Canute had NOTHING on these jackasses!
CalMark| 4.21.11 @ 12:24PM
The two huge problems:
1. Graft and corruption: the power companies are in bed with the Democrats, meaning lots of dirty money at stake.
2. Political enviro-wackos have no grounding in science or engineering. Even if they cared, they couldn't understand the impossibility their demands.
ABNCP| 4.21.11 @ 12:30PM
This country has enough OIL, COAL, NATURAL GAS, AND SHALE OIL DEPOSITS that if we started to drill, mine and use the available energy resources God has given this country we would be energy independent by the White House date of 2035. We would not be importing any energy resources, we would probably be selling them to many countrys of the world. Wake up Americans
and send people to govern us that understand that.
Pat| 4.21.11 @ 12:39PM
Doesn’t this author realize who Californians really are? This state is the land of fantasy, a place where adults dress up in animal costumes to amuse small children from other states and countries. A place where professional liars are paid millions of dollars annually to pretend to experience emotions so other people - less skilled themselves at lying - can watch these professionals perform on film or television. Do you really believe this latest mandate is anything other than another Golden State fantasy? The line separating reality from science fiction is very blurred in California and has been for years.
For example, over 30 years ago a similar mandate dealt with smog in the L. A. basin, the goal was to drastically reduce it, timetables were drawn up and a lot of hoopla was generated over how important it was to save L. A. As the years passed, one deadline after another elapsed without achieving the reductions in smog mandated within the widely reported original pronouncement. An obvious failure to meet the stated goals - so what happened when this failure occurred? Why absolutely nothing of course. Nobody really expected success, the media didn’t go into a feeding frenzy over the failure, Angelinos didn’t bus to Sacramento to protest on the steps of the capitol. The expected behavior pattern simply operated as intended – first, the fantasy plan is announced, everyone then feels good about themselves for a little while, the failures occur on schedule, no one becomes upset, no one with integrity will question what happened and nothing in the real world will actually change.
So, why go through this nonsense time after time. Why for the money of course. Someone or, more likely, someones will be become much wealthier from the insider opportunities created by this mandate. The real goal isn’t “green” anything or rather “the green” refers to the money a handful of politicians and their supporters expect to make from this initiative – failure is definitely an option because the real goal isn’t to succeed. We won’t be told who will get rich or by how much they will profit, naturally. The rest of the country will simply shake their head at the foolishness of us Californians, but that’s neither here nor there to the engineers of this latest swindle. It’s true Californians are as shallow as a pizza pan when it comes to integrity, but there is nothing the least bit shallow about their greed.
Andy Texan | 4.21.11 @ 8:01PM
Bullseye. However the insider corruption is abetted by the delusions of leftwing true believers. My California friends and relatives are very smug members of the left religion going so far as to eschew beef because beef is non-left (from Texas).
Martin Owens| 4.21.11 @ 12:58PM
California's future in three words:
Brace. For. Impact.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 1:19PM
Nice one!
play nice| 4.21.11 @ 1:20PM
Michelle Wie is the living, breathing analogy for CA. Pretty, plenty of potential, lots of hoopin' and hollarin' from the faithful feminists but always coming up short. Now even her promoters are catching on that she is deeply flawed and unsustainable. Time for Plan B.
Jeff Perren | 4.21.11 @ 1:20PM
"A recent Public Utilities Commission study found that previously imposed renewable energy regulations have added $6 billion to what utilities have had to spend generating electricity since 2002."
Time for businesses to simply start breaking the law.
Mel Torme| 4.21.11 @ 1:23PM
Mr. Robinson: "Ben, how long have your father and I known each other?"
Benjamin Braddock: "Oh, a long time sir."
Mr. Robinson: "Ben, I have one word about your future, just one word."
Benjamin Braddock: "Sir?"
Mr. Robinson: "Bankruptcy"
SugartownSuper| 4.21.11 @ 1:41PM
Not having read the actual Bill here, does it impose penalties for failing to meet that 33 pct. target? It it a felony or a misdemeanor? If a felony, then who goes to jail? If a misdemeanor, then what is the fine? Or is it like the "Tobacco Settlement" where tobacco companies are paying huge weregild to various government entities who are theoretically using the dollars derived to encourage folks not to smoke? Oh never mind...
Who Knows?| 4.21.11 @ 2:22PM
Last night PBS “Nova” presented “Power Surge”, an attempt to solve the energy “problem” and NOT increase our carbon footprint.
I almost flipped channels, when they got on their global warming bull$hit high horse, but decided to try and gut it out to see what the enemy was up to.
Before too long, I realized it was a fantastic human-comedy lesson!
All the “smart” people they allowed to push their solid beliefs were too funny---as one who regularly eschews viewing or hearing any Obama officials, it was quite a test to watch Sec of Energy Chu.
Man, I only have one question---do people like this actually believe their crap, or are they pulling our leg? We all know true believers are what they are!
Also, for one short bit, we got to “absorb” the image of Algore, who looked just like Rex Luthor, with his obese body under slicked back hair.
As I’ve long noted, Narcissus animates us ALL, and baby, is that ever so for so many of those who push global warming as a problem.
It’s all about LOOK AT ME!
Hear ME!
carol| 4.21.11 @ 2:25PM
we may have to move
we can always visit..............I think I have had enough of the fruits and nuts
Bril| 4.21.11 @ 2:42PM
I'm not familiar with your web site at all but this article reeks of strong conservative bias. It seems facts could be stated a little more objectively and sans-bias and still get the point across yet not appear to be pushing a specific agenda.
Butch | 4.21.11 @ 3:43PM
"Reeks" huh? Bril, facts are facts, and are thus both objective and "sans-bias." It is the logical arguments flowing from them that are unfamiliar to you. Facts and logic lead to conclusions that are strongly at variance with conclusions accepted by childlike faith in unsupported assertions about such as global waming and renewable energy. There is a "specific agenda" being "pushed" here: re-establishment of classical Americanism, two of whose pillars are financial stability and realistic energy independence. It's a bit dangerous to your mindset in here, but you are welcome. I have been a subscriber to TAS for 22 years, and an avid reader of this site, with the best and livelest discussion threads on the net.
Ventura Capitalist| 4.21.11 @ 3:57PM
I think you'll be more comfortable reading The New York Times. They are completely sans-bias.
DTCOFAZ| 4.21.11 @ 3:21PM
Wait...Let say that we let them sink, the problem is the moonbeam's state won't be so brave to sink alone into the ocean.
CA will suck up the water and electricity resources from AZ and NV. That's the enormous problem. They won't die alone but drag other states into their messes. I wish there would be a big wall that could divide CA from the rest of the country.
Ventura Capitalist| 4.21.11 @ 3:52PM
The public employee union death grip on all three branches of state government is absolute. Consider:
The prison guard union contract has this provision called "walk time." We pay them to walk from their cars to their work posts.
Also, the guards, being entrepreneurial souls, have discovered that they can pick up some nice extra cash by smuggling cell phones in and selling them to the inmates at $1,000 or more a pop. (You may have read about Charles Manson recently getting caught for the second time with a phone, no doubt using it to marshal his global warming homies on the outside).
Now, those of you out there in the real world might expect that it would be illegal to smuggle a cell phone into a prison. This is, however, not the real world; this is California, and the union-controlled legislature killed that bill.
The contraband could easily be caught with a metal detector, but remember "walk time." It would cost $millions for the extra time required for every guard to go through the detector.
But it turns out to be a win-win. The taxpayers save the $millions it would cost to send the guards through the metal detector, and the prisoners provide nice tax-free income to the guards by buying the cell phones from them.
This insanity is what you get from the unions' corrupt ownership of the corrupt democrat state government.
California is doomed.
Mitch Angoop| 4.21.11 @ 5:39PM
California is already dead; there's just no decent burial. What's worse is that they have taught the rest of the brain dead dems how to kill the rest of the Country. Get out while you can or build a fortress and arm yourself. It is all over because we actually obey the law; and libs/dems just laugh at it and figure out more ways to steal and kill. They really think we'll never reach the breaking point when we've had enough. Be very afraid.
No No bomba kare| 4.21.11 @ 3:56PM
God help us, indeed.
Tina B| 4.21.11 @ 6:53PM
I got out, 1976, and never looked back. Visited from FL a couple of times, and it got progressively more bizarro.
My last trip there was in '85, to visit Ma n Pa in Central Cali, I grew up near L.A. I had beached it that day at Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. Beautiful country. Beautiful day tanning and basting myself golden. I looked pretty good at 35, so I felt like dressing up/down and invited my mom to drive with me into San Luis that evening and I'd buy her a drink (or two).
I was headed for a place called Tortilla Flats, where someone in a local pizza place had told me the "Dead Kennedys" would be playing live. (whatever)
She went with me. Papa cautioned me to drive safely and take care of Nana.
I was showered and had some new clothes on she had bought for me on my visit. Everything matched, I felt great, and happy. She was dressed like any normal 62 year old heavy set British grandmother of my two kids should be dressed. (I don't recall her outfit)
We sat together at a two-top downstairs, dancefloor was upstairs, no live band, no dead or live kennedys, I could have cared less. I was happy to be in Cali, visiting ma, making memories. I also realized the boy from the pizza place had been pulling my chain about the place and live music.
You see, he was from Cal-Poly San Luis. He and his pals, they call the girls Poly-dollys, were at Tortilla flats for the evening and I almost ended up being the show.
My good humor that evening, exacerbated by some good rock music coming from up the stairs, led me to say to a male college student walking by our table, " Hey, I feel like dancing, would you mind dancing with me?" He said sure. My mistake. In looking back over the years that became apparent to me.
Moments later, I was dancing in a crowd, like I had with my friends many times in Florida. After work waiting tables at a Disney area hotel restaurant, we'd all go out and dance for an hour or two. Fun and excercise and music. Loved it.
But in Cali, I felt the crowd around me beginning to back away, actually forming a circle around this guy and me. He was dancing and smiling away, and I was looking around me, and no one else was still dancing. Music was still going. The Eagles or someone, medium fast tempo.
Then I can hear it. . . "ooooah, ooooah" kind of like a monkey in a jungle sound. Beautiful Poly-dollies and their oh so pretty Poly boys. And my partner was one of them.
Now, I love to dance and I can dance just like the people who surround me. Flailing or mellow, however the crowd is groovin, so am I. No more no less. So when they stopped, soon I stopped. The noise making stopped. It was became very still, so I just laughed and shook my head and left the dancefloor.
I don't believe how, in retrospect, I was so unphased. I guess I was in such a great mood, I was dressed modestly, I was not provocative in the least. Just happy to be in Cali, out with ma, unflappable. I went down the stairs to Ma at the two-top. I paid our tab, told her "Let's blow this popsicle stand," or words to that effect. We split.
I explained to her on the drive back to their home how I was treated. By the Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo crowd. I guess I was a foreigner in their territory. I recalled having seen them in a large crowd that day at Avilla Beach. Some buff babes with their equally buff throngs of admirers and hangers on. Maybe they had some funny ideas about Mom and me at the table together, I dunno. Who cares? I guess I did or it wouldn't have made such an impression on me.
I attended UC Santa Barbara in the late 60s, wow what beauty surrounds it. UC Irvine, early 70s, well the drive back to my apt overlooked the blue Pacific and that was unbeatable. The three other Cali schools I barely remember. I don't recall that attitude but then after being gone for 9 years, it was very distict to me that night in SLO.
Looking back the 25 or so years to that vacation summer trip, I am so glad my daughter and son grew up in Florida, and yes, as for Californians, let them eat smelt! In the dark.
Trinacria| 4.21.11 @ 7:26PM
"California has a population of roughly 37 million. That is barely half of one percent of the world's population. If Californians reduce their "carbon footprint" by a third (a very tall order), that will reduce humanity's carbon footprint by one sixth of one percent. I hate to tell my fellow Californians, but there is no way on earth that will make an iota's worth of difference."
It's even more absurd than this statement suggests; indeed, if THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE EARTH reduced their carbon footprint by a third, it wouldn't make a difference, because "making a difference" presupposes that a difference needs to be made. But what, precisely, is the difference that they're trying to make? In other words, what is the measurable outcome parameter? They are curiously silent on this seemingly obvious question.
By the way, since when is a technology that predates carbon fuels (windmills) considered a new technology? And where, pray tell, will the raw materials needed to build the billions of windmills and solar panels come from? Will not the metals for the component parts need to be mined from the earth. Is raping mother earth and pillaging her precious elements environmentally friendly? Surely not!
Nite| 4.21.11 @ 11:12PM
Years of being governed by liberal loons have pretty much destroyed the state. People there have reached the end of their rope with the high prices and stupidity. People are moving to other states. Illegals have moved in high numbers and the welfare being utilized is mind boggling. California can be a beautiful place, but you don't want to live there.
mike| 4.22.11 @ 12:22AM
My wife had a job opportunity in San Fran recently. She flew out there a day prior to her interview (company paid thankfully) and in the period of the two days she was out there she knew we would not like living out there. She described it like being in a different country. Surreal to say the least. www.avrsupplements.net
old white guy| 4.22.11 @ 7:14AM
"taxes have the potential to create wealth" in what alternate universe? the idiots who think that they can live without oil should try it for a month. i can be the arbiter of what they can consume. try it. nothing can be eaten, or drank or consummed in any way. evrything has been touched by oil or some form of fossil fuel and i mean everything.. even their damn windmills can't be made without fossil fuel .
Dee See| 4.22.11 @ 8:35AM
BTW ---check it out.
La Reconquista and La Rasa are BOTH generously
funded by the Rockefeller/Ford Foundations
(they now have the same board of direrctors).
And we wonder why things are coming apart.
HUAC meets NUREMBERG 2012.
Wonder no more...
frankg| 4.23.11 @ 3:21AM
Its our duty to save the world...now bail us out.
secryn| 4.25.11 @ 4:18PM
About 2 years ago American Thinker ran an article detailing how there were over 14,000 abandoned windmills in California alone. All had been built under one or another alternative energy subsidy programs. Even after the construction phase was completed, these boondoggles were still net money losers and it was more cost-effective to abandon them rather than to try and operate them. Will we never learn?
Random Blowhard| 4.26.11 @ 8:42AM
The Peoples Republic Of California - proof that idiocy is contagious.
Charlie Draper | 5.3.11 @ 9:43AM
Alternative fuel and power could be the answer to save California. However, with the states economy in the dumps, where are they going to get the resouces to make it happen. California dreaming.
Kevin| 5.10.11 @ 2:24PM
I'd like to be as optimistic and give as much grace to bureaucrats as granted in the article, but there's more under the surface here. Plainly:
If this were only a matter of arbitrary decisions by useful, well intentioned idiots; were this only a case of greed acting alone; the statistics would be on the peoples' side some small portion of the time. There is no deviation, however. The march is lock-step and never favors liberty or individual freedom. This is design and intent. It is planned, implemented, and managed by conspiracy.
Creative Recreation | 8.10.11 @ 9:59PM
is good