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Global Warming on 15-Year Hold
April 2, 2012 | 12 comments
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Suddenly This Summer
March 31, 2012 | 8 comments
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FakeGate: Just Another Day at Team Green
February 22, 2012 | 7 comments
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“Climate” and the Campaign
January 12, 2012 | 8 comments
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Germany’s Green Bubble Follows Spain’s; Will Congress Waste More Billions on Ours?
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
The Spectacle Blog
So, today we read that Hollywood, Al Gore’s group, rent-seeking industry and other green groups have been joined by the rest of the usual suspects — Google, Bill Gates — in opposing Proposition 23, a ballot initiative to delay their state’s energy rationing law which will soon take effect. That is, barring voter intervention putting a temporary stay on this economic suicide pact until the state’s economy recovers somewhat.
I should think that’s about all one needs to know about Proposition 23.
Still, all of that money to protect the global warming industry’s gravy train seems to be having an effect among telephone survey respondents. But it remains a close one. And that’s why they suit up and play the game.
The people who will be hurt most by this costly gesture by elites who for the most part will not feel the pinch of California sinking further down the drain, particularly Hispanic voters, support reclaiming voter sovereignty on an issue the political class has proven an inability to responsibly manage.
I suppose this is just fodder for so much more hand-wringing by the Left about the regular voter being too stupid for the elites to stomach. How dare those imbeciles not wildly fall for it! Remember, AB 32 was passed as a global warming law. When it began to dawn on people that now was not the time for foolish gestures, even in California, and since no one actually posits that AB 32 would ‘do something’ to the climate in any detectable way (or even close, accepting all of the alarmists’ assumptions), the party line promptly switched to it being a jobs bill. Yeah, that’s it.
And, now, as the truth is making the rounds that this “world’s first” scheme has in fact proven to be a job-killing bog in many places already, the global warming industry has now done its usual late-hour race to the bottom. One pressure group is blitzing the airwaves with shameful ads saying this is about (of course) childhood respiratory function. Not a word in the ad about global warming. Huh. This comes from the California chapter of a group long having had a difficult relationship with being straight on such matters (including, as Reason’s Joel Schwartz has pointed out on many occasions, about California-specific issues and, as I detailed in Red Hot Lies, about global warming).
Which begs the question, unless they are just torturing the facts and being alarmist (again), why wasn’t that the reason AB 32 was passed to begin with? Instead, it was (risible) state-specific computer-modeled scenarios of doom unless the people allowed the political class to strip them of ever more freedoms. It was the faddish “global warming” pony they sought to ride to the long-held desire to price energy out of the reach of the same average voters whose proliferation and attainment of automobility, vacations and the like the elites just couldn’t tolerate.
You will know them by their deeds, and the global warming industry’s have a pretty miserable record.
View all comments (11) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Chris Horner
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/10/21/california-preening
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Earl Richards| 10.21.10 @ 6:32PM
The California Jobs Initiative (CJI) is an oil corporation farce and fraud. There is no connection, whatsoever, between greenhouse gas emission reduction and the loss of jobs. This notion is an insult to the intelligence of the people of California. In fact, there is job growth in the clean, renewable energy industry. Chevron employs 65,000 worldwide and CJI is not going to change this. The only jobs created by the oil industry are clean-up jobs after oil spills and deep water, blow-outs and pump-handler jobs. CJI will make fantastic profits for the oil industry, increase air pollution, especially in communities around their refineries and there will not be lower gas prices. Koch Industries, Valero and Tesoro are super Enrons. Since when did the oil companies start to show any concern for the unemployed and their families and for the consumer. Exxon Mobil, BP, Occidental, Shell and Chevron are silent partners in CJI.
paul descartes| 10.22.10 @ 1:28AM
I keep hearing about this green industry revolution---hybrid/electric cars, solar power, wind energy, blah, blah. It all washes out the same way. Liberal/progressive goofballs get to feel good about themselves, but they always come up short when it comes to offering economically viable alternatives. Give us marvelous technology without destroying the economy. Otherwise, you should all be quietl
Roy| 10.22.10 @ 10:17AM
"There is no connection, whatsoever, between greenhouse gas emission reduction and the loss of jobs"
Evidence or it's hot air.
" This notion is an insult to the intelligence of the people of California. In fact, there is job growth in the clean, renewable energy industry."
Pointing government guns at people and forcing them to use less efficient fuel sources is not obviously a way to generate economic growth. The only way it will "create jobs" is the same way I would "create jobs" if I pointed government guns at people and prevented them from using computers; they would need ten times the paper pushers to get the same amount of work done - so maybe there'd be more "jobs" but there'd be less getting done and hence less salaries.
Mostly this was nothing but yibbering ad-hominem ranting against oil companies.
ggoblue| 10.21.10 @ 7:45PM
come to michigan and tell us theres no connection between leftwing scams and loss of jobs...
we got a telephone pole open to hang you from...
12 days till we kick your balls in
Had Enough| 10.21.10 @ 7:59PM
Earl, your propaganda just doesn't hold water. Everyone knows that the cap and trade legislation will dramatically increase the cost of electricity.
Even Obama has openly acknowledged that, and he is an economic illiterate! Then you say the only jobs created by the oil industry are clean-up jobs. Absurd. All anyone has to do to refute that nonsense is read the Annual Report of any oil corporation to see the employment number. If you are going to make patently absurd statements that are easily refuted by actual facts, YOU are the one insulting Californians' and others' intelligence. Finally, you say there is job growth in clean, renewable energy. What you ignore is that virtually none of them are economically viable in a free market place. Solar, wind, ethanol, etc. are ALL heavily subsidized by the federal government to come even close to being competitive as an alternative to hydro, coal or nuclear power plants. So, once again, you look to government to provide the "job".
Any state that cannot pass a budget until 100 days into its fiscal year is a joke. They cannot balance a budget with a $20 billion deficit, and won't deal with the reality of the financial nightmare they have created. Your leftist Legislature has bankrupted the state. California's business climate is so bad that businesses and productive individuals are leaving in droves. The state response? Raise taxes and regulations even more. And the reason is economic illiterates like you that don't understand or acknowledge the ironclad rules of economics.
On the positive side, at least you have Disneyworld nearby. You and the rest of your fellow utopians can go there. You can remain in your juvenile state the rest of your life. The rest of us will continue to live in the real world, like adults have to do.
Now go continue your temper tantrum somewhere else. The adults have heard enough whining.
Ed in Texas| 10.22.10 @ 8:49AM
You are gravely mistaken in your post.
Disneyworld is in Florida. Disneyland is in CA.
Otherwise, you are utterly correct.
ar ar ar| 10.22.10 @ 7:44AM
Go nuclear!
Ed in Texas| 10.22.10 @ 8:58AM
What is really troubling is the apparent decision by the sponsors of the Proposition that they could not gather enough support from the people to repeal instead of delay.
At least I'm assuming that Initiative can be used to repeal an act of the Legislature. If Initiative can't be used to repeal, then what real power does Initiative afford the people (if all they can do is "tweak" what the Legislature does)?
Amor de Cosmos| 10.22.10 @ 6:53PM
As a strong believer in federalism, I for one ask the good people of California to not support Proposition 23. I want to see what the boldness of acting without regard for reality. For the education and example of those of us not wise enough to grasp how economically unsustainable green technologies and fuels translates into a sustainable and more prosperous future, please do not exhibit any common sense. Listen to your moral betters. Do not be fooled by the other 49 states that your actions will lead to even more capital fleeing your profligate wastrel of a state to states that are not nearly as enlightened as you about protecting Mother Earth.