Wind, solar is an economic, enviro scam which feasts on Federal subsidies, mandates, and pliant politicians

“Why They Go Green” (WSJ editorial says much in few words) — MasterResource

When will Democrats and true environmentalists wake up to windpower, or what Robert Bryce calls the ethanol of electricity? Industrial wind is a scam when seen in all of its dimensions–economic, environmental, and esthetic. Bryce has identified five myths of green energy–and post after post at MasterResource by Kent Hawkins, Jon Boone, and John Droz Jr. have shown that meaningful CO2 reductions from windpower are highly debatable.

Industrial wind is chock full of environmental negatives and isn’t nearly as effective at reducing air emissions than advertised. Big Wind is corporate welfare with companies like GE and FPL skipping their federal taxes. Wind today is the legacy of Enron, the Ken Lay model of political capitalism. Wind is an assault on lower-income energy users, not only taxpayers. (And Democrats are supposed to be for the little guy….)


MY COMMENTS

Industrial wind and on-grid solar were hyped and feted back as far back as the 70's, when US was faced with the middle eastern oil embargo. The technology was well known then but , as it true today, wind & solar simply cannot get around the basic physical laws of energy. They are only now dragged up and kicked around again because of the global warming climate hysteria(pure baloney, easily criticized), and looming peak oil crisis(harder to dispute but not cause for panic).

New recovery methods and new oilfield discoveries such as Brazil offshore ..keep extending the peak oil time line, and the shale gas hydrofracture revolution will provide an abundant source of cheap natural gas supplies to power electic generation for next 100 years. Plus Nat gas burns 50% less co2 and pollutants than oil and coal. So we should be putting up nat gas power plants as well as non-co2 emitting nuclear power plants, and stop this nonsense with covering 100's of sq miles of scenic CA deserts and Kansas prairies with unsightly windtowers, and 1000's of acres of land-hogging solar panels all over USA .......

And now, desperation has set in for an industry that needs more government (point-of-a-gun) energy policy to continue its artificial boom. And so a fundraiser yesterday was held by the renewable lobby for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nevada) that caught the eye of the Wall Street Journal, which published this short op-ed, Why They Go Green:
In a free energy market, companies succeed by producing cheaper, better products than competitors. In a “green” energy market, companies succeed by holding Beltway fundraisers. For more on the distinction, ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who will benefit today from a tony Washington money-raising breakfast hosted by top “renewable energy” industry groups.
Democrats may be losing altitude with most of struggling corporate America, but it’s all about the love with the green sector, floating above economic realities thanks to stimulus handouts and other perks funneled them by the majority. Mr. Reid has been a strong advocate of this transfer, and the industry is showing it knows how to give back.

That, and watching its back. The companies that belong to the American Wind Energy Association or the Solar Energy Industries Association (among the fundraiser’s hosts) produce costly products that can’t compete against traditional fuels. Their business plans are written around Washington subsidies and mandates. They’re obviously worried a Republican majority might pare back the grants, loans and tax credits, in the name of cutting government waste. One can hope.

As the event invitation noted—in requesting $2,500 to attend—Mr. Reid’s Nevada Senate competition against Republican Sharron Angle is an “incredibly important race.” Indeed it is if your balance sheets depend on the Democrats’ special way with taxpayer money.

Can Democrats and the Left wise up and chuck windpower and on-grid solar? (Off-grid solar has a free-market niche.) Industrial wind is an environmental loser, not only an economic loser. The good news is that change is in the air as the grassroots environmental movement is rethinking–and rejecting–industrial windpower. When will Big Environmental question Big Wind–or do they secretly love industrial wind because its power is more expensive and less reliable than what industrial society needs?

Pelosi, 30 CA DEM lawmakers call for Foreclosure Investigation one month before Nov elections!

It’s a TARP! Pelosi, California Lawmakers Call for Foreclosure Investigation - By Daniel Foster - The Corner - National Review Online

"California Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are calling for federal investigations into whether financial institutions broke any laws in their handling of foreclosures in the midst of the U.S. housing crisis."

"Reports from thousands of homeowners in their congressional districts( (predominantly Dem districts i add ) show an “apparent pattern” of practices that led to foreclosures that could have been avoided, the lawmakers wrote in an October 4 letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the U.S. Treasury Department."
(Pelosi and CA Dem legislators pitch this letter one month before Nov election day, to show their constituents that they are looking out for them, and should therefore be re-elected. Nothing will get done on loan mods but appearance is more important than reality)

"The letter was signed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and 30 California lawmakers."( All Dems).

“The excuses we have heard from financial institutions are simply not credible three years into this crisis. People in our districts are hurting,” the letter said. “It is time that banks are held accountable for their practices that have left too many homeowners without real help.”
( big lie: No one one put a gun to their heads and forced them to sign those RE contracts: realters and brokers are scumbags, and RE purchasers should have been more financially savvy)


"The lawmakers said thousands of people have reported that despite efforts to seek loan modifications or other relief many financial institutions “routinely fail to respond in a timely manner, misplace requested documents, and send mixed signals” about what is required to avoid foreclosures."
( This sounds fishy to me,like attempts by those about to be foreclosed to scam banks into loan forgiveness, or twist contract law on it's head)

"Of course, any minimally even-handed investigation could embarrass the Obama administration, by further laying bare the many deficiencies of its mortgage modification program. That program — HAMP — was blasted in great detail in a July report by the Special Inspector General in charge of administering TARP. The picture painted was of an opaque, unaccountable, and aimless program that put no real dent in foreclosures and subsidize economic activity that would have occurred anyway."
(Obama and his economic team are bribed and compromised by the big banks and wall street, so no accounting possible)

COMMENT; High Foreclosure rates and the attendant blight it leaves in neighborhoods is a big, big problem In California but it is almost 100% due to CA meteoric rise in housing prices in 2003-2007, and folks financial stupidity in paying housing bubble prices without doing due diligence. You sign a RE contract and stupidly overpay for housing, that's your problem. I am against Fed doing mortgage modifications in principal, because it basically rewards financial stupidity and even scamming homebuyers, who may have taken out big helocs for fancy vacations and then turn around and bitch over banks reluctance to grant loan mods.

Boxer attacks Fiorina's pro-oil drilling stance in Santa Barbara - latimes.com

Boxer attacks Fiorina's pro-oil drilling stance in Santa Barbara - latimes.com

I have put up these pics of our beautiful Long beach/Hunt beach shoreline recreation areas to show boxer that offshore oil wells do not degrade nor adversely affect the shoreline. Top left pic shows Hunt Beach oil platform. Top right shows LB oil island.

Boxer goes demagogic on SB offshore oil drilling issue. She says that 400,000 SB jobs will be lost or adversely impacted. That is using the Hitler big lie.
No SB jobs will be lost, and MORE oil drilling will add 300,000-500,000 high-paying energy-related jobs to CA's desperate economy. SB coastal tourism industRy is likely being adversely affected by CA's economic collapse, as is the coastal tourism of all seaside areas from Monterrey to San Diego.

Oil drilling has no impact on local tourism. long beach and HUNTINGTON BEACH, CLOSE TO WHERE I LIVE, HAVE 11 OFFSHORE OIL WELLS AND LOCAL BEACHGOERS ARE NOT AFFECTED ONE BIT. OUR BEACHES GET MAX CROWDS ON SUMMER WEEKENDS. LONG BEACH SHORELINE HAS 3 OIL WELLS VERY CLOSE TO THE SHORE BUT THEY HAVE NO IMPACT AS THEY ARE DRESSED UP AND COVERED BY DECORATIVE COVERINGS AND EVEN PLANTS TO HIDE THE OIL DRILL APPARATUS. LB IS A WATER SPORTS MECCA AND PLENTY OF SAILBOATS, JET SKIERS, KITE SURFERS, KAYAKERS REGULARLY PLY THE WATERS WITHOUT THE OIL WELL PLATFORMS IMPINGING ON THEIR FUN.

WE HAVE HAD OIL WELL PLATFORMS FOR 50-60 YEARS AND NOT ONE SPILL TO REPORT. FURTHERMORE, SOCAL HAS 10 POWER PLANTS/WASTE WATER PLANT SITES RIGHT AT WATERS EDGE. THEY ARE NEEDED TO POWER OUR LOCAL ECONOMY AND PROVIDE FOR SANITATION/WASTE MANAGEMENT. WE ALSO HAVE 3-4 OIL REFINERYS IN LONG BEACH/LA PORT REGION/SOUTH BAY. WHY DOES LONG BEACH PORT AREA HAVE TO HAVE THESE POWER ENERGY FACILITIES WHILE SANTA BARBARA CAN KEEP THEIR COASTAL SHORES FREE OF ENERGY GENERATION SITES.

WHY DOSEN'T BOXER COME DOWN TO LONG BEACH OR HUNT BEACH AND MAKE HER PLEA TO BAN OFSHORE OIL DRILLING HERE IN LONG BEACH, AND STAND IN FRONT OF ONE OF OUR BEAUTIFUL OIL DRILLING PLATFORMS.

BOXER IS A COMPLETE HYPOCRITE, LIKE THE NOT-IN-MY BACK YARD NIMBYS IN SANTA BARBARA WHO WANT THEIR CHEAP GAS BUT ARE NOT WILLING TO SUPPORT MORE OFFSHORE DRILLING EITHER IN SB OR IN ANWAR. WAIT TIL IRAN GETS ATTACKED NEXT SPRING AND OIL SHOOTS UP TO $$150/200 A BARREL AND GAS GOES TO $4.00/GALLON. I GUARANTEE YOU THAT CALIFORNIANS WILL BE SCREAMING FOR MORE OIL DRILLING.

Some links on Bell City ongoing civic corruption - a microcosm of CA public employee pension racket

A compilation of links on Bell City ongoing civic corruption

Bell gave employees more than $1.5 million in loans

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-bell-loans-m,0,2287711.story?track=rss

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/bell-robert-rizzo-compensation-million.html

http://t.co/ejkdChZ

http://bit.ly/dlk3Jb

http://bit.ly/9mg99d

I have viewed Bell scandals at some length, and i am convinced that Bell is a microcosm of the gigantic criminal syndicate racket called the CA state pension plan. What happened with bell has happened all over CA, as we have state/county/city public employee unions basically Bankrupting CA thru running/piling up outrageous pensions.

The entire state/municipal gov racket is designed to insure that CA gov employees
are financially well provided for life, even after they retire at mid age, say 50. No matter if economy tanks or revenue dries up, the state will protect and pay its employees handsomely, even if they have to bleed taxpayers to death. This is called a racket.
It is in fact a criminal racketeering syndicate, the worlds largest. A conspiracy by CA public employees to reward themselves by looting the CA taxpayers out of every dime and nickle.
No matter if CA is reeling from an economic calamity/near-depression and 20% REAL UE. No matter that state revenues have declined by 20-30% since 2008. The state workers must be protected by all means even if they must beg the Fed for a handout, which President Obama provided by injecting 26 billion into CA coffers to save public employee jobs and pensions.

What we have is the State of CA and it's state public workers ganging up against it's citizens to protect their racketeering enterprise, which is to buffer PEU's and their public pensions from economic calamities, and continue to inflate PEU pensions to the point of bankrupting the state.

All the recent news about CA going after Bell is just a politically motivated ploy just before Nov. midterms elections to gain points for Dem attorney Gen/Gov candidate Jerry Brown and states dominant Dem political classes, who are using Bell scandals and CA going after Bell to deceive the public that CA Gov really cares About public corruption. That is a lie. CA public employees only take care of their own and could care less about the public. They are only interested in power and insulating themselves from any budget cutbacks of their lavish ill-gotten financial gains. CA public employees are among the highest- paid in USA with 100% state paid health benefits and pensions. CA PEUs' have in fact become the 21st century version of a feudal ruling class.

Senate approves 26 billion in aid to save jobs for Obamas -supporting Teachers/public unions

Senate approves jobs bill to stop teacher layoffs

" Congress is moving rapidly just weeks before the start of the school year to speed billions of dollars in emergency education aid to states in hopes of reversing the layoffs of tens of thousands of teachers. Some $10 billion in aid to school districts is set to flow after a 61-39 Senate vote Thursday—to be followed quickly by a House vote next week—in hopes that it will come in time for many school districts to reconsider teacher layoffs."

"Thursday's vote was a hard-earned but partial victory for Democrats and President Barack Obama. Advocates said it could save the jobs of up to 300,000 teachers, police and other public workers. The measure would provide another $16 billion to help states fund their Medicaid budgets—and therefore free money for other budget priorities such as avoiding tax increases and preserving the jobs of state employees. About three-fifths of state governments have already factored in the federal help when drawing up budgets for the ongoing fiscal year."

"The vote caps months of effort by governors of both parties, public employee unions and others seeking to extend programs enacted in last year's economic stimulus law. That measure provided budget relief to states and local school districts hurt by slumping tax revenues as the U.S. economy has struggled to emerge from recession. Advocates said the measure would stop the layoffs of perhaps 300,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public employees"

"Republicans blasted the measure as a rerun of last year's economic stimulus bill, which has earned poor reviews among many voters as unemployment hovers near 10 percent nationwide. And they called it a giveaway to public employee unions, a key Democratic constituency, just three months before the midterm elections."

THIS IS 100% TOTAL BS!! CONGRESS PASSES A 26 BILLION AID PACKAGE TO SAVE JOBS OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS, MAINLY TEACHER JOBS, WHILE 20-25 MILLION U.S. PRIVATE SECTOR WORKERS REMAIN UNEMPLOYED. CA HAS A 13% 'OFFICIAL' UE RATE, WITH 2.5 TO 3 MILLION CALIFORNIANS UNEMPLOYED(95% OF THEM IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR). BUT THE STATE PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNION TEACHERS, ALL OF THEM LEFTIST DEMOCRATS & OBAMA SUPPORTERS, WILL GET RELIEF FROM LAYOFFS FROM OUR FED GOVERNMENT. YEAH, SAVE THE TEACHER UNION JOBS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONSTITUENCY,BUT SCREW OVER THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND SMALL BUSINESSES WITH CRUSHING TAX INCREASES.

Inland Empire residents sharply divided over illegal immig in rapidly changing region

Inland residents sharply divided over anti-illegal immigration measures amid demographic changes in area | Inland News | PE.com | Southern California News | News for Inland Southern California

The above link is a long look at divergent views on illegal immigration & Arizona's crackdown from the rapidly changing Inland Empire(Southern California), which is the western settled portions of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. I exclude the high and low desert communities in my commentary because they are a whole new subject.

My own comments:

The IE has gone thru rapid changes since yr 2000. This region is marked by rapid growth and decline, wrenching economic/demographics shifts, stark unforgiving landscape, tottering RE values, impoverished districts, foreclosed blighted properties, ect. The landscape is generally harsh, brown, dry, scorched, and barren 8-9 months of year, and the former pleasant shady orange groves and irrigated green pastures of the past have all been bulldozed into endless IE malls and cookie-cutter housing tracts, many of which have become foreclosed or shuttered.

IE was for a long time conservative and Republican, a region where mostly white city dwellers of LA & OC fled the crowded SoCal coast to find cheaper & larger IE homes on ample rural lots. They were the earlier settlers of the mostly rural,rustic IE back in 60's to 80's. Lots of retirees fled to the IE as well to live in cheaper retirement homes & trailers in places like Hemet and Lake Elsinore.

Beginning in the first decade of the 21st century came waves of immigrants & other minorities, who purchased cheap IE homes during the great IE real estate(RE)boom of this decade. The minorities included immigrant illegals, who despite their illegality were able to obtain low-cost scam RE loans to buy IE RE . Then the boom went bust in late 2000's and RE values plummeted. IE collapsed both in RE and economically, and the IE became basically a dead zone. The illegals and legal immigrants became a surplus population as the Unemployment rate(UE)went up to 15-20%. That's the 'official' rate : real U-6 UE is likely close to 30% in most parts of IE.

Now we are here in mid-2010 and the IE is still A RE dead zone and economically shattered : more so than rest of CA and USA because IE depended upon only 2-3 industries and one of those, building & construction, has become completely devastated during this great recession/near depression.
The UE illegals/green carders in the IE are now a surplus population and a welfare burden. I have seen the devastation of the IE caused by large influxes of illegals in Hemet, Riverside, lake Elsinore, Rubidoux, Corona, Rialto, Highland, Colton, inner San berdardino City, Ontario, and a dozen other IE communities. The illegals/ green carders brought homes, then abandoned them when their mortgages payments went up due to so-called teaser loans, leaving abundant foreclosed Properties in their wake.

The illegals were swept and caught up in the wake of this devastating depression along with the older native long-time IE inhabitants. Now, they are competing with the IE's older established citizens for the few available lower-level wage jobs, and the natives are none to happy about it. Thus we see 5 IE cities(and counting)voting for rule of law resolutions (ROL) in support of AZ. In short, the original IE denizens are none to happy about these illegals competing with them for lower-wage jobs in a depression economy.

Fullerton Illeg immig ICE raid -background

Illegal immigration: Immigration raid at Fullerton factory leads to 43 arrests - latimes.com

A short comment on ICE raid on a Fullerton factory in NE Orange County, CA. That area of Fullerton, on Raymond Ave off Riverside Freeway 91, is a large industrial region in NW OC. It is in fact OC's second largest industrial region after the Irvine industrial belt. I know for a fact that lots of firms there use illegal/green card/H1-b workers.
The entire area around there is packed with recent immigrants, which are concentrated in nearby Anaheim, Orange, South fullerton, parts of Placentia, La Palma, ect. A large immigrant community has sprung up in that part of OC. It is a large immigrant work force, and more skilled and educated than Los Angeles' impoverished immigrant population. I have been into quite a few industrial firms in OC, and most of them employ recent immigrant labor, including the large Alcoa-Fullerton metals fabrication plant. If not illegals they use low-skilled anchors/immigrant green carders. Rarely do you see native born Caucasians on the production floor in these firms, except in management/executive capacity. The nature of the work: processing metals or food, low-level warehousing, metals fabrication, lumber warehousing, furniture manufacturing, is such that these firms prefer docile, lowly paid, recent immigrants, mostly from Mex or central america, but also including Philippinos or other Asian immigrant groups.

NE OC dosen't have nearly the extent of illegal alien sweatshop operations as parts of Central and east LA however. Los Angeles area has plenty of small & medium sweatshop factories, some them barely above shoplevel, and most of them employing a largely illegal/green card labor workforce. These sweatshops are concentrated in East San Fernando Valley, dwtn area of La(garment district),east LA, south LA/Vernon area, or along Alameda Corridor. These are usually small/mid-sized processing shops. The work is grimy and tedious, and these firms are usually located in such dismal ghettoish, grimy areas of LA that the owners can escape inquisitive state labor investigators, and get away with using illegal labor. Google Vernon Overhill Farms ICE raid, a 2009 raid on a food processing plant. That is a fairly large firm, but there are 10,000+ firms large, med, and small, similar to Overhill Farms, employing predominantly illegals & green CARD Immigrants.

ICE would run into political problems in LA if they really went after all the LA firms using illegals, as these shops are deeply imbedded in LA's impoverished communities, and are protected by the LA political establishment. Ice barely got away with the Vernon raid, as there were lots of howls and screams from the LA activists, ACLU,and immgrant rights lawyers. There will not be any more ICE raids in LA till either Obama leaves office, Republicans get heavy majorities in congress and/or CA turns majority Republican, an unlikely event.


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LA & CA cities increasing ticket enforcement

Today, I went out for a short errand here in long beach and was stopped by a police officer. According to PO, i got off the freeway off ramp and did a rolling stop at the freeway off ramp stop sign, and the cop saw that and pulled me over. In my defense, i drive real slow and cautious, and maybe i did not fully stop at that freeway off ramp stop sign but i was not being wild and reckless. I made a stupid mental error, being somewhat tired and groggy.

Luckily I actually got off without a ticket, as i told the cop i was in economic hardship and could not pay that ticket, and i told him that in a sad, desperate manner. I have learned from long hard experience that it is better to put one's head down and be as inoffensive to ticketing PO's as possible, even to feigning desperation and extreme sadness. Another words, go limp and conjure up a desperate story of economic hardship, which many of us are going thru these days. Accepting tickets angrily does not work-cops are human, vindicative, and will give you that ticket if you get mad about it and argue over it.

luckily i was feeling really sad, worn, and depressed at that moment(I suffer from depression), and that feeling filtered to the cop, and he actually let me off with a warning only.

Now to my more public statement, which relates to my personal story above. Los Angeles and all other BK CA cities are stepping up traffic enforcement efforts, employing more red light camera's, and raising parking fees, in desperate attempts to raise more incoming revenue for nearly BK city coffers.

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/24/local/la-me-red-light24-2009dec24

http://is.gd/cm3Mg

carmine pete (ripsaw880) on Twitter

I have been aware of this for some time, as all cities in CA are facing budget problems, and to balance their books will use their Police Depts as revenue collectors.
This i call balancing city budgets on the backs of taxpayers and law-abiding drivers. Being a 15 year veteran driver i know all the tricks PD's use to issue tickets.
That's one reason i quit driving for a living, as the economic climate in CA is so stacked against delivery drivers, and the idiotic CA DMV laws make it almost a capital crime to have penalties/DMV points on your driving record. These points are used by insurance companies/delivery companies to ferret out risky drivers. As cities get more desperate and broke they will issue standing orders to their PD's to go after driver's and collect more tickets.

Why CA needs E-Verify to prevent illegals from obatining work here illegally

“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data from the first seven weeks of 2009 suggest that by the end of this year, E-Verify use will have grown 442 percent since 2007.”

It’s about time that Companies adopt E-Verify more and more. A day late and a dollar Short i might add, as Use of phony work doc’s and stolen SS numbers in the illegal alien community was, and still is , widespread. Here in LA during last 25 years virtually every illegal alien crossing into CA and winding up in LA could go to Macarthur park near Dtwn and get a phony work doc, and virtually all did.
Illegals did this to gain entry into the US workforce, and to later get more gainful employment once they became more ensconced into American society.
A lifetime background check on every illegal immigrant and current green carder who crossed over last 25-30 years would reveal vast gaps in employment , numerous name changes, swapped Id’s, changes in SS, ect. . Many of the ID switches would hide prior felonies & fraudulent activities committed by the illegals under a previous Identity, and hidden from public records.

I have a great deal of knowledge of frauds committed by illegals here in LA, and document theft/ID fraud is just the tip of the iceberg.