I’m proud to say that Dan Logue is my assemblyman. – Anthony
Economic initiative makes the ballot
In a phone interview, Logue said he found out Tuesday the initiative had enough valid signatures.
He said the initiative needed 440,000 signatures and it got 800,000. The names were collected by volunteers and paid “signature gatherers,” he said.
AB32 became law in 2006. It provides that between 2012 and 2020, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced to the levels they were in 1990.
Logue’s initiative would postpone the implementation of AB32 until the state’s unemployment rate stands at 5.5 percent for a year. Now the jobless rate is around 12 percent.
Suspending AB32 only makes sense, Logue said. “We can’t afford it. We’ll lose another million jobs. It will drive business out of the state.”
Robin Huffman, advocacy director for the Chico-based Butte Environmental Council, expressed the opposite view.
Suspending AB32 is not necessary, she said. The law “is the very encouragement and incentive that is needed to create the jobs that we need for the new green economy.”
She called AB32 “a very, very reasonable law” and “a step in the right direction.”
“I’m sad that it’s gotten on the ballot,” she said of Logue’s initiative.
Logue said he’s long been disturbed by what he called a regulatory climate in the state that discourages business.
“Economic recovery begins by suspending AB32,” he said.
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The law “is the very encouragement and incentive that is needed to create the jobs that we need for the new green economy.”
I’m sorry to put it so bluntly, but these people are insane, completely mad, as in lost any marbles they may have had rattling around in their tiny fevered minds.
“the new green economy” is dreamland with other peoples money.
I am torn on the AB32 initiative. The Left-Coast’s Eco-policies are not only idealistic but irresponsible. On the other hand, it seems to me that California should serve as an example to the rest of the country, demonstrating what happens to a state when it keeps digging itself a deeper hole.
From the linked article:
“Logue’s initiative campaign has been criticized because out-of-state oil companies have donated a lot of money to it.”
That’s interesting. By that measure GreenPeace and WWF campaigns could always be classified as foreign interference by any business affected. It’s only bad when the others do it.
“the new green economy” is code talk for centralized governmental planning.
Green Tech is only competitive with the aid of governmental subsidies. If California forces a large enough chunk of their power to come from Green Tech, then they will need huge subsidies and the government can then tell the consumers how they may use their heavily subsidized power. If California is NOT forced into using a ton of Green Tech, then more competitive energy sources will be used instead.
I would imagine if California had their “New Green Economy”, there would be some sort of convoluted plan like “you can only have either one TV or one computer on in a household so as to conserve energy.”
Yeh, because the “new green economy” has worked so well in other countries like Spain. I can’t decide it the greenies are incapable to learn from observation or unwilling?
The New Green Economy is Perpetual Motion by edict.
There are only 4 forces in the Universe able to supply energy.
Green idealistic utopianism is not one of them.
“Paul says:
June 24, 2010 at 12:59 am
I am torn on the AB32 initiative. The Left-Coast’s Eco-policies are not only idealistic but irresponsible. On the other hand, it seems to me that California should serve as an example to the rest of the country, demonstrating what happens to a state when it keeps digging itself a deeper hole.”
Paul,
The only problem with this is that people watch it and think “Well…that’s just California, they’ve ALWAYS been crazy out there.” I hear that in Massachusetts, and in many cases they’re as bad or worse here. When I talk to neighbors about it, they think that we’re nothing like that around here…guess they never heard of that little EPA ruling the state court handed down a few years ago…
JimB
The tide is finally turning….and about time.
Just the thought of turning tax dollars into mulch to sequester carbon makes me ill.
Thanks, gentlemen, for your honest and forthright efforts. We all need to follow your lead and look closely at every bromide and agenda that involves belief and not the rational analysis of the facts.
Green jobs. Growing greeen unicorns.
How did the Eutopican endeavor work for Spain?
The green stuff is a farce. Most of us protect and prefer a clean environment. We also want lights a/c and food.
I am convinced at the very least, it will make some extremists begin thinking.
I note from the wsj that an italian windfarm subsidy amounted to about 180euros/MWH, equating to at least 720euros per tonne of carbon, probably significantly more. This is the low hanging fruit, and renewables are supposed to get less efficient the larger percentage on the grid. How on earth can these lawmakers make such bold claims – they are in effect betting the economy on a technological revolution which if it happens will make these investments (i use the term in the loosest possible sense) look like money down the toilet and if the revolution does not come will cripple the economy. The MSM just swallows it whole, and never even does the maths. Whenever the beaurocrats calculate the cost of their initiatives they use a far cheaper cost of carbon reduction than they currently pay, and yet the economic case is based on Stern’s review that claimed cutting now is cheaper than cutting in the future (and capital is almost free for projects he approves of). Spend money on stuff that I approve of and the money goes around the system so should not be accounted at full price. Spend money on stuff I don’t approve of – well that is just spent. How anybody can choose an artificial amount of carbon to be emitted 10 years from now and with a straight face claim they know it will good for the economy beggars belief.
@ur momisugly Paul says: June 24, 2010 at 12:59 am
“I am torn on the AB32 initiative. The Left-Coast’s Eco-policies are not only idealistic but irresponsible. On the other hand, it seems to me that California should serve as an example to the rest of the country, demonstrating what happens to a state when it keeps digging itself a deeper hole.”
Well, I understand your point. But if you want a paradigm for a country putting itself into a power dive with NO obvious mechanism for changing the lunatic policies that are gripping the controls, then look at the UK. I think the mess that California is likely to get itself into will look like party time compared to the crash landing we are heading towards. ALL the significant political parties here think this is all a jolly good idea! There aren’t enough sceptical MPs to make up a soccer team.
Paul, there is no reason for you to be conflicted at all, support this measure wholeheartedly! This will be a blow struck at the heart of the enemy’s stronghold, and it will demoralize and demotivate AGW supporters worldwide.
If they cannot hold the line in California, they will know they cannot hold the line in the US Congress. And this has always been about forcing the US, more than anyone else, into self-limiting it’s economy for everyone else’s benefit. Once it is clear to all that the US is out of the game (and I believe we are now just about 6 months from that point, the date the new Congress will be seated) then this AGW scam is over for good.
We have total victory within out grasp!!! AB32 is the Death Star; destroying it will mortally wound the entire Evil Empire of Warmism!
Emporer Gore will be highly annoyed, of course.
Suspending AB32 is not necessary, she said. The law “is the very encouragement and incentive that is needed to create the jobs that we need for the new green economy.”
This concept of creating jobs is very dangerous. Economic power is created by separating human needs from their fulfillment in the same way as electical power generation separates positive charge from negative charge. As in the electrical analogue the release of this potential generates an energy flow which can be used to do useful work (plus a varying amount of wasted energy depending on the efficiency of the system). So economic power is dependent on the motivational power of the need and the efficiency of the system that satisfies it. If the need is strong people will work hard and long to satisfy it but if the need is weak the economic power is weak. Because of the complexity of the economy we often lose sight of this very simple conservation of energy concept. You can no more create jobs from satisfying a need that does not motivate anyone than you can generate “free” power by driving a generator from a battery. It is not a question of free market versus government spending. This is political argument which I find distracting. If everyone agrees that money should be spent on roads or eductation or even sending someone to the moon it can become a source of motivation and as long as it is well sold it will create real economic power just as successfully as the more directly commercially satisfied needs. The decisive question is whether something is going to motivate society. If AGW were real then the situation would be that of a war that threatened our very existence and that almost always stimulates enormous economic output (even if much of it is destroyed in the conflict). However if AGW is not a real threat it is analogous to the Vietnam war. Certainly many people did make a lot of money out of the Vietnam war but I am sure the global economic impact was negative overall because the motivation for individuals was negative. So we have with these stupid green jobs. I know of few people who are motivated by these concepts so the jobs are not generating power but bleeding energy from the real economic power sources like health, enertainment, communications, education etc. I do not mind paying tax to fund worthwhile activities best carried out by government. I do care if that money is spent on commercial subsidies for something that no one really wants, because that is unsustainable, as Spain has found out.
The people strike back. And they will strike back in the UK and the rest of Europe eventually.
Darn, I was wanting to see CA flop before the entire country did. Seriously, let the people decide.
I helped gather signatures to get that initiative on the ballot. I am not paid by Big Oil, I have to pay them.
I don’t understand why the initiative wants to suspend AB32. It should kill it and drive a stake through it’s heart. I support the initiative only because it’s a small step in the right direction and, at this point, I’ll take what I can get.
JimB says:
June 24, 2010 at 4:36 am
JimB,
same kind of nonsense goes on in New Jersey too. There is nothing anyone can do with people that are intentionally ignorant.
Jim Breeding says:
June 24, 2010 at 6:39 am
congratulations on getting it in front of the good folks. If you can get 2/3 of the vote to supend this time around, you can go for killing it later.
The current state of the green economy is so potentialed for INCREASED pollution that green idiots will rue the day they encouraged such a thing. Removing wind turbines will one day be the cry of the new movement beating the drum of efficient energy, and screamed at the same level as dam removal now is.
I am torn on the AB32 initiative. The Left-Coast’s Eco-policies are not only idealistic but irresponsible. On the other hand, it seems to me that California should serve as an example to the rest of the country, demonstrating what happens to a state when it keeps digging itself a deeper hole.
Jeez…. It’s already horrifically deep out here! California has an unemployment rate of 12.4 %, is 21 billion in the hole (which means closer to 41 billion), is raiding city funds to keep spending like the drunken democrats that they are, and our government is doing this and this. Seriously, How much deeper do you want it to go?????
Cal, the only problem with your argument is that you use logic. That means those on the left and certainly the warmists will never pay any attention to it at all.
The trouble with schadenfreude in this case, is that the cost of bailing out California will be paid by all Americans.
“Green jobs” only exist because they are hugely subsidized by government. Every one of them. Without those subsidies, there is no “investor” who/which would invest so much as a plugged nickel in these “renewable” energy schemes.
In case the residents of CA hadn’t noticed, CA not only doesn’t have tax dollars wherewith to subsidize the “green jobs”, but is on the verge of bankruptcy.
If it were only Californians who would do the hurting for the idiocy of their state legislature and governor, it wouldn’t bother me in the least. But I know full well that all of us citizens of the US, by way of our federal government, will end up having to pony up (in reality, go deeper into debt) to pay off California’s huge debt.
Jim,
Thank you for gathering signatures. I will be voting for the initiative in November. I would like for there to jobs for my children in California when they graduate college in a couple of years.
Fortunately I have a stable job in wastewater treatment. AB32 will cause us to spend much money on overpriced energy projects just to cut CO2, not treat wastewater. Work that will do nothing to help keep the environment clean but will cost our rate payers a lot.
MJP
I also gathered signatures for this but also realize that if the green measure gets functioning in 2012, my job will go with it. We have huge electrical motors driving hydraulic pumps and simply can’t afford the costs of doing business in California when the effects of AB32 kick-in. We have adjusted factory work schedule to avoid the peak rates already, but implementation of AB32 will force us to move out of state or possibly abandon US production. I am tired of California vying for bragging rights to be “The Leader” of such silliness that are the brainchildren of a few very vocal advocates and permitted by the apathy and ignorance of the consequences of most voters and politicos. Their egos should not be the motivation for others financial ruin.