I’ve written about this before. We have a group of citizens here in town called the “sustainability task force” which is highly influenced by the eco-zealotry of Chico State University pushing their ideas of how everyone should live onto the citizens of the town. Just last week, it got worse.
Below is an editorial rebuttal from our local newspaper.
From the Chico Enterprise Record: Hits and Misses 12/11/10
MISS: The Chico City Council just made it more expensive for residents who want to sell older homes.
The council voted 6-1 on Tuesday — with Larry Wahl voting no — to mandate up to $800 in energy efficiency improvements paid by sellers for any house built before 1991. The mandate is the work of the city’s sustainability task force, which falsely promised no government regulations aimed at private individuals.
It’s just another case of the council’s penchant for wanting to dictate how people should live their lives and passing some regulation to do so.
In this case, as we’ve stated before, any home improvements that are needed should be negotiated between the buyer and the seller. If the buyer wants, for example, extra insulation in the attic or better weather stripping on the windows, the buyer can make that part of the purchase offer. Then it’s up to the seller to decide whether to accept that offer or not.
That is how it has always worked, and how it should continue to work.
Here’s the report and agenda (PDF), with a screencap below:
I echo their sentiments in saying: stay out of my house! My home sale is a private transaction and none of your business.
I’m sure we’ll hear in comments from professor Mark Stemen of CSUC, who has blown gaskets (and started name calling) here at WUWT anytime CSUC and this pet group of his is mentioned, to tell us why what we do privately with our homes, is the business of the “sustainability committee”, or the council’s.
I’m all for energy efficiency, but in my opinion, this “mandate” for an $800 energy efficiency upgrade upon a home sale screams for civil disobedience.
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This is a prime example of Local Agenda 21 (LA21) in action. I watched a video on YT recently of a similar step adopted by the Austin, TX city council. Despite an informed and impassioned plea by John Bush of Texans for Accountable Government (TAG) the motion passed 7 to 0.
Anthony,
I think you are correct to be outraged at this, but, as I said when Hansen was calling for civil disobedience over coal, this is not the way forward
Let democracy have it’s way and vote out the idiots who did this and then disband the committee
/Mango
Council busy-bodies, justifying their existance. Why the 1991 cut-off date? The cynic in me suggests that no one on the council lives in a house built before then!
If Mark Stemen does visit, lets hope he has the intestinal fortitude to stay and answer some questions. Does he?
Does he believe in what he’s advocating?
Does he have the confidence to defend it?
Or will he blow a casket and throw a temper tantrum?
Time will tell
Like all politicians over the free world, they are just trying to justify there existence and the only way they can do that is by passing such mandates, if they didn’t pass mandate’s every couple of months and hold open and closed meetings to discuss important policies what would there point be in existing?
Just because the mandate is about as helpful as a chocolate tea pot doesn’t make the job of those who passed it any less important (well to them anyway).
Dear Mr Watts,
Can I come & live there please, it sounds like heaven compared to good old blighty & the PDRof EU/EUSR! :-)) On a more serious note, this is just the start. They set the agenda, created or at least highjacked the scare story, create the urgency, then before anyone can take a breath & say,”just hold on one cotton picking minute!”, they move on to the debate is over stage & pass legislation left, left, & left, (again) with the stance that whay complain when there is no doubt! As you say, you’re not against energy efficiency, no scientist or engineer would disagree with you, there is always the desire to improve standards, & who wants to burn money for the sake of burning money in the form of engery, but there is no need penalise others just because they choose to live in an older home or have to by default.
Sadly, the world is full of busibodies who don’t have enough real work or business to fill in their day. It’s a growing problem where too many feel they are their neighbour’s keeper.
I met a marvellously creative bloke in West Auckland about twenty years ago who had built a life-sized replica of the tail section of a vintage bi-plane that had apparently crashed into the front of his house and was potruding from the the front wall under an eave. I asked him what it was for and he said
“I built it to annoy the nosey old buggers next door who complained to the local council about the unremarkable colours I had painted my house.”
When I asked him how he got approval for it, he said
“I checked all the local bye-laws thoroughly and found it was too small to qualify as an extension and it came within all the rules. A council inspector came after the neighbours went crook about it; he nearly split a gut laughing, said it was odd but OK, then went away again – for ever”.
My Dad sold realestate for many years, then a college room mate got into the business. I’ve been around real estate sales my whole life.
One of the things I’ve observed is that the “mandated” garbage often gets done, just long enough to pass inspection, then gets ripped out and tossed in the dumpster so the owner can put in what they want.
I’ve done it. I’ve seen others do it. I’ve had realtors provide the ‘mandated fixtures’ that they take out after the inspection to loan to the next buyer…
One of the most common? You must have CFL bulbs in the bathroom. They make you look like the Night Of The Living Dead when a poor Color Rendering Index (CRI) bulb set is used. Women especially, but some men too, want to look GOOD when they are getting gussied up. Incandencent bulbs make you look good.
So the CFL rack is in for the inspection, then the large designer incandencents get installed right after.
Wast of time, money, effort, sanitity. But hey, what’s government for if not waste…
(Oh, and I have a ‘flushes well’ toilet that will move with me …. )
One of the other favorites is to install the mandated “Kitchen Fluorecent Fixture” and then add in hallogen track lights around the perimieter that will actually be used (folks don’t REALLY want to eat “green eggs and ham” 😉
Sigh. I liked it better when we didn’t live in a Socialist Dictat with Herr Commisar deciding what we wanted…
I’m especially fond of my ‘low flow’ shower that flows quite nicely with the ‘easy out’ restriction washer removed…
I bought an REO two years ago. There were no disclosures because “the bank never lived there”. I had many thousands of dollars of repairs to make before it was habitable. However, I knew that would be the case, the price reflected it and I agreed to the deal. That’s how it should work. Energy efficiency should remain a cost/benefit decision and not a city ordinance. Dictating that it will be a seller’s expense and legal responsibility probably can’t be enforced unless they require an inspection. Who will pay for that?
Chico used to be a nice place to live. Send those kids back to classes and don’t let them tell you what to do until they know something!
At least you get to call them out, and stand a chance at representation with the council.
Here in the UK we get it mandated from above, now the taxpayer throws money at subsidising eco home improvements. I’m all for insulation etc, but subsidising PV solar is just pissing money up the wall.
I looked into the “free” solar panels I could apply for – they will chuck up about £10k worth of work for “free” in return for the tariff subsidy – I’d get the “free” electricity.
Or I can choose an “approved” contractor to fit anything from a condensing boiler to solar panels and get half back off the gov. I priced up an example for solar hot water, I could have bought the kit retail, fitted it myself, and STILL be cheaper than paying the “approved” price, including the gov subsidy!
Madness. It can’t go on, we can’t afford it.
They’ll be dictating what colour toilet paper you can use next…
I had a sun-lounge extension built last year (in the UK). Building regulations said that because of the large glass/volume ratio, it had to have a separate heating system from the rest of the house. The piping to the central heating radiator in the sun-lounge was installed, capped-off and covered over during the inspection by the building inspector. An oil-filled radiator was plugged in to the mains. As soon as the inspector signed-off the completion, the oil-filled radiator was removed and the central heating radiator brought out of hiding and installed.
It keeps bureaucrats in employment and makes sure everything costs more. At the end of the day I have a more energy-efficient system than if I’d followed the rules.
It’s just like the energy efficient light bulbs that I get sent for free by my power company (but which I’ve paid for in my bills). When I’ve accumulated too many new ones, I take them for recycling – it keeps more people in employment, making and then recycling rubbish.
Talking about the banning of Incandescent bulbs,people like myself who suffer from different types of migraine conditions find fluorescent light bulbs extremely annoying .So like ramps for the disabled so should there be bulbs available for migraine sufferers and if not there will be lots of court cases involving discrimination.
@Mango
The civil disobedience issue is a thorny one.
There’s quite a spirited debate taking place at the Autonomous Mind blog on this very matter based on a recent post entitled ‘The rules of the game have changed’.
http://autonomousmind.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/the-rules-of-the-game-have-changed/
A snippet…
‘All my life I have advocated nothing but lawful, peaceful protest. Growing up I had faith in the structures that have long been positioned as offering stability, reassurance and comfort to the people. Slowly the scales have gradually fallen from my eyes and the reality has come into sharp relief. Peaceful protest is noble, decent, responsible, conformist and utterly futile. The fact is it is treated with contempt by the political class as while it gives people the illusion of involvement in the political process, the politicians can ignore the wishes of the people and press ahead with their own agenda.’
Personally, I think what we’re seeing here is one of the manifestations of the shift from a traditional left vs. right political landscape to an authoritarian vs. libertarian one. British and American citizens are essentially living in a one-party state these days.
And as a result, I suspect we’re going to see lots more blogs discussing civil disobedience.
You’re right, obviously ~ and, I just heard good word imagery on how
this stuff happens on many levels…
It’s constructed of many different ‘pyramids’ (ie: top down control) The largest pyramid that houses the others, is a global government, governance…… I truly don’t care how those wordsmiths wiggle (small-minded, egomaniacs bent on having us bow to them) their ‘new and different’ words about the same thing…….but, lest I digress…
There are successive pyramids within the first……(kinda like those silly Russian Weeble Dolls with the headscarves, right?) and the smallest little weeble is the one that’s supposed to irk you when you want to just relax, have a beer, sell your home… however one wants to blow off steam and ‘do their thing’.
These council ‘people’ (and I use that word specifically) are run, perhaps without even knowing it ~ by bigger bureaucrats that do the ‘pain/reward’ thing with them…
It’s that way aaaaaaaaaallllllllllll the way up the myriads of silly pyramids within pyramids to the very tippy top. I know you MUST know this, Anthony…….but, the reason I say it again is that IF YOU LET THEM BUG YOU, THEY’VE WON.
Don’t let them bug you, Anthony, you’re too nice a guy. I believe they are going to be eventually treated like ill-tempered misbehaving mongrels. They will get their justice in due time, even if we don’t personally see it. And……..heck! Look at it this way ~ if you ever needed to sell your home……..you’d have SO MANY FRIENDS ON THIS SITE that’d either come over and help you fix stuff………or……..help pay for some repair………. Why would you EVER wanna get angry when you’d be in line for so great a blessing as seeing some of us help out……. That’s when miracles happen. When regular folks (and…..we’re ALL regular folks) band together and do whatever they can to help out another ‘folk’….. you know??? I’ve seen that stuff work…and it’s amazing.
Till then, just take that seething anger that tends to build in us all when we see injustice used with SUCH stupidity, and laugh ~ or…..do whatever it is that you do *for me it’s long hot bubble baths with the tap running so I can hear the water which is SO soothing… (we’ve just gotten new rainwater tanks, so hey……all the water down here lately is gonna bless me one way or the other…you know?) that makes you smile a bit…….. it’s cathartic, believe me. ………or, I walk on the beach without a soul in sight (‘cept Auggie my Doggie) and I watch the sunset and pretend that when it hits the ocean it’s supposed to fizzle……..I imagine a little ‘fizzle’ and a little ‘eek’ sound as it goes outta sight… then, I laugh and feel good…
Also, any “potentially gnawing anger” *when dealt with properly ~ will result in your growing in leaps and bounds in the wisdom, personality and character departments. Gosh, kiddo. With a heart and mind such as you have…….you’re ‘in like Flynn’ as they say. Either way ~ when you wanna smack em’ ~ know that that’s exactly what evil WANTS you to do. It’s NOT EASY. In fact…….it’s downright tough. But, again……allow the anger to turn into something of gain for yourself. You are AS FREE AS YOUR MIND TELLS YOU THAT YOU ARE. That’s the whole thing, Anthony.
‘They’ (the hahaha ‘king tuts’ and ‘tutesses’) wanna get you p.o.’d. Take what’s meant for evil and turn it into good ~ that’s what that scripture means. That way ~ what was meant for your harm ~ turns out for your betterment………’if’ that is, Mr. Phelps………. you’re up to the task……..an’ I’m kinda certain you must be.
We’re living in the most incredible time in history…let’s learn to enjoy ourselves in it…us sincerely laughing will have them all ‘fall off their respective perches’…little silly potentates…legends in their own minds…. MAKE CERTAIN, Anthony ~ that they don’t ‘get into’ yours, k?
Warm Sisterly Smiles, Kiddo………
C.L. Thorpe
The really stupid thing is that research shows that when people make energy “savings” by such schemes, all they do is to spend the money saved on other more energy consuming items:
Result: No net energy saving!
My favourite is the eco-toilet, especially when installed in busy commercial premises. One gives up after the fifth or six flush.
It’s a huge win for the misanthropes. Water is wasted, frustration heightened, and medieval hygiene prevails.
Bacterial diversity may sound like a joke-line now…but give our green authoritarians a little time. If they can halt the development of dams, nukes and coal in a country like Australia, they can probably see a bright future for typhoid and cholera as traditional, organic population-thinners.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. Mencken
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
H. L. Mencken
Honestly, I don’t know how you and your fellow citizens can put up with this kind of nonsense. If it were me, I would be packing.
Men are the only animals that devote themselves, day in and day out, to making one another unhappy. It is an art like any other. Its virtuosi are called altruists.
H. L. Mencken
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
H. L. Mencken
mosomoso, I wholeheartedly agree about the eco toilet. It seems that the primary function of such items has been sacrificed to achieve a “green” label.
I have wasted far more water trying to get rid of my biological waste due to having to flush many many times, than is saved by the efficient design of the flush!
I went to a Bathroom sales showroom and asked about toilets that actually work. The salesperson tried to get me enthused about how one particular brand used 40% less water than another brand. I asked, “does it get rid of my sh*t in one go? That is all I am concerned about.” He looked at me as if I had actually gone mad.
I would rather get a toilet that uses 15% more water, but gets rid of the waste in one flush, than one that uses 40% less water and needs three or more flushes!
Anthony,
Important information. Sustainability is not a normal course of human pursuit. It’s a mass political movement that knows no boundaries. It’s an exclusive club that if you don’t join, you are shunned.
My alma mater invited me to a collaborative event between universities and business. Businesses were largely absent, however, the advertising agency for Al Gore were featured. It was downright sad.
It was like sitting in a room full of bright young minds, the hope of the future, who were being bludgeoned with academic theories, studies and approaches to alter mass human behavior. Lectured that they would rule the labor force in 4 years. What would they do?
No scientists or engineers were present. Only pitchman, organizational behaviorists, business philosophers, bankers and lots of people gloating about not using plastic bottles, drinking less Star Bucks coffee, while driving their BMWs.
After 50 years, you would have thought we had done absolutely nothing to self-improve our environmental and business systems.
This is a full-fledged religious movement and you had better join. Such ordinances will demand further resources for enforcement. More time. More money. If followed, will further immobilize people, discourage them.
Ultimately, that’s not going to happen in America. Free will, self-determination are too important for us to sacrifice for much longer.
UK Sceptic said on December 15, 2010 at 1:44 am
What, did you already hear the news? There’s new research out, sponsored by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, GE, and the UN. It’ll be published in Nature soon. They’ve decisively proven, by the use of advanced computer models, that there is a definite causative link, as established by the high degree of correlation, between the chemicals used for bleaching and coloring of wood fibers and the dramatic decline of a rare Brazilian four-toed purple-spotted yellow tree frog, which has been exacerbated by and expected to get worse due to the extreme rise in atmospheric concentrations of CO2 since Climate Science™ has conclusively shown in peer-reviewed literature it is the CO2 rise which has caused the rise in the global average surface atmospheric temperature, and since it is settled science that warmer temperatures make chemicals more active it logically follows that more CO2 will kill off more of these rare endangered frogs.
Indeed, these frogs are already so rare that no one even knew they existed until WWF researchers identified the new species just a few months before the first funding proposal for this study went out. Thus it is blatantly obvious that since this already-endangered species absolutely must be saved in the interest of biodiversity, a worldwide global UN-enforced carbon regulating regime is absolutely necessary and must be instituted immediately. Oh, and restricting the use of those dangerous bleaching and coloring chemicals will likely also be done, as a related side matter, and done quietly so as to not draw attention from the Absolutely Most Important Issue of carbon emission reductions.
Thus the soon-to-be-mandated color of toilet paper will be… “natural.” Besides, everybody knows “Natural is best.”
Re Cynthia Lauren Thorpe says:
December 15, 2010 at 2:12 am
A different take on the pyramid structure –
Following an explanation of the pyramid structure in a management course (many Indians, one chief) there was the comment that
“Is that so? I thought it was like a vegetarian’s dunny – the turds float to the top.”
If the phrasing isn’t familiar try
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunny
I doubt that will be climate sanitised!
As much as I despise legal larvae, I would be very tempted to engage one under those circumstances.