Time to leave California? Governor Moonbeam may be the best salesman Texas has. While there’s a state delegation in Texas (including former SFO mayor Gavin Newsom) trying to figure out why Texas is pulling business out of California (cue Ross Perot’s giant sucking sound) our governor turns up the volume.
Flashback:
While not the main theme at the moment (hostile state over-regulation of business is) the election reminder of “It’s the electricity, stupid” may someday be a yellow sticky note on some campaign consultant’s computer monitor.
WUWT reader DD More says:
Heard on the radio news this AM and looked it up.
California governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign legislation today requiring energy firms in California to generate 33 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, delivering one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the world.
Will you Cali-guys be starting a poll to guess the date someone in the state gives the Steve Holliday speech?
Electricity consumers in the UK will need to get used to flicking the switch and finding the power unavailable, according to Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid, the country’s grid operator. Because of a six-fold increase in wind generation, which won’t be available when the wind doesn’t blow, “The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030,” he told BBC’s Radio 4. “We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it. It’s going to be much smarter than that.
“We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.”
Texas has already dealt with the electrical issues of renewable energy:
We Spent Billions on Wind Power… and All I Got Was a Rolling Blackout
And, so far, California’s wind power doesn’t hold up so well:
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Torgeir Hansson says:
“More than anything I would believe JB sees renewable energy as job creation.”
I suspect you want government to be the job “creator.” Read up on Bastiat’s broken glass fallacy. For every job created by the government, more than two private sector jobs are eliminated. Government job ‘creation’ actually destroys jobs.
Government is not the solution, it is the main problem. As a California taxpayer, I resent paying almost 10% state income taxes, and almost 10% sales taxes. Other states have no income taxes and low sales taxes. It is no coincidence that those states are doing much better economically than The Peoples’ Soviet of California, run by equally clueless Democrat politicians. They are wrecking the state’s economy.
Gov. Moonbeam has never held a real job in his life; he’s always fed at the public trough. He is controlled by the eco-lobby, and as this article makes crystal clear, Brown has no concept about how the real world works.
California is not the only place having a giant sucking sound:
The entire US has been vacuumed year-in/year-out.
The lobbyists make sure that they have the ‘correct’ candidates to continue the process.
Revolving door.
Hey Jer, check out this graph, the second one down
http://caiso.com/outlook/SystemStatus.html
How many do understand why all sorts of politicians love the idea of being able to tax carbon dioxide?
Although in EU every politician is biased towards socialism, but it hold true though, that various, nefarious, carbon tax’s has been a “blessing” to further our, shall we say, lucrative social life style as we grow older, as in becoming retired from the work force at 45, 50, 55, 60 to 65, all depending on which country you live in and what type of work or service you’ve been in.
For t’irty years income taxes has gotten lower. At the same time we’ve got unlimited sick days, five weeks paid vacation up to 30 then 6-7, after 40 7-8, and if you put in for military or police, or higher public, service you can retire at 55 with full pension benefits, but if not you can opt for early retirement at 55 for partial pension benefits (which is a hoot since partial is all things relative to your pay), most seem to go at 60 though (apparently they’re not boat and ship owners though.)
Essentially, the old social(ist) based systems cost shit loads of cash to keep running and nobody really want to up the income taxes or direct cost for entrepreneurs and company owner which is, apparently, why carbon taxes is a “blessing”, what with it being an indirect cost for everyone, but still a direct income to the state(s) since we will never run out of carbon.
To fill the state’s coffers with treasures from trade from goods and services has, apparently, very essentially, become a rather insane kind of logic compared to trading and taxing a necessary component to life.
When in “Greece” be a Roman. :p
I recall a news item a few years back from Spain. Something along the lines of “the future of Green energy is cold, slow, and dim”. I guess some lessons are never learned.
It doesn’t take a climate scientist to figure out why companies are leaving California. It really boils down to two things. The first is that we tax the living crud out of businesses here. Most of my fellow brainless Californians have the attitude of yeah sure stick it to the rich. Well the rich eventually leave. The more we tax business the more they start thinking it may cost less to relocate. Once you pass that threshold its see you later probably never to return. It also makes other business less likely to consider coming to this state. If they do a cost review we don’t look so great. The other thing is regulations. Back in the 70’s I remember how bad the air was. It seemed like you could walk on it some days. I am not a granola crunching tree hugger freak but I can’t argue that at that point something desperately needed to be done. Something did get done. Many groups were formed and many years were spent pressuring the government to pass regulation to clean the air pollution. If it had stopped once the mission was accomplished things would be fine now. The problem is you had thousands of people that had most of their adult lives wrapped around this cause as a job. So what do they do now? Quit and find another career? I wish they had. No they went on and searched until they found another cause to go after. Then another and another and so on until this very day. The result of this is you have and insanely draconian regulation structure in this state. Companies have an incredibly difficult time figuring out what the stinking rules are let alone complying with them. I once heard an interview on the radio of a gentleman who tried to start a concrete plant in California. After years of red tape, millions of dollars spent and still not able to open his plant he finally gave up and went to Nevada. There they had him up and running in less than 6 months. He said that instead of hindering him the government went out of its way to help him. This is a prime example of lost opportunity. Instead of a revenue stream coming into this state it has been forced to leave and go elsewhere. We now get to pay someone in Nevada for our building material. This will get worse until every drop of income has been snuffed out and California crashes. You can already see it happening. The leaders in this state cry and say it’s a revenue problem. Their solution for this is to increase taxes to of course increase revenue. Some people are starting to think it’s a spending problem. Our fearless leaders never pass an opportunity to start a new entitlement program. I personally say it’s both. That being said I don’t think increasing the taxes is the solution to the revenue problem. Taxes are not the root cause of the revenue problem. We are already the highest taxed state in the nation. How do you say we are not doing our part when we pay more than anyone else in this country. That fact right there proves that taxes are not the cause. The real problem is how we have driven a massive portion of our income streams out of the state. I was born and raised in this state and there will always be a love of the many good things about my home but if I could somehow convince my wife to pull the plug and move I would be out of here in a heartbeat.
Alexander Harvey says:
April 12, 2011 at 10:06 am
A case of making stuff up, I think. Notice that it is not a quote and I listened to what he did say on the BBC and the entire speech he gave that is referred to. What he had to say was interesting and quite startling in places but I think you can forget the “flicking the switch” stuff as he did not say that at all in either case.
He did say that, you just have to be patient. It’s the last 10 seconds of a 2:45 interview.
“The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030. We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it. It’s going to be much smarter than that. We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9410000/9410485.stm
He actually says it is a smart move to make electricity unavailable when needed and provide it when it’s not needed, but cheap, doesn’t he?
Of course you are supposed to install expensive & inefficient & environmentally disastrous battery packs in your basement. In a pre-postnormal world it was considered crooked, not smart.
Good ol’ Ross Perot. Damn I wish he had won. “In the mean time you’d have ruined the country”. You wonder if they planned it that way or just didn’t care?
As to 33% renewable energy? That is easy. Quite seriously the California businesses need to fight fire with fire. Get thorium declared renewable. I’m bloody serious!
Think about it. Why should they get to manipulate everything? We gotta stop being so darned honest.
California is fast becoming the leaf blower capital of the world. So if you want to live in California, get a leaf blower to put in your pick-em-up truck. And its the first unsaturatable business ever invented.
You blow the leaves away from that place, and I’ll blow them away from this place; kinda Kafkaesque if you ask me.
@Dan in California
Dan,
I do hope CA disposed of the toxics byproducts of building you PV semiconductors in CA and didn’t export to another state.
California governor Jerry Brown is expected to sign legislation today requiring energy firms in California to generate 33 per cent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, delivering one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the world.
A valiant effort, indeed, on the part of the Progressives, but it’s probably not going to rival the Holy Deathworshiping sadomasochism of the Islamofascists, at least for the next 4-5 years.
Jay commented on April 12, 2011 at 8:33 am: “Looks like CA power costs 47% more for industrial, 26% more for commercial, and 29% more for residential when compared to Texas. Data from “Average Retail Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State, December 2010 and 2009
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html ”
I have found the Average Retail price of electricity matrix for a state to be a rather poor metric to evaluate what it will cost in a particular location. For example,
if you happen to live in the LADWP (say Hollywood)- service area you would have the following residential electrical rates-
Monthly Rates
High
Season
June – Sep. Low
Season
Oct. – May
a. Rate A – Standard Service
(1) Energy Charge –
per kWh
Tier 1 –
per Zone Allocation $ 0.07020 $ 0.07020
Tier 2 –
per Zone Allocation $ 0.08520 $ 0.07020
Tier 3 –
per Zone Allocation $ 0.12000 $ 0.07020
(2) ECA – per kWh See General Provisions
//www.ladwp.com/ladwp/cms/ladwp000536.jsp )
If your were concerned about CO2, then you might be a bit concerned about the source of power (and the location it was in generated in you were worried about smog in the LA Basin). For LADWP it looks like this-
2009 Power Content Label
Energy Resources
LADWP Power*
(Actual Mix) LADWP Green Power** (Actual Mix) 2008 CA Power Mix***
(for comparison)
Eligible Renewable**** 14% 100% 2%
-Biomass & waste 2% 32% <1%
-Geothermal 1% <1% 1%
-Small hydroelectric 6% <1% 0%
-Solar <1% <1% <1%
-Wind 5% 68% 1%
Coal 41% <1% 33%
Large Hydroelectric 4% <1% 18%
Natural Gas 30% <1% 42%
Nuclear 11% <1% 5%
Other <1% <1% 0%
TOTAL 100% 100% 100%
* 93% of LADWP Power is specifically purchased from individual suppliers.
** 100% of LADWP Green Power is specifically purchased from individual suppliers.
*** Percentages are estimated annually by the California Energy Commission based on the electricity sold to California consumers during the previous year.
**** In accordance with Los Angeles City Council’s action on 10-5-04 for File No. 03-2688 (RPS).
I live in Northern CA- PG&E's service area. PG&E's power content doesn't have much coal (lots of hydro, natural gas and now some wind, solar and geothermal) anymore. Unfortunately, for most residential customers in PG&E's territory their AVERAGE price for a kw/hr of electricity is currently $.182 per kwh. Lots of folks- like my neighbor- pay a lot more then this average price. Their marginal cost is $.39 kwh for most of summer as they are in Tier 4 usage with their e-1 meter schedule- http://www.pge.com/nots/rates/tariffs/electric.shtml#RESELEC Tier 3,4/ 5 prices just went up for PG&E- the cost notes below are for schedule E-1 just before the latest increase.
Tier 1 $.122
Tier 2 $.139
Tier 3 $.280
Tier4/5 $.389
PG&E Power content- 2010 ENERGY
RESOURCES PG&E POWER MIX*
(Projected) 2008 CA POWER MIX**1
(For Comparison)
Eligible Renewable 15% 2%
• Biomass and waste 4% 0%
• Geothermal 4% <1%
• Small hydroelectric 4% <1%
• Solar <1% 0%
• Wind 3% <1%
Coal 2% 34%
Large Hydroelectric2 16% 18%
Natural Gas 47% 42%
Nuclear 20% 5%
Other 1% 0%
TOTAL 100% 100%
So the metric of Average price for a state is not a metric I would choose when looking at costs (or say the average temperature in my area vs. the state as a whole). One wishes for the good old days (2002 or so) when my former corporate employer purchased all the electrical energy they wanted at $.05 kWh in Milpitas, CA. Well Enron did go bankrupt……… and the manufacturing operation that used to use a lot of ended up moving to China.
@Torgeir Hansson
At least Gov. Arnold tried to fix things. Moonbeam appears to be trying to break things.
Granted, Arnold bought into some of the lame eco-bs you Cali’s are famous for. No excuse for that from an intelligent individual. So, I guess you’re right. He is a moron.
“It’s going to be much
smarterdumber than that.”Now it’s fixed.
To California governor Jerry Brown.
A little story and a taste of the future for you and your progressive/regressive loony tune friends.
Cheap land for sale coming soon to a California location near you!
If you want to see the future of all California City’s have a look a what has happened to Detroit, Business’s left or folded and so did the mass of the hard working public = No jobs + No ticky (money) = No stay.
In 1960 Detroit had a population of 1.785 Million +or- 1 million people have fled and to this day 1000’s more leave every day. Leaving a rotting/festering/ crime/drug laden failed city. People are simply abandoning nice homes they can’t even give away!
California’s High Energy prices, anti business, sky high punitive taxes and green insanity will accomplish the same results give it time!
Credit bubbles allow for the malinvestment of excessive government.
When the credit bubble blows up – so will Government programs.
This is really about artificially creating shortages so as to control and enslave people. It is pure tyranny. It is not about “the environment”–that is just the excuse. It is about raw, brute power. It is about reducing developed economies to the level of the third world. In the end it is about the self-immolation o the West to an irresponsible, sociopathic and narcissistic “elite”. It is wholly artificial and contrived. The citizens of the various nations of Western Civilization must realoze what the game is before it is too late.
It is absurd that in the modern age an advance country like the UK will have to “change its usage patterns” (and you can bet, BTW, that the elites will have plenty of energy). That politicians and officials can put out bunk like this and not get hanged from the nearest lampposts shows how cowed and imbecilic the people of the West have become. If it goes on long enough it may undo all the progress of the 19th and 20th century.
Do not imagine that these are cases of “zealous fools”, trapped in an “environmental ideology”: Nothing could be further from the truth.
Well if you think you have problems in California just think of the poor Scots.
Alex Salmond’s targets for energy from renewables is not 33% but 80% (it seems that the previous target of 50% that had managed to increase fuel poverty from 1 in 4 households in 2007 to 1 in 3 households in 2009 simply wasn’t ambitious enough for him).
It’s had a rather dire effect on the Scottish economy – just view the graph –
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Economy/TrendLongerGDP
However the BBC is telling us that the economy is picking up thanks to economic growth in the construction sector.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-12224914
Unfortunately the Construction sector doesn’t seem to be agreeing with them –
SBF the lead voice of the Scottish construction industry –
“The Scottish construction industry has suffered badly from the economic downturn and prospects for 2011 remain poor”.
“Commenting on the GDP figures for Scotland for the third quarter of 2010, published today by Scotland’s Chief Statistician, SBF Chief Executive Michael Levack has warned that the growth in output witnessed for the construction sector during that period is likely to represent a ‘high tide mark for the industry for some time to come’… Statistics show that the construction sector grew by 6.2% between July and September last year…Mr Levack said: “The latest GDP figures for Scotland suggest there was a big push to complete work during the third quarter of 2010 to make up for lost time during the severe weather conditions witnessed last winter”
He has also highlighted new figures on corporate insolvencies in Scotland which show a dramatic increase in the number of building firms going out of business…figures published today by the Accountant in Bankruptcy show corporate insolvencies up 24% in the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same quarter of the preceding year. According to recent figures from the UK insolvency service, this trend includes a doubling in the number of construction firms forced into compulsory liquidation between July and September 2010 compared to the third quarter of 2009.”
http://www.scottish-building.co.uk/pages/profiles.asp?pi=2097&ref=more
I’m a genuine Native Son of the Golden West. I don’t live in California anymore. I joined something called The California Sane Drain in 1992. The remaining population of the state is getting close to: Nothing left but lunatics and masochists. Oh, and illegalles.
The insanity in the state of California is reflected in my own state (which I’m thinking of abandoning for saner ground) of Washington. Earlier this year, the enlightened progressive elements passed legislation signed into law by the ever so intelligent Governor Gregoire mandating that 15% of electrical generation come from alternative sources. Evil hydroelectric was not deemed “clean” or “green”.
Economically, the rural providers, like the one that services my county, have fewer customers per mile, meaning that this 15% will be far more expensive to install and operate, and will never add a profit to the balance sheet. Windmills become millstones or albatrosses rather than ensuring that power can be provided in the first place. I wonder if this is social engineering, vice an attempt to address a (non) problem?
That doesn’t sound like such a big deal. If I’m not mistaken Ca is already getting 19% of its electricity from Renewable. That is non-hydro, non-nuclear renewable if I remember correctly.
I know what sunshine, and wind is going to cost in 2020. Can you guarantee what Fossil Fuels will cost?
The California Energy Commission has barely begun to make us hurt. They decide the energy mix and what new plants to build. It is illegal to build natural gas plants in California (SB 1037, 2005).
We have part of smart grid installed in most homes now. One of the next steps will be time of use metering. You will need to pay more for using energy when you want it. Plan on waking up between 10 pm and midnight to start your day or your energy bill will jump sharply.
Title 24 (building energy code) and Title 20 (appliance code) will almost certainly get green energy changes [1], which will require us to purchase new network-ready appliances. A pilot study is planned for Hawaii [2]. Manufacturers are salivating over this regulatory market.
Rapid growth is projected in the smart appliance market [3]:
“From 2011 to 2015, the global household smart appliance market is projected to grow from $3.06 billion to $15.12 billion, respectively. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2011 to 2015 is projected to be 49.0 percent.”
California SB34 is a new bill that will almost certainly pass that creates a new public goods charge for non-agricultural water [4]. The cost is $110 per acre foot each year. That means you can expect an increase in your water bill of between $5 and $10 per month. Farmers and people who eat food are not off the hook. The bill provides for a $20 per irrigated acre charge each year. And there is another $10 per acre charge for planning.
The more mobile among us are leaving. California’s population growth have been negative recently. The state Dept. of Finance estimated population for 2010 as 38.8 million, but the Census count was 37.3 million.
Nothing is going to change in California until people start getting angry at the right people. Unfortunately, the propaganda machine seems to keep them believing “the Rich” aren’t paying their fair share, whatever that is. Meanwhile, jobs are evaporating because businesses are leaving, shrinking, or shutting down. Prices are rising, especially gasoline. Utility bills are going up. The middle class is imploding.
Eventually, people may come to see Gov. Brown as California’s Obama. That will probably require another two or three years. Implementation of AB32 (CO2 restrictions) has just begun. Those costs will be multiplied through every stage of production and distribution, causing inflation, even more unemployment, and much greater dependence on government programs that simply can’t be sustained.
California’s $28 billion budget shortfall is only going to grow every year unless state government shrinks significantly, and that requires cutting government employment. Also, businesses won’t recover without tax and regulatory relief. The state depends on taxing “wealthy” individuals (including S-corps, i.e. small businesses) for a big part of its revenue [5].
And those wonderful folks in Sacramento are paying teachers to program our kids to believe in this nonsense, consuming over half of the general fund [6].
References
1) http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/6C2310FE-AFE0-48E4-AF03-530A99D28FCE/0/ZNEActionPlanFINAL83110.pdf
2) http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/Technologies_Home_Area_Networks_News/GE-Smart-Grid-Pilot-Show-Time-in-Maui-2110.html
3) http://www.smartgridnews.com/artman/publish/End_Use_Appliances_Resources/Smart-Grid-Insights-Smart-Appliances-1979.html
4) http://www.legisweb.com/app/pkgs/calm/Retrieve.asp?ref=urn:calm:2011:sb0034:doc:html
5) http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-04-08/news/29401733_1_income-tax-personal-income-tax-data
6) http://www.dof.ca.gov/budgeting/budget_faqs/#7
In South Australia, we are facing power shortages in the near future.
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/threatened-power-supply-paints-dim-future-for-state/story-e6frea6u-1226038168485
This is exacerbated by the expansion of Olympic Dam which, in part, mines uranium
http://www.bhpbilliton.com/bb/ourBusinesses/baseMetals/olympicDam.jsp
Our illustrious leaders have declared that SA will never have nuclear power, so we are digging uranium out of the ground using power generated by non-nuclear means so that other countries can ensure their power supplies whilst we live in semi-darkness.
Disconnect somewhere.
Kum Dollison said on April 12, 2011 at 8:33 am: “That doesn’t sound like such a big deal. If I’m not mistaken Ca is already getting 19% of its electricity from Renewable. That is non-hydro, non-nuclear renewable if I remember correctly.”
You are correct on large hydro not counting as renewable, nor is the in-state nuclear counted for the RE standard.
The California Public Utilities Commission recently published a “Renewable Portfolios Standard Update (First Quarter 2011)”.
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/NR/rdonlyres/62B4B596-1CE1-47C9-AB53-2DEF1BF52770/0/Q12011RPSReporttotheLegislatureFINAL.pdf
A few bullets from the report-
“Collectively, the large IOUs reported in their March 2011 Compliance Filings that they served 17.9% of their electricity with RPS‐eligible generation in 2010, up from 15.4% in 2009. PG&E served 17.7% of its 2010 load3 with RPS‐eligible renewable energy, SCE with19.4%, and SDG&E with 11.9%.
compliance. As a result, no non‐compliance penalties have been levied.
• To date, 2,002 MW of new renewable capacity achieved commercial operation under theRPS program. 300 MW of new renewable capacity has come online in the first quarter of 2011, with an additional 589 MW forecast to come online by the end of the year.
• In their September 17, 2010 verified RPS compliance reports to the CPUC, PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E reported no RPS deficits for 2004, 2005, and 2006. No party submitted comments or motions for evidentiary hearing on the 2004‐2006 verified data, and no party asserts any LSE is out of compliance. The CPUC has not found any LSE out of compliance. As a result, no non‐compliance penalties have been levied.
Kum, you have no idea what “sunshine and wind” is going to cost in 2020, ad that is just an intentional misstatement of the problem. You rhetoric is as dishonest as it is juvenile. . It is, famously, not “sunshine and wind” under discussion but rather the economics and technology to make them viable and substantial alternatives. It is this actual problem with those “power sources” that you evidently wish to obscure with you foolish rhetoric.
RichardM: Again, this has nothing to do with “clean energy” and everything to do with eliminating the (mostly white) middle class and turning them into dependent serfs.
You can bet that the Asians will not be so stupid. We could be in a really terrible competitive state in 15 years due to this suicidal madness. “Alternative energy” is a in great part a fraud, and in any event it is government duty to see that energy needs are met and that material progress continues apace; it most certainly is not governments business to rock on hobby horses straight out of 1968 and thus lead their citizens into poverty or into the dominance of its foes or competitors. . The government of America should be interested in increasing American prosperity and power, not in diminishing it. This is clearly treason and madness. It is also suicide.
These people are out to destroy the West. You need to get clear about that.