Seems the Mojave evictions WERE to make way for solar and wind projects
Guest post by Alec Rawls
In 2006 California’s Senate Bill 107 codified a requirement that by 2010 all electricity retailers in the state were to procure 20% of their electricity from “renewables.” That same year L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich established Nuisance Abatement Teams that started combing the Mojave desert hitting isolated residents with ever-expanding lists of code violations, imposing whatever it took to drive residents out, and they made their intentions perfectly clear:
As her ordeal wore on, she heard one agent, looking inside their comfortable cabin, say to another: “This one’s a real shame ā this is a real nice one.”
A “shame” because the authorities eventually would enact some of the most powerful rules imaginable against rural residents: the order to bring the home up to current codes or dismantle the 26-year-old cabin, leaving only bare ground.
“They wouldn’t let me grandfather in the water tank,” Jacques Dupuis says. “It is so heart-wrenching because there was a way to salvage this, but they wouldn’t work with me. It was, ‘Tear it down. Period.’ā”
The immediate object in this case was actual confiscation of the land:
In order to clear the title on their land, the Dupuises are spending what would have been peaceful retirement days dismantling every board and nail of their home ā by hand ā because they can’t afford to hire a crew.
As the de facto evictions and confiscations multiplied, Antonovich’s motives were questioned. Was he trying to clear the land for redevelopment? In August of 2011, Antonivich Press Secretary Tony Bell denied it (at 8:40):
The county is simply responding to code violation complaints from neighbors in the area and any speculation about redevelopment was purely a conspiracy theory.
I did some Google searching at the time to see if any major wind or solar developments were planned for the area where the evictions were centered (the western Mojave’s Antelope Valley), but couldn’t pin down the connection. When First Solar recently cleared a permit for a massive Antelope ValleyĀ project I tried again and found some things I should have seen before.
It seems the wraps were already off when Antonovich issued his denials. Newspapers had reported just a month before that Antelope Valley had “33 utility-scale renewable energy installations” in the works. The updated map above shows how much of the valley has been sectioned off for various wind and solar projects.
These are presumably the anonymous “neighbors” who were asking for previous residents to be evicted. Apparently it is not enough that our green crony capitalists are getting billions in taxpayer subsidies, or that that rate-payers are forced to buy their “renewable” energy at extra-high prices. They also need their pet politicians to steal the land for them.
First Solar is the largest recipient of Obama loan guarantees at $3.73b
From last June:
The Arizona company is set to get a guarantee for a $680 million loan for the 230 MW Antelope Valley Solar Ranch 1 project, partial guarantees for $1.88 billion in loans for the 550 MW Desert Sunlight project and partial guarantees for $1.93 billion in loans for the 550 MW Topaz Solar project. Electricity from these projects will go to utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison.
PG&E and SCE. It’s all to feed California’s renewables mandate, now raised to 33% by 2020. (That’s Senate Bill X1-2, signed by Governor Brown in 2011.)
California is the perfect patsy. First Solar makes its own cadmium-telluride solar panels. Another cadmium-telluride panel manufacturer, Abound Solar (recipient of $400 million in loan guarantees) just shut down production, but First Solar doesn’t have to worry how much it costs to produce intermittent solar in the Mojave. California residents are required by law to pay whatever it takes. That’s theĀ key to successful green crony capitalism: vertical green-subsidy integration. Solyndra and Abound really should have known. They weren’t corrupt enough.
Grumman Aircraft objected that First Solar’s 2100 acre AV Solar Ranch One would interfere with its stealth radar testing, but this concern was brushed aside:
A solar energy generating plant is “the highest and best use for this particular property,” said Mel Layne, president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance.
More important than national security and certainly more important than the property rights of a bunch of isolated “desert rats.” If only we didn’t have the lowest and the worst telling us what the “highest and the best” is, but this is why we have rights.Ā The voluntary nature of the market insures that the benefits from each transaction are sufficient to make all parties better off. As soon as government starts subsidizing loans, forcing customers to buy inefficiently produced power, and otherwise confiscating property, thereĀ are no limits to the losses.
Wind was also big on the Antelope Valley menu, but the opposition firmed up
Perhaps that should be re-phrased. Antelope Valley was also big on the wind farmers’ menu:
“The western Antelope Valley boasts both the highest and most consistent winds in almost all of Southern California,” said Nat Parker, project manager for Element Power’s proposed Wildflower Green Energy Farm. “Between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. the winds reach their highest peak, and it falls in line with when the electrical grid has highest demand.”
County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who represents the unincorporated Antelope Valley, said this region “has the potential to become the nation’s leader in green, alternative energy innovation and production.” But he emphasized that community support is key to the success of these projects.
Element wants to use 4,000 acres of private land next to the poppy reserve for solar panels and some 50 wind turbines almost 500 feet high. Each turbine would produce enough electricity to power up to 2,000 homes, Parker said.
As for the wisdom of putting 500 foot tall wind turbines in the Antelope Valley, Antonovich’s own website has an item on the hurricane force winds that struck the area early last December. That nice peak-demand wind isn’t going to help much when half the turbines are on the ground.
Thankfully, the opposition has organized sufficiently to block the big windmills. Even Antonovich is cowed enough to put a wet finger in the air and pretend that he is all about protecting birds now, but of course he’s not done yet. Next in Antonovich’s sights: high speed rail to Las Vegas. Weather warning for the eastern Mojave: 80% chance of confiscatory Nuisance Abatement Teams. S#!+$torm guaranteed.
Iāll see your California Senate Bill 107 and raise you a Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Now get the [snip] off my land.
—
Seriously, reading stuff like this makes me angry and wonder what is has gone wrong in the people in the Goodāoll US of A.
If they needed a swat team to confiscate each one of these peopleās homes, would they do it?
If it’s not worth fighting for then it’s not worth fighting for.
This sounds just like Government Organized Crime. Once again CAGW is seen to be the cloak for social activism and criminal activity, environmental destruction and political intrigue.
The people in the western Mojaveās Antelope Valley could:
1. Create an armed militia (This is allowed)
2. Occupy the municipal offices (This tactic is encouraged by the current President of the United States)
3. Dismiss the current municipal government as unfit to govern (This type of thing was done once before)
4. Proclaim the Constitution of the United States as the sole law governing the municipality. (This has also been done before)
5. Wait.
Well.
I’ve lived in developing countries for a long time. People always make a point of commenting how ‘corrupt’ these places are. And they are, but that is just the way the system has worked for hundreds of years.
But, experiences in such economies have left me with a very keen nose to recognize corruption in our so-called more advanced western societies.
Whenever someone is being overly bureaucratic and pedantic, whenever rules seem a little illogical but are still enforced to the letter rather than the intent, whenever authorities seem āstupidā and ‘unreasonable’ in the decisions that are being made ā¦ā¦
ā¦. Somewhere, somehow, someone is making some money.
This is exactly this type of organized government corruption that sustains the peoples need for the mafia in the south of Italy. The mafia in the south of Italy does not in most cases corrupt the government but rather protects the people from government corruption and bureaucratic tyranny.
It really bothers me when the socialism of the inner-city reaches out and pounds on independent hard working people living quietly in the rural parts of the country.
They also need their pet politicians to steal the land for them.
Well, geez — what’s the use in bribing a pol in the first place if you can’t count on getting a return on your money?
What a shame we don’t have a Constitution anymore. The last phrase of the Fifth amendment of the one we used to have said: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
I fear we have gone adrift in an uncharted sea of interpretations unconstrained by the words of the Constitution or the intent of those who wrote and ratified it.
What has gone wrong indeed!
It would seem to me that Michael Antonovich needs to go.
He didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to establish these Nuisance Abatement Teams. There was a reason.
Next in Antonovichās sights: high speed rail to Las Vegas. Weather warning for the eastern Mojave: 80% chance of confiscatory Nuisance Abatement Teams. S#!+$torm guaranteed.
No prob — just post a couple of signs on the access roads:
“US Government Property — Undocumented Democrat Voter Transit Corridor — LEO Entry Strictly Prohibited”…
Some how the “Join Michele and tell Michele you’re in! Obama Biden 2012” ad running just under the article seemed ironically appropriate for this story! It’s all for the common good… and if a few little people get run over in the process…er, I mean ‘the 1 per cent’ have their wealth redistributed, then that is just necessary and right. Any self respecting community activist would understand, right? Right???
It’s like something right out of communist China, comrades…… This isn’t ;eminent domain’. It’s just stealing in the name of ‘green energy’ and somebodies in the building permits and codes departments are getting their pockets well lined to do it!
I am trying to be sympathetic.
But….
You (Californians) voted for loons like Waters and Pelosi.
Not once but several times!
Can’t help those who won’t help themselves.
And……
How is that hope and change working out for you?
Genesis with Peter Gabriel “Get Em By Friday”
It’s amazing, since Obama became president the stories coming out of the USA increasingly resemble those we used to get about Zimbabwe. I guess that is where they are taking you too?
“California residents are required by law to pay whatever it takes.”
The land of the free… as long as you pay!
Someone should do a modern version remake of the movie Chinatown. Instead of water, they’re after solar.
We have similar problems in Britain. Only yesterday plans were reported to disfigure the landscape that inspired the novels of the Bronte sisters by erecting a huge “wind farm” there.
Fears over wind turbine plans in Bronte country
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9189105/Fears-over-wind-turbine-plans-in-Bronte-country.html
Plans to build a Ā£12 million wind farm on the “wild and wonderful” moorland that inspired Wuthering Heights have enraged conservationists and locals.
And Californians wonder why we point and snicker…
Interesting – now try opening a mine here and see the immediate greenie outcry demanding protection of the environment, the pristine views, the desert tortoise and obscure lizards.
Do I note a whiff of gross hypocrisy?
As an Englishman I was having difficulty putting a definition or emotion to one of Willis’s words. Well, no longer: this story bloody well ‘angrifies’ me!
Skeptikal says:
April 7, 2012 at 12:57 am
āCalifornia residents are required by law to pay whatever it takes.ā
Easy solution — emigrate.
Among the top 10 reasons businesses are pulling out of California — “Energy costs soaring because of new laws and regulations. Commercial electrical rates are already 50% higher than the rest of the country, [Irvine, CA, relocation consultant Joe] Vranich says, and Gov. Jerry Brown just signed a new law increasing the amount of power utilities must buy from renewable sources…”
http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/04/15/more-firms-move-jobs-facilities-out-of-california/57653/
Antonovich , send them off to Tin City , itās the nearest place to Siberia where uncle Joe sent his āunwashedā.
My God! This sad and very worrying tale about these guys reads like a latter day Crassus, who stole the land and property from the victims of Sulla’s proscriptions!
The more things change…….
Shame they could not afford to go up against this Government backed eviction then again if your retired your not paying taxes so your local and national Government couldn’t give a sh*t about you, remember solar panels are more important to Gaia than people so it’s only ordinary people that lose.
Move along nothing to see here, we’re just saving the planet.
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him. – John Viscount Morley
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. – H. L. Mencken
Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. – Michael Crichton
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime. Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak. – Jay Leno
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. – Sir Winston Churchill
If there is a significant difference between theory and practice, then the theory is wrong or incomplete – Eolake Stobblehouse
‘California residents are required by law to pay whatever it takes.ā
The land of the freeā¦ as long as you pay!
——————————————————-
There will not be anyone left to pay at this rate. Sales tax and payroll tax, y,o,y. to February, are down about 16% this year, and going south from there as money leaves the state. The only equality we will soon have is poverty, minuus of course, the few.
Did anyone save a copy of the map?
This is what I get:
http://www.avhidesert.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1442
AV Hi Desert forum
“I’m sorry, but you are banned. You may not post, read threads, or access the forum. Please contact your forum administrator should you have any questions.”
[the link works fine for me, you must have irritated them š . . kbmod]
A quick search found these videos of the desecration of the Mojave Desert:
http://www.naturefootage.com/stockfootage/Mojave_Desert?sid=23cc4cde57ff71698d5e09d728df8d2fb42ac3c4&page_start_num=1
It’s a site called Nature Footage but it’s just hundreds of wind turbines and solar panels.
pretty sure I remember reading a LOT of Cali land business and housing was bought cheap..by chinese investors.
theyre not going to be real happy with the rising costs either.
funny.
as to Land theft under duress and faked cuse.
well the African evictions to plant trees to save the planet seems sooo similar.
now its AT home.
and Aus has the same theft and manipulation of land use happening too.
Welcome to the progressive world.
This has already been reported by WUWT as happening in Africa :
They had to burn the village to save it from ‘global warming’ . Where villages were razed to the ground and fertile farming land used by small holders was planted with the alien eucalyptus trees.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/25/they-had-to-burn-the-village-to-save-it-from-global-warming/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/africa/in-scramble-for-land-oxfam-says-ugandans-were-pushed-out.html?_r=4&scp=3&sq=uganda&st=cse
So now the progressives feel comfortable doing what they did in Africa, in California. Using EPA and other regulatory powers to go around Congress and State legislatures. To feather their own nests on the pretext of a claim of an unproven affect on ‘climate’.
Think that you are yours are safe from being ‘protected’ by a party donor?
Possibly they didn’t like my New Zealand IP address.
However I have saved much of their site from the Google cache if anyone needs it one day.
Andrew30 says:
April 6, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Iāll see your California Senate Bill 107 and raise you a Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Andrew,
There once was a confrontation in Tennessee back in 1946 called the Battle of Athens where the citizens were having trouble using the ballot box. When the ballot box was determined not to be working, they resorted to another box, which also starts with the letter ‘B’, and solved their problem.
This has UN agenda 21 and ICLEI written all over it. See:
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/
Also view a great video by ROSA KOIRE who is a liberal, feminist, lifelong democrat & a lesbian too, BUT is also an expert forensic commercial real estate appraiser specializing in eminent domain valuation.
A really informative video:
Remember the Nazis?
They were first, “social democrats.”
I imagine it could be very dangerous to actually work on the project, considering the disgruntled citizenry that have been evicted. Surely some may hang onto their 2nd amendment rights and make it difficult for anything to ever exist there.
I have always suspected that the CAGW movement is nothing more than vehicle to be used to transport our society from the one our Founding Fathers created for individuals, to one which more closely resembles serfdom, or one of serfdom’s more modern equivalents.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Ronald Reagan
Absolutely insidious !!
All in the name of “The Cause”
Sad days, America. Decent folk will prevail; but the costs they will bear should not be asked of them. Stand tall; the whole world holds in high regard the decent American — and needs you.
I know the weather is unbelievable in California, but with “these people” making the rules, I don’t understand how California isn’t losing residents faster than Michigan…
Truly wrong; Antonovich is a Stalinist Commissar
Andrew30 says:
April 6, 2012 at 11:36 pm
The people in the western Mojaveās Antelope Valley could:
1. Create an armed militia (This is allowed)
2. Occupy the municipal offices (This tactic is encouraged by the current President of the United States)
3. Dismiss the current municipal government as unfit to govern (This type of thing was done once before)
4. Proclaim the Constitution of the United States as the sole law governing the municipality. (This has also been done before)
5. Wait.
———–
Isn’t this type of thing exactly why you guys have the Second Amendment?
They voted for this. Now California falls upon its own Eco-Sword. I think wind farms should be built in Right behind the ” Hollywood” sign and in Berkley too, and Sacramento.
Trampling on the property rights of the “little guys” – that’s what building codes and zoning laws and the endangered species act and wetlands protection are all about. “We got to clean it up and move you out” because the beautiful people don’t want you here and the beautiful people have no intention of paying “fair and square” for what they think is needed. The constitution protects us against seizure for public use without just compensation. It’s time for the courts to start interpreting that clause honestly.
Also from the forum with the maps is is the Feb 8th post
http://www.avhidesert.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=2203 which shows the County doesn’t discriminate – they are looking to maximize taxes, err, fees, err, income from their county. In part:
Solar groups sue Riverside County over ‘sun tax’
Supervisors say fee is needed to offset the long-term impacts of development
Article
Written by
K Kaufmann
The Desert Sun
Two solar and energy industry trade groups are suing Riverside County in an effort to roll back the county’s annual fee of $450 per acre on large-scale solar projects.
The Large-Scale Solar Association and the Independent Energy Producers Association filed the suit Friday in Riverside County Superior Court in Indio, and the county received notice Monday, said Shannon Eddy, executive director of the LSA.
At least two solar companies with projects in eastern Riverside County ā enXco and BrightSource ā said they were not a part of the suit and declined comment.
Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the IEPA, said his organization and the LSA decided to move forward on the lawsuit to meet a deadline this week for a constitutional challenge to the policy.
The suit asks the court for an injunction on the fee and a ruling that it is illegal under state law, either as a tax or mitigation fee.
āAccording to Proposition 26, taxes cannot masquerade as āfees’ or ācharges,’ā Smutny- Jones said.
āA county is allowed to charge fees for services rendered or impacts, or they can charge a reasonable fee,ā he said. āThey are not empowered to parlay that into a $450-per-acre tax.ā
The county Board of Supervisors passed the fee ā officially called Policy B-29 ā unanimously on Nov. 8, arguing it was needed to offset the long-term impacts of solar development in eastern Riverside County.
The supervisors also maintained that the fee is neither an impact fee nor a tax, and therefore not subject to state regulations or laws related to either.
āWe stand behind board policy B-29,ā Supervisor John J. Benoit said in a statement emailed to The Desert Sun on Monday. āWe will decide how to proceed after we have been fully briefed by legal counsel.ā
At present, two large- scale solar projects are under construction in the Riverside East solar zone, a stretch of public land between Joshua Tree National Park and the city of Blythe, and three more are in the planning stages.
Of the two under construction, NextEra Energy’s 250-megawatt Genesis project was the only one approved before the board began working on the fee policy and is exempt.
First Solar, the original developer of the second project, the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight plant, struck a deal with the county, agreeing to a $600,000 per-year fee.
Of the project’s 4,000 acres, most are on federal land, with about 9.7 acres belonging to the county, First Solar spokeswoman Laura Abram said. The company has since sold the project to NextEra and GE.
The apparent lack of any connection between the fee and the impacts of the solar projects has been a point of contention between the county and solar developers since the issue first surfaced last year.
The board originally directed staff to come up with a policy for ārevenue generating agreementsā for solar projects almost exactly a year ago, on Feb. 8, 2011. The idea for a fee of some sort was in part a reaction to state law, which exempts solar projects from property taxes until 2016.
In June, staff floated an idea of a 2 percent franchise fee that solar developers would have to pay on their yearly gross revenues.
The proposal met strong resistance from solar developers and labor unions that said the proposed fee would freeze solar development in the county and hundreds of project construction jobs.
AGW alarmists tend to feel morally superior. They use that to justify their immoral actions … they are doing their part to save the world. There is no way they could ever accept that AGW is a lie. That would mean their actions had no meaning and were, in fact, evil. Now you can understand why they tend to go crazy when dealing with skeptics. It’s no longer a debate. It’s about their entire reason for existence.
Find some endangered specie and turn their own rules against them.
my wife states you never really own your land. Because the county gets to charge you rent on it (property taxes) and they get to decide how much rent you must pay. they use the same nusance envirtonmental regs to close down junk yards and keep folks from having a few old project parts vehicles on their places. When their true agenda is they want all the older classic vehicles to be recycled. The would like to force folks to send their older cars to scrap and make them buy something like a Volt?
I live in the north end of the Mojave Desert (near Ridgecrest in the Indian Wells Valley) and without going into details it has been a nightmare – the Ridgecrest Solar Power Project (RSPP) by Solar Millennium AG (SM), its US subsidiary, Solar Trust of America (STA), has been fought tooth and nail by a variety of locals, mostly “environmentalists. And just plain folk desert lovers too that are not environmentalists, who are even actively battling the restrictions being imposed by environmentalists. Kind of an “odd bed fellows” coalition as, in general, we all recognize what a disaster these projects are.
The solar house of cards is fallen down now but the State of California is desperate, we expect some trashing around trying to revive these idiotic power generation projects.
This site lists all the projects out here in the West and has lots of pics.
http://www.basinandrangewatch.org
jrwakefield says:
April 7, 2012 at 5:34 am
Andrew30 says:
April 6, 2012 at 11:36 pm
The people in the western Mojaveās Antelope Valley could:
1. Create an armed militia (This is allowed)
2. Occupy the municipal offices (This tactic is encouraged by the current President of the United States)
3. Dismiss the current municipal government as unfit to govern (This type of thing was done once before)
4. Proclaim the Constitution of the United States as the sole law governing the municipality. (This has also been done before)
5. Wait.
āāāā
Isnāt this type of thing exactly why you guys have the Second Amendment?
______________________________
By way of cliche… Great minds think alike.
This report of the abuse of power is becoming all too common in the US.
This Nuisance Abatement Team obviously has a broken moral compass. Perhaps their navigational compass still works.
A team of little petty tyrants bent on confiscation of land and homes could easily get lost in the desolation of the Mojave.
These actions need to be challenged in court and I will gladly hit a tip jar set that funds a legal defense team for these residents. Additionally, the people implementing this (L.A. County Supervisor and others) need to be thrown out in the next election. This coming June, Raj Pal Kahlon, 49, will run against Michael D. Antonovich, 72, a Republican incumbent from Glendale who will seek his ninth term as supervisor:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/03/la-county-supervisors-face-little-opposition-to-reelection-in-june-.html
Sorry mod, this is endemic to that site for some unknown reason; I get the SAME message and I have never even heard of (let alone visited) that site before …
[just been there again and it opens fine for me, and the map is there too . . bizarro non? . . kbmod]
.
Once you understand that our government is run by crook then everyting else falls into place.
The people of this country need to stop electing crooks and start electing people who will uphold their oath to support the Constitution. Start by electing Ron Paul to the white House. Otherwise get accustomed to the abuses because they will only get worse.
The people of California have been mislead by global warming alarmists into fighting the wrong battle – anthropogenic global warming (aka “Climate Change”) will have little impact over the next 100 years. The sea level rise rate of 3.1 mm/year is only 310 mm (12′) over the next century. Of that, 25% is coming from ground water depletion for irrigation.
By contrast, global light oil production leveled off in 2005. About 50% of global crude oil has now been consumed. Oil prices have increased 500% from $20/bbl to $100/bbl since 1998. The IEA optimistically projects no increase in crude oil production.
Global depletion of 7%/year plus even minimal growth of 1%/year requires replacing 63% of our current production with new resources or alternate fuels within 20 years. That will require about 6 new Saudi Arabia’s of production.
California is critically dependent on transport fuel. Shutting down the economy for lack of transport fuel – or “destroying demand” by higher prices will be far more damaging than a foot rise in sea level.
Focus on the critical issues – Replacing – FUEL DEPLETION– and GROUND WATER DEPLETION – not warming.
USE your ballots – focus on YOUR critical needs to drive to work.
Eggzakry how far do the proponents of the “AGW theory of why mother Gaea hates you and so you can’t have nice things and shut up and give me your wallet and your car, and your light fixtures, and your house and…” have to go before its OK to call them a pack of thieves?
I’m just asking. What would it take?
No really… what would it take for it to be inside the bounds of polite discussion to stop pretending there is anything other than a kleptocratic conspiracy behind the public policy agenda which arises from AGW “science” ?
I’d like to know the where the line is on that one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy
North of 43 and south of 44 says:
April 7, 2012 at 6:00 am
Find some endangered specie and turn their own rules against them.
Not hard to do. Find one or two arroyos with skinks living in them, then have a local Wildlife Biologist (make sure you get the capitalized kind) declare it a unique subspecies, found only in that area.
Very strange, indeed. I donāt mean Alecās report. I mean in the comments ā I donāt see one troll. Where have they all gone?
If the good people of California, by majority rule, wish to hand over their rights to a mene…er…benevolent government, then I say ship the whole entire shibang to them. I mean Washinton DC. The White House especially, but ship the Senate, House of Representative, and the courts too. Then they can enact whatever they wish and apply it to California to their hearts’ content.
I swear if Washington D.C. moved lock, stock, and barrel to California, the honorees of the Washington monuments would wave goodby and party after the entire US Government and its residents of the White House had packed up and gone.
_Jim says:
April 7, 2012 at 7:03 am
Sorry mod, this is endemic to that site for some unknown reason; I get the SAME message and I have never even heard of (let alone visited) that site before ā¦
[just been there again and it opens fine for me, and the map is there too . . bizarro non? . . kbmod]
Bizarro, oui. I’m banned, too, and it was my first trip there.
This is nothing new. The real estate developers have convinced city governments to use eminent domain to take private property for the use of other private purposes for years. Same for highways which are used by those of all political persuasions, including those trumpeting the second amendment. The politics of urban redevelopment are a little different – generally richer (and on balance more conservative) real estate developers getting land from generally poorer people. I would not get too hung up on the politics of who benefits and who is harmed. I imagine those commenting most harshly enjoy their wide roads and may live, work or attend sporting events in developments made possible only because private landowners were forcibly removed from their land.
Funny … I wuz never learnt this in my publik skool edukation in hiztory clazz or in US Gubbint clazzes neither …
Thanks for posting. I think the bulk of one’s education occurs after the group/teach/think period in one’s youth on through collage days; the exception (usually) being the ‘hard’ sciences (e.g. the core classes for the various engineering degrees) where results matter (or ppl may die; think flying, driving and/or crossing long bridge spans and tall buildings in strong winds).
.
Emigration is thew loigical response to their foolishness. However, it is the US citizens who are leaving the state and the illegal immigrnats who are staying while more come accross a porus border. Mexico Norte anyone.
All of these actions smack of one underlying goal: destroy America so there are no more champions of freedom. Makes subjugating the masses to socialism/communism easier.
So glad this is the “most ethical and transparent” administration ever. So sad. When are we going to fight back? And why isn’t Antonovich under indictment?
Bill
How long will it be before the Econuts send in troops to destroy a village so they won’t have to ask the next village to move? Ref: the movie “Shooter”.
[just been there again and it opens fine for me, and the map is there too . . bizarro non? . . kbmod]
Has it crossed your mind yet that they (the web site) is screening for (then ‘blocking’) certain accessing domain names (IP addresses if I have to be specific)?
Is it possible to make a ‘local copy’ under the Fair Use clause of the copyright laws so we can view?
.
Catastrophic Abetted-by-Government Wealth-stealing
In some ways I would think the States has a certain imunization reaction to this sort of stuff. States that act in this way decrease in prosperity while those that don’t increase. Such things do not happen quickly, but eventually the states like California will collapse, the Government will get tossed out, and everyone who moved away to more prospeous areas can now come back and pick up property at bargain basement prices. Either that or you’ll end up with a nice big derilect monument to stupidity. People In California really should think about maybe simply voting with their feet instead. Over the very long run I would think that the blue states are going to lose out politically because they will be welfare cases and have to come hat in hand to their more well off neighbours, who will demand healthy conssessions for helping them out.
Ric Werme says: ……….fees………..
Speaking of fees. The folks who wish to go green in LADWP service area have some to pay- “administrative fees, including an interconnection study as well as a development deposit. The fees range from $2000 to 3000 depending on the size of the project.” http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-0617-S2_RPT_CAO_03-08-12.pdf
Palo Alto will allow it’s residents to sign up for and install Eligible Renewable Energy Resources under a Feed In Tariff for 10 to 20 years. They have some fees as well-
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=30290
“9. A metering and administration fee of $34.73/month will be charged to each Eligible Renewable Energy Resource that participates in the CLEAN Program during Program Year 2012.”
Both of these FIT programs will allow the service providers to measure (via the revenue grade electrical meter) the actual kwh generated from an eligible renewable energy resource. The service providers will own the RE Credits. The joys of the future CAP and Trade program………….. One would need a 2500 Watt (dc) PV system to just about cover the costs of the monthly fee. The first 280 kwh produced by a PV system in Palo Alto would cover the monthly administration fees (10 year contract with a feed in price of 12.36 c/kwh).
To put these administrative fees in perspective I paid a total of $177 to have a new time of use net meter put in place in 2006 which allowed PG&E to use their existing accounting programs to capture the costs and benefits of my little PV system in one meter. The only possible benefit that my meter doesn’t capture is the Total kwh my PV system generates (it does capture the Net kwhs I send to the grid at peak times) hence no REC for me or PG&E. I wonder how long it will take PG&E to figure out they can get REC for the kwh I send to the grid at peak times………. Oh wait my contract with them (for the interconnection of my PV system into the grid) doesn’t say who owns the REC . I put my system in before the CAP and Trade program was signed off.
The hypocrisy of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council, Wilderness Society, Defenders of Wildlife as ell as other groups is astounding regarding the massive land rape impacts of solar and wind. In California’s Mohave Desert more than 50,000 acres of sensitive ecosystem lands are being sacrificed for solar plants while environmental groups ignore these impacts. If a fossil fuel plant was proposed on these lands which would require just a few percent of the land under attach these environmental groups would be screaming bloody murder.
These organizations try to justify this blatantly bias behavior by claiming that they are fighting climate change with solar and wind plants but the reality is that these plants will not reduce global CO2 emissions at all because of the huge and growing use of fossil fuels by the developing nations which will only result in increasing global CO2 levels regardless of how many of these high cost low reliability plants are forced down our throats by environmental extremists.
Peter Miller,
“Do I detect a whiff of hypocracy?”
Nope, MJ
Mike
Cheers and cold craft beers to WUWT for staying on this story. Wind Power advocates are unable to make an economic case, unable to make a scientific case, unable to make any sense whatsoever. Relient on flatulant political boosterism and fraudulant statistics, the Big wind scam spreads it’s blight over the countryside but…. in the end it will end with perp walks and prison terms. To anyone interested I want to pose the idea that these complex scams require a site focused on deconstructing them. One staffed by lawyers.
Totalitarian misanthropist socialists. These aren’t well-intentioned people with misplaced priorities. These are malevolent disgusting entities. They are the antithetical embodiment to the keepers of Liberty. They show open contempt for the foundations of this nation and squander our legacy.
No one with an objective view of our laws and history can be of the opinion this is a legitimate form of governance. Their actions are criminal to natural law and to the derived positive laws laid out by our founders. Their disposition should be treated with this in mind.
Pamela Gray says:
April 7, 2012 at 7:28 am
I swear if Washington D.C. moved lock, stock, and barrel to California, the honorees of the Washington monuments would wave goodby and party…
…and I’d be hauling cases of 10W30 towards the San Andreas Fault…
In California, no one, not even the hermit in the desert, is safe from the grasping, gloved-for-anonymity hand of local, state and national government, Their bureaucracies are their enforcers. Elections no longer matter.
I will be leaving as soon as circumstances permit. Many have preceded me and many more will follow.
I dislike polite terms such as Crony Capitalism because they are a form of reality avoidance. We need to identify these people for what they are: National Socialists or Fascists. Apparently, the choice we will be allowed to have this November is to be between a Communist and a Fascist and looting of the private and public treasury will continue, irrespective of the outcome. I fear that President Thomas Jeffersonās prophetic observation will be coming to fruition: āThe tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.ā
Michael Ronayne, Nutley NJ
Actual reduction in government spending (not budgets) of 1- 2% every year at the federal level would fix all of this in very short order without the world wide depression that would be caused by some of the Ron Paul type ideas. When states and cities run out of $$ there would be nowhere to obtain more. Poorly run local/state governments would be unable to borrow in the bond market. This would correct many problems. People flee from disaster areas, like California, they are doing it now. It could be re-settled later under more reasonable government. I doubt that it would be taken over by illegals if there is no access to all the free stuff they get now from the existing government. Like private enterprises that are incompetent, disasterous governments need to be allowed to fail. Just take away the $$$.
Mike Bentley says:
April 7, 2012 at 8:57 am
Peter Miller,
āDo I detect a whiff of hypocracy?ā
Nope, MJ
Mike
Dunno, Mike — Pete may have something, there.
As in, “hypocracy: government by hypocrites”…
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the recently passed H. R. 1433, āāPrivate Property
Rights Protection Act of 2012āā…,
Peter says: April 7, 2012 at 8:22 am
“In some ways I would think the States has a certain imunization reaction to this sort of stuff. States that act in this way decrease in prosperity while those that donāt increase.”
This is an important point. When a state destroys its economy and has over 500 government departments and services, as California does, it is free to fail abysmally and the residents are free to move. However, as we have recently seen, the Federal Gov’t is a threat to the process as we have witnessed in the recent TARP bailout of large companies.
An example of a truly failed state program is in Mass.. Known as Romneycare, it is running billions of dollars over projected costs. The costs for this have been shifted onto the federal budget, and today we have the author of this state healthcare mandate running for the nomination for the GOP. He claims it is a good program for his state, and is in fact running on its success as part of his executive accomplishments as a governor. While he claims he would repeal Obamacare, in a USA Today column he wrote that the program would be an excellent model for a Federal program. It was the blueprint used in drafting Obamacare.
(Inre: bailing out liberal states and their economy killing policies.) Here is the study which shows how a state program which has failed miserably has been shifted to the federal budget:
“The BHI report states: āNow that the law [Romneycare] has been in effect for more than five years, we can begin to assess its impact on the state of Massachusetts.ā
Among the findings:
ā¢ State healthcare expenditures have risen by $414 million over the five-year period.
ā¢ Private health insurance costs have risen by $4.31 billion.
ā¢ The federal government has spent an additional $2.41 billion on Medicaid in Massachusetts.
ā¢ Medicare expenditures increased by $1.42 billion.
The total cumulative cost over the period is just over $8.5 billion.
But the state has been able to shift the majority of the costs to the federal government, which continues to absorb a significant part of the cost of healthcare reform through enhanced Medicaid payments and the Medicare program ā meaning Americans outside Massachusetts are helping to pay the bills for the healthcare plan.”
Remember the Kelo decision? Basically the SCOTUS gave the right for a local government to seize private property to sell to another private concern (in this case Pfizer pharmaceutical). Pfizer wanted to build a plant there and the city saw the potential for lots of jobs and a much greater tax base. Didn’t quite turn out that way. After the dust settled following the court case and the private homes seized and bulldozed into rubble, Pfizer changed their minds. Read the whole story from the WSJ here:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704402404574527513453636326.html
Now, it seems to me that there might be similar things to consider with this California caper. Where are they going to get the water necessary to maintain all those PV panels in the Mohave? Further, environmentalists are not above eating their own. This solar developer could easily be hit with a barrage of environmental lawsuits. Shucks, they might even find an endangered species or two in that area. An energy rich area in Colorado is off limits to development because of an endangered species of a damn weed! Some environmentalists even want shut down oil and gas production (and probably cattle ranching) in the Permian basin because of an endangered sub-species of an otherwise common lizard. Story here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/295019/save-sand-dune-lizard-nash-keune
All it would take to derail this stupid solar project is for a few otherwise useless biologists (or “ecology studies” grads) to nose around and find a few desert turtles or toads or cacti that might be endangered (or at least put out) with the construction of acres and acres of solar panels.
I copied all the JPG’s, just in case they get “disappeared”. No problem accessing the site.
This is amazing and a total surprise. I had always thought that Mike Antonovich was devoted to smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes.
Guess I was wrong
_Jim says:
April 7, 2012 at 7:03 am
jaymam says on April 7, 2012 at 3:13 am:
Did anyone save a copy of the map?
This is what I get:
http://www.avhidesert.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1442
AV Hi Desert forum
āIām sorry, but you are banned. You may not post, read threads, or access the forum. Please contact your forum administrator should you have any questions.ā
[the link works fine for me, you must have irritated them š . . kbmod]
Sorry mod, this is endemic to that site for some unknown reason; I get the SAME message and I have never even heard of (let alone visited) that site before ā¦
[just been there again and it opens fine for me, and the map is there too . . bizarro non? . . kbmod]
I would think that the less well thought out blocking system being used is blocking an IP range. Perhaps everyone on Mindspring or everyone on AOL is being blocked.
What is going on in the Mojave is nothing short of a human-rights violation that should be broadcast internationally but I’ll wager MSM completely ignores it.
I moved out of California in 1995 and moved my small manufacturing business out in 2004 and feel like I got out in the nick of time – it was getting too weird, crowded, and expensive. California is (still) home to some of the brightest people in the world and the economy of California is enormous.
How long after the Obamabucks run out will this project go bankrupt? Solyndra had the California Demotratic Party listed as one of its “creditors”. How many more of the these Green things that got taxpayer $$ turned around and gave some it to liberal politicians?
For anyone who is having trouble viewing the avhidesert site, here is their big version of the usage map:
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z36/AlecRawls/Environment%20and%20climate/AntelopeSolarMap.jpg
It only labels 17 projects, not the 33 mentioned in the news report. Don’t know what accounts for the difference. The list of projects that Randle points to in the northern Mojave (Ridgcrest area) is also impressive:
http://www.basinandrangewatch.org/
Try using 2000 acres out of 19 million to drill for oil in ANWR and the greenies scream “desecration.” Pave the desert with these solar eco-sacraments and they drop to their knees in adoration. They join a long list of the very worst people who still managed to view themselves as moral paragons.
Alec Rawles has done a brilliant bit of research and reporting. The root of the evil is the mandate the use of so-called renewables. Let’s not forget that in addition to Romneycare, which mandated the purchase of state-approved healthcare plans, the cornerstone of governor Romney’s budget was the implementation of GHG emissions and the mandate to use renewables and reduce carbon emissions in power production. He also passed carbon emission standards in Ma that were 30% stricter than federal standards for automobiles. He was responsible for raising up to 860 million dollars to implement the RGGI.
Romney favors pact by states on emissions
By Scott Helman
Globe Staff / November 8, 2005
Governor Mitt Romney signaled his support yesterday for a regional agreement among Northeastern states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, despite opposition from power companies and other business interests that have been lobbying the administration against the plan. (Full article: 939 words)
Bill Tuttle says:
April 7, 2012 at 7:28 am
_Jim says:
April 7, 2012 at 7:03 am
Sorry mod, this is endemic to that site for some unknown reason; I get the SAME message and I have never even heard of (let alone visited) that site before ā¦
[just been there again and it opens fine for me, and the map is there too . . bizarro non? . . kbmod]
Bizarro, oui. Iām banned, too, and it was my first trip there.
They might not be very swift and are using an IP address ban system. This is a disaster if they ban IP addresses that are from a pool of randomly assigned ones.
When they think they have banned some spamer it turns out they have burned every 100th users of a very large ISP.
Should read: “Letās not forget that in addition to Romneycare, which mandated the purchase of state-approved healthcare plans, the cornerstone of governor Romneyās budget was the implementation of GHG emissions reductions, and the mandate to use renewables in order to reduce carbon emissions in power production.”
He is in fact a carbon tax candidate, has expressed support for worldwide carbon emissions reductions agreements, and promised $20 billion in federal spending on car technology and energy research. (Ref: No Appology by Mitt Romney, pg 262; and the Political Positions of Mitt Romney, wik.)
Another left-green hypocrisy: they love to laud primitive peoples for “using the whole animal,” yet are crusading against the processing and use of “lean meat” leftovers (connective tissue and beef scraps), labeling it “pink slime.” There is nothing wrong with it as a food and they are advocating for it to be thrown away just because the nasty name they came up with appeals to them as a way to attack a kind of meat, rather like attacking “assault rifles” or “saturday night specials” or some other category of gun.
They would like to ban all meat, and so are eager to attack any particular meat, oblivious to how they are contradicting their own proclaimed values. A “pink slime” defense here:
http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/04/why-you-should-learn-to-love-pink-slime/255488/
All this get so much worse. Suppose they do put up this huge wind and solar farm. Let’s look at what happens. The attached link is for BPA (Bonneville Power Administration), they handle the distribution and transmission of approximately 50 gw of power here in the NW, all sustainable (44 damns, 12 thermal, 1 nuke [power not listed for some reason, about 2.2 gw], and thousands of miles of wind farms). Look at this real time power generation chart. Note that wind goes from 0 to 6 gw (enough power for 3 Seattle’s) in a mater of minutes and then can disappear. Try to manage this network work when you gain and lose 30% or so of your capacity in just minutes. Try to keep all this equipment that likes constant level balanced. Now try to forecast and guarantee delivery. Also notice that load is well below capacity. We make way more power than we can use, we don’t have the line to ship it all. When the wind actually blows, we can meet all our power needs from just wind, and then it goes away…
http://transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/wind/baltwg.aspx
Today’s wsj has an article on California’s war on Suburbs. The planners hope to cram twenty or more houses per acre in pre-approved transit areas to reduce emissions. I suspect the people behind this are the same people in cahoots with the renewables industries. I wondered why all of the whining about sprawl, now I think I have my answer.
e. c. Cowan says:
“This is amazing and a total surprise. I had always thought that Mike Antonovich was devoted to smaller, less intrusive government and lower taxes.
Guess I was wrong”
These things happen when big leftists governments and big leftist crooks get together. Together they have both the carrot to bribe non-leftists and the government stick to tax, regulate, jaiil, and even shoot you to death.
There are many good people in California, but it seems the big-leftist voting blocks in the urban areas overwhelm them. Too bad, I remember when California seemed to have he best of everything and even freedom.
The people of the United States of America can never take the law in to their own hands because the law has always been in their own hands (We the People), there is no taking involved, they only need the will to use they have always possessed.
There is a great book, “The Excluded Americans” by
William Tucker that at one point goes into how
politicians legislate all sorts of exclusionary zoning
ordinances which has contributed to homelessness.
“Think Global, Tax Local”
Andrew30 says:
April 6, 2012 at 11:16 pm
Iāll see your California Senate Bill 107 and raise you a Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Now get the [snip] off my land.
Awesome first post….my thoughts exactly.
And it’s L.A. county, they are as Republican as it gets. Antonovich is a Gauleiter, not a Commissar. Same difference anyways. There is no left or right in this country, only statists and anti-statists, collectivists and individualists.
Regardless of whether they have for us the gulag or the lager in mind, I leave you with Solzhenitsyn:
And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand? After all, you knew ahead of time that those bluecaps were out at night for no good purpose. And you could be sure ahead of time that youād be cracking the skull of a cutthroat. Or what about the Black Maria sitting out there on the street with one lonely chauffeur ā what if it had been driven off or its tires spiked. The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalinās thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!
Peterhodges,
“The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalinās thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!”
Good quote – but doesn’t that say more about the Russian people than the system itself? Americans are not Russians and never will be – thank God.
James Ard says: April 7, 2012 at 12:07 pm “Todayās wsj has an article on Californiaās war on Suburbs…………..
Yep. The Air Resources Board (CARB) got to lay out the targets as noted below-
http://www.scag.ca.gov/sb375/index.htm
“SB 375 (Steinberg) is California state law that became effective January 1, 2009. This new law requires California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) to develop regional reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and prompts the creation of regional plans to reduce emissions from vehicle use throughout the state. California’s 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have been tasked with creating “Sustainable Community Strategies” (SCS). The MPOs are required to develop the SCS through integrated land use and transportation planning and demonstrate an ability to attain the proposed reduction targets by 2020 and 2035.”
Some recent activity by two SCS’s-
Sacramento area “Sustainable Communities Strategy” 3/22/2012
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/sb375/sacog_slides_032112.pdfAFTssssTEGY
Southern CA Association of Governments and their plans for SB 375
http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/sb375/scag_slides_032112.pdf
I have a feeling that the assumptions about population growth might be a bit rosy…………..
Could it be that these unfortunate Californians are some of the UN’s lost 50 to 200 million environmental migrants, missing from their failed predictions for 2010.
Seems to me the UN’s rejigged 2020 environmental migrants forecasts should include some big red dots signifying this new class of “environmental migrants”, the victims of green crony capitalism.
I can remember when the eco-fascist movements first resorted to active sabotage campaigns against development in wild places. Actions such as EMETIC taking down ski chairlift towers, and power poles at mining operations, or ELF destroying ranger stations, and burning 4 buildings and damaging 5 ski lifts at Vail ski resort worth 26 million dollars. At the time the eco radicals were viewed as hero’s for their actions within the leftist ecology momement. They were the visible face of an environmentally centered anarchist movement. Craig Rosebraugh said as much in Congressional hearings in 2002 when taking the 5th amendment, explaining that they were fighting against terrorists (the government and big corporations).
My question is why are these radical groups who openly advocated and practiced sabotage against legal commercial enterprises not taking similar action against these wind farms and solar farms and over reach of government?
The only answer that makes sense is that they are getting paid off, or the current turn of affairs of a big socialist style government developing was the goal all along. Some speculate that their extreme actions were simply done to make Green Peace, the Sierra club, Nature Conservancy and others look like reasonable middle of the road operations worthy of being at the negotiation tables.
This was directly implied when Earth First activist Judi Bari in 1994 said:
“England Earth First has been taking some necessary steps to separate above ground clandestine activities… If we are serious about our movement in the U.S. we will do the same,…it is time to leave the night work to the elves in the woods”
By creating a radical extreme movement, they made the other organizations legitimate by comparison and laid the ground work for their inclusion in the system as voices of authority and builders of agenda.
The radical eco moment is documented in the book :
Eco-terrorism: Radical Environmental And Animal Liberation Movements
By Don Liddick
As we watch the sudden slide into over reaching government in recent years, it is hard not to wonder like Solzhenitsyn, has the turning point of no return been passed?
Is there still time for a new crop of Elves in the woods with a different agenda or citizens who are not willing to sit in their apartments and quake in fear that the knock will not come to their door to turn the tide and return government to the control of the people at large and not the powerful and connected?
I hope this can be accomplished without turmoil, but in my life time I have never heard so many average people voice their concern so vigerously at one time about the state of the Union, and openly contemplate if the public will quietly submit to this creeping power grab or if they will draw a line in the sand and say “no more!”
Larry
Enough with the term crony capitalism. This is just cronyism among leftist warm-mongers, with NOTHING to do with capitalism.
Vee Vill send them to relocation camps
I have this feeling in my bones that Alec is leaving stuff out. Something does not smell right.
LazyTeenager @ 2012/04/07 at 6:14 pm
I have this feeling in my bones that Alec is leaving stuff out. Something does not smell right.
So which is it – feelings or smell? Make up your mind so we can laugh at your fecklessness appropriately – Anthony
LazyT says:
“I have this feeling in my bones that Alec is leaving stuff out. Something does not smell right.”
This isn’t Skeptical Pseudo-Science, or Tamina, or Closed Mind. That’s where your comment belongs. This is the internet’s Best Science & Technology site, where readers prefer reasons over a “feeling” in their “bones”. Maybe your witch doctor needs to give you a new spell to control that feeling.
LazyTeenager says:
āI have this feeling in my bones that Alec is leaving stuff out. Something does not smell right.ā
Two things: The above comment was coined by the people of HebertShausen, Germany (downwind from Dachau); and I think that the name was Adolf not Alex.
Go read up on what is actually going on, even you might be disgusted.
Now that the reason has become obvious I wonder if the people whose land was taken by fraud can sue the crap out of the dirty politicians involved.
It seem one American really got fed up by the corrupt town government of Granby, Colorado who played similar games with zoning and decided to do something about it: On June 4, 2004, Marvin Heemeyer, destroyed several town buildings and the home of the former mayor. the total damage was about $7 million. No one was hurt except Marvin Heemeyer who committed suicide. : http://www.damninteresting.com/the-wrath-of-the-killdozer/
Despite the 2nd Amendment and the fact that zoning is used to force people off there land so it become available cheap this type of violence in the USA is very rare.
BWUAAUAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAAAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAA
Couldn’t happen to a nicer Socialist driven state.
Stop fighting what they want.
Unfortunately, its usually the conservative rural voters that get shafted instead of the uber-large urban socialites.
Reblogged this on News You May Have Missed.
I have spent a good part of the afternoon researching this story. Its very disturbing. I did not select my nomme de guerre lightly. I can relate to the plight of these desert-rats. I plan on retiring out in the middle of the desert, just like many of these folks. I was also bothered by the protagonist being a republican. He is the sort for which the term RINO was invented. Apparently, republicans in his own district aren’t amused.
http://49.nationbuilder.com/what_s_up_with_that_mr_antonovitch
“What’s Up with That, Mr. Antonovitch? Range Wars in CA Again?
Posted by Ron Robinson 6969pc on August 27, 2011 Ā· Flag
Troubling news regarding our esteemed county supervisor from District 5, Mike Antonovich. It’s serious enough that ReasonTV made a 10 minute video about the issue of “Nuisance Abatement Teams” telling people in the Anteleope Valley to tear down their houses and move off their own land. We’re wondering what law gives county code enforcement the authority to make such assertions and Mr. Antonovich doesn’t seem to want to answer. These “Nuisance Abatement Teams” (NATS) were created at the behest of Antonovich, and he won’t answer questions from the public about their true purpose. Mr. Antonovich’s email is fifthdistrict@lacbos.org. Usually, Republicans are for private property rights and the individual’s right to have his govenment leave him alone. So what’s up with that, Mr. Mayor Supervisor Antonovich?”
P.S. The pieces title is kind of funny!”
Are any bookmakers taking bets on when California becomes not only morally bankrupt, but fiscally bankrupt as well? Could be a nice little earner if the odds are reasonable.
I am not blocked from
http://www.avhidesert.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1442
if I set my IP address to be in Florida instead of NZ.
[works for me in Godzone ~ac, mod]
Wind Mill Disaster: A stark look at the reality behind wind farms. They have been painted as “beautiful” too long.
Features California.
I just noticed that-
“Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One Receives First Loan Advance-
Exelon-owned solar photovoltaic project will be one of world’s largest”
April 5
.” CHICAGO & TEMPE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) and First Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSLR) today announced that the Antelope Valley Solar Ranch One project has received the first advance of a loan guaranteed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, finalizing Exelon’s ownership of the project………..”
http://investor.firstsolar.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=662186
“AV Solar Ranch One will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 75,000 average California homes ā with no water use, no air emissions and no waste production ā displacing approximately 140,000 metric tons of carbon emissions per year, the equivalent of taking approximately 30,000 cars off the road. The project has a 25-year power purchase agreement, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, with Pacific Gas & Electric Company for the full output of the plant.”
It appears that First Solar cashed out of the program (except for maintenance and the like). In case your interested in the the method used to estimate displacement of co2 it is located here- http://www.firstsolar.com/~/media/WWW/Files/Downloads/PDF/Document-Library/Sustainable-Development/TechnicalReport_CarbonDisplacement_02761_NA.ashx
As the output of this facility is going to PG&E’s customers I think it would be appropriate for the model noted above to use current data on PG&E’s “Grid GHG emissions intensity”- not basing the calculation of benefits on data from 2007 (see footnote 16).
First Solar shareholders have suffered a loss of market value on the stock market with shares plummeting from a high of $317.00 per share on 30 May 2008 to only $20.98 per share 5 April 2012. If you sold shares of First Solar short at a price of #175.00 per share on 18 February 2011, you would have gained about $154.98 per share or about $154,980.00 per thousand shares. Short sellers of First Solar stock still have more than $20.00 per share of potential profit to be made before First Solar becomes another bankrupt government rent seeker.
Good article here mentions First Solar and several others. Taxpayers Take Hit as Solar Industry Implodes. from the National and Legal Policy Center, January 2012.
http://thegwpf.org/energy-news/4684-taxpayers-take-hit-as-solar-industry-implodes.html
Nice find from Kakatoa on First Solar being granted a 25 year electricity purchase gurarantee through the California Public Utilities Commission. Public utilities contracts are typically based on a guaranteed minimum rate of return so they can’t lose. PG&E is required to take all the output whenever the sun is shining, meaning it will have to shut down its other plants accordingly, making them uneconomic. But then PG&E also gets a guaranteed rate of return, so no matter how inefficient all these arrangements are, the cost just gets passed on to ratepayers.
The People’s Democratic Republic of California
Just abandon California to the bunny-humping ecosimp trash and wait for it to collapse. We can re-occupy in twenty years.
Alec,
It looks like the 25 year PPA with PG&E falls under the CPUC 2009 Energy Division Resolution E-4298 http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/FINAL_RESOLUTION/111386.htm . PG&E will be paying $.2392 kwh at Super Peak times during the June- September time period this year. See- “Appendix B: Utility Time-of- Delivery (TOD) periods and factors” with a Market Price Referent of $.10852/kwh.
Sarc on /
Reasonable people would not object to having their home demolished as part of a scheme to save the world for our children and grandchildren.
So what if somebody is making money from conducting this scheme? Surely, such high-minded people are entitled to be rewarded for their efforts to save the world for our children and grandchildren.
Sarc off/
Richard
Everyone should start getting Land Patents, now. NOTHING trumps a Land Patent in court, it’s not subject to eminent domain, and these people could have told those fu***rs to get lost! This chaps my butt, but it’s all part of Agenda 21.
http://www.teamlaw.org/PatentHowTo.htm
http://teamlawforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=3
This has to be one of the most unjust reports I have ever read about Gov’t taking what they want supposedly for the good of the people but only to line their pockets. My wife and I both served this great country for 12 + years and swore an Oath to give up our live’s if need be to defend it. I’m 53 and have lived a good life. The time seems to be here to keep the promise. Our children have not been brainwashed by the system as they grew up in a home that took NO Sh#t from anyone or entity and hold the same values as we do. I do not want to see my children or anyone die because of the course this country is following but it seems inevitable if something is not done and soon there is going to be alot of misery and grief. I know that I will not be able to get them all but if I get at least 10 (20) that will be enough to justify my life defending this once great nation. Because of the business I’m in It’s close and I know I am not alone.