Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Breitbart – California Governor Jerry Brown, whose bizarre green antics are a regular feature on WUWT, has been accused of potentially misusing state resources, by asking State Geologists to prepare an assessment of his own private property, which included data about the likelihood of finding drillable oil.
According to The Union Democrat;
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown last year directed state oil and gas regulators to research, map and report back on any mining and oil drilling potential and history at the Brown family’s private land in Northern California.
After a phone call from the governor and follow-up requests from his aides, senior staffers in the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency over at least two days produced a 51-page historical report and geological assessment, plus a personalized satellite-imaged geological and oil and gas drilling map for the area around Brown’s family ranchland near the town of Williams.
Ultimately, the regulators told the governor, prospects were “very low” for any commercial drilling or mining at the 2,700-acre property, which has been in Brown’s family for more than a century.
Through the state’s open records law, The Associated Press obtained the research that state regulators carried out for Brown, and the emails among senior oil and gas regulators scrambling to fulfill the governor’s request.
Brown spokesman Evan Westrup declined to discuss the work for the governor, referring the AP to California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. That agency said the work was a legal and proper use of public resources – and no more than the general public would get. But oil industry experts said they could not recall a similar example of anyone getting that kind of state work done for private property.
This situation creates a fascinating dilemma for the Governor. Did Jerry Brown use a little known free public service which is available to everyone – in which case every land owner in California should apply for a free survey of their property’s oil potential? Or did Jerry Brown violate section 8314 of California’s Government Code, which states “It is unlawful for any elected state or local officer…to use or permit others to use public resources for…personal or other purposes which are not authorized by law.” (h/t Breitbart).
Or perhaps there is some other innocent explanation? Inquiring minds would like to know.
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Things are not nearly so bizarre and inscrutable when you understand the person is really an elitist greedhead.
Glad to see there’s another “mike’ out there besides moi. My own reaction to this post, is a bit more complicated than that of the “other mike”:
-On the one hand, this story is just too, too delicious! YUMMM….
-On the other hand, I’m shocked!, SHOCKED!!!–really!–I mean, like, I’ll not deny havin’ always faulted Jerry for bein’, you know, a total flake and a weirdo stiff, and everything, and I mean even before Linda Ronstadt popularized that view of Jerry, and all. But I also always regarded him, at the same time, as a quaintly admirable, hive-hero model of old-school, iron-sphincter, school-marmish rectitude, in his public and personal life. So I’m actually disillusioned by this whole deal–SAY IT AIN’T SO, JERRY!!!
Well he literally is a chip off the old block.
His dad was at least an honest crook.
g
Andy did you hear about this one?
Another Al Gore profiteer! Just like Soros buying coal mines
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/08/17/the-new-king-coal-george-soros/
Let’s see… He signs in legislation that causes oil prices to increase, he then uses state resources to look for oil on his property. hmmmm. It’s a little like Al Gore saying the oceans are rising so he can buy ocean front property at a reduced rate only more impeachable.
(Maybe not “innocent” but “justified”. Besides, “there’s no controlling legal authority”.)
Look, laws only apply to people with bad intentions. His intentions were good, so it’s OK.
Socialism 101.
Rank hypocrisy at its finest.
That’s our Emperor Moonbeam!
Ha ha
Stinks. No two ways about it.
Brown’s California windmill glut stinks, too. Most of them aren’t even running.
According to Snapple ” More turkeys are raised in Califorina than any other state in the United States.” How do you think he got elected?
He just wanted to make sure before implementing more regulations on the industry. And FYI, Jerry, state regulators are not in the position nor have the resources to analyze oil and gas potential, so I find it very unlikely that asking them to do so is legal. That’s like him phoning up the state health department the next time he needs to see a doctor.
Moonbeam is on board with the illegal invasion, too:
http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?&id=OIP.M2031fb7e9e332167fa7d2d3880b15cf9H0
Inside every climate loon lurks a hypocrite. I’m just amazed he was so blatant about it. It would be interesting to hear how he squares sacrificing his ideological climate beliefs on the altar of the almighty dollar.
Inquiring minds want to know.
I keep trying to tell people back when he was governor the first time around his stringent “clean air” rules limited the sort of crude oil that could be used to start the refining process from. Wouldn’t you know it, his father, ( Pat Brown) just happened to have the franchise for the military dictators in Indonesia interested in selling oil of just that high grade! The family fortune swelled uncontrollably huge. More cynical sort would say it was just more old fashioned corruption in a family that made a business out of that!
This is explained away very easily……he’s a liberal…… Liberals believe that laws are for everybody else !!!
I’d love to carry Moonbeam home in a jar…
Pourquoi non? L’Etat c’est moi.
“No more than the general public would expect”
Why then, do people pay me $1200/day plus expenses to prepare similar reports? And that is just the geological work…
Perhaps you should ask Jerry Brown if the state government needs any paid help supplying their free surveys to landowners… 🙂
Remember his former stint as governor when he earned the nickname of Jerry Medfly Brownout.
Gov. Brown isn’t being altruistic, he’s feathering his own nest.
Global warming activists don’t like it when someone follows the money.
db,
Just wondering… When the Country elected all of the conservative Senators and Congressmen in the 2014 elections and gave the Republicans the majority to fight the left BS, and when they failed to do anything with the majority we gave them… And still they do nothing, why aren’t these people being recalled as well as some of the Democratic idiots. We have the right to recall these asshole who don’t do what we sent them to Washington, D.C. to do. Every last one of them. Do those people in Nevada really like Senator Reid? I really don’t think so. (he is an extremely evil bastard). A lot of people are extremely angry at the disrespect that these people we elect to represent us, have for us… Even the new ones we just elected. I believe it is a time for recalls and impeachments across the whole of the Country, including States and districts which are typically considered untouchable by one party or another. It’s time to shake the tree for real and get rid of these ‘elected’ A-holes who do not represent the people who sent them there. The career politicos who are in the ‘system’ of PACs and big money and also thugs like Senator Reid, who control them.
If we can’t send someone to Washington to actually represent us as they should, then we are voting for no reason at all. If these representatives cannot uphold the laws and the Constitution, why vote and why pay taxes? This isn’t my government anymore.
The demise-conveyance transfer of Representative governance. The power to prosecute the will of a party, not the will of a representative district. We the people gave a few this power. The explosive late 19th and thru the 20th century industrialization via the consequence of electricity. Most citizens within the rank of middle were consumed with trying to make a living – getting ahead. City Nation State – Sparta ruled the fractional small villages. Up hill political battles are won by champion-politicians. California has experimented with the notion that term-limits are a needed item. Maybe so maybe not. What has transformed is the central political party hulk, an unidentifiable mass. Popularity of governance inside of simple democracy is the reducer-thinner that allows City Nation States.
“when they failed to do anything with the majority we gave them…”
Yup, glad you drew attention to this. They have plenty of procedural power to conduct the necessary investigations into BS.
It’s good to question why they haven’t been more aggressive.
Maybe he’s contemplating selling the land, and being pure-of-heart, wanted to know for sure whether he ought to inform any potential buyers of any nasty oil under the land.
Now he can sell with a clear conscience!
By the rumor mill some of that Brown land is within the Sites reservoir area. Land value for water storage or high-end long term Oil value? There is some gas production not to far south.
Eh, sideshow. Now what about that top ten climate skeptic list. I’m up to 5. Please wordsmith and toss trustworthy cites where you see fit.
1. The world’s temperature has not increased in the last 18 years despite CO2 levels increasing. The IPCC models are NOT working to predict global temperature.
2. Antarctica is actually gaining ice, not losing it. The Artic is currently losing ice. The net between the two is well within the normal range of variation.
3. Extreme weather events have not increased and in fact are right within the normal.range of occurrence and magnitude.
4. Sea levels are increasing but have been doing so at the same rate for the past 200 ?years. Even if both poles melted sea level would only increase by 47 mm.
5. Temperature records reported by the government agencies need to undergo an independent audit. It appears much fancy math was done to the raw data and it would be foolhardy to take them on face value.
6. Polar bear populations are quite fine thank you. They appear to be stable if not actually increasing.
7. Britain and Germany appear to be the first pilot tests of nation states moving towards solar and wind power to replace fossils. The average price of energy has increased by ___ in England and ____ in Germany.
Feel free to add away …..
Whoops 7 …
seen this? –
http://notrickszone.com/2015/02/07/germany-2014-report-card-is-in-its-25000-wind-turbines-get-an-f-averaged-only-14-8-of-rated-capacity/#sthash.AQdV3SsA.dpbs
and/or this? –
http://judithcurry.com/2015/05/31/solar-grid-parity/
ristvan and aplanningengineer whacked it out
don’t have the link, but recently read story of grid operators requesting 500 Mw additional grid capacity in Britain and the solution will be Chinese diesel gens
support for #7 anyway with regard to what doesn’t work …
Thanks Bubba
It’s not easy to tear out the net average increase for pilot project areas. The cost is buried in giveaways that are dispersed among the peoples.
I’m still working on digesting the link. Real life is getting into the way. Wanted to let you know I appreciate the link. It was a good one with juicy material.
Bubba Cow link:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2362762/The-dirty-secret-Britains-power-madness-Polluting-diesel-generators-built-secret-foreign-companies-kick-theres-wind-turbines–insane-true-eco-scandals.html
4. Sea levels are increasing but have been doing so at the same rate for the past 200 ?years. Even if both poles melted sea level would only increase by 47 mm.
Hmm… Is that right? If all the ice shields on Greenland and Antarctica are melting the sea level would rise by about 70 meters, I thought. Or what Do you mean with “both poles melted?” Do you think about two certain people from Poland?
Herbst
You could easily be right. Do you have a cite for your conclusion ? The Arctic floats so it doesn’t increase sea level if it melts. The 47 mm came from another poster here. I can dig it up if needed.
Since you raised the red flag, I’ll put this one on the bench till resolved.
The Arctic isn’t loosing ice.
I benched that one. So if you don’t mind, give me a fact on global ice. Antarctic gaining, artic _____ …. What about global state of glaciers ?
Trustworthy cites would be awesome.
Knute,
From memory there are more than 160,000 glaciers on the planet. Some are advancing, some are retreating. That always happenhs for various reasons. Probably most are retreating, because the planet has been emerging from the LIA.
The DAGW crowd just picks the retreating glaciers. With that many, it’s easy.
Roger that DB
So the dataset for glaciers is incomplete and it’s too easy to pick and chose which ones. Check.
So what about the Artic ?
Melting, not melting ?
Is it fair to reword the statement to say.
“The dataset for the 150000 plus glaciers us incomplete. Meanwhile we know that Antarctica is gaining ice. The Artic is _____ ?”
Appreciate your help on this.
My plan is to use this top ten as a cut and paste bomb to various outlets.
Hi from Oz. “That agency (California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources) said the work was a legal and proper use of public resources – and no more than the general public would get.” So would readers who lives in California and who own land that might have oil and gas under it please submit a request to California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources for access to the same free service? I await the result with interest.
Indeed, although we all know they would wiggle out of doing them it would still be interesting to see how they would have done it , while justifying the work they did ‘for free’ for Brown.
Last year Gov. Brown took it upon himself to enter into a treaty with Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. One little problem, the US Constitution prohibits such an agreement.
Art. 1 section 10 paragraph 1- no state shall enter into any treaty, alliance or confederation.
Art. 1 section 10 paragraph 3- no state shall, without the consent of congress, enter into any agreement or compact with another state or with a foreign power.
Requests for proof of a congressional consent decree were met with questions about what that was. My senators found no record that such a decree exists. Yet the governor persists and refuses to kill the agreement. I gave them proof if was unconstitutional and they couldn’t have cared less.
This is an impressive effort. Are you going to pursue it?
This will never make the SF Chronicle, LA Times or major network news let alone the WaPo or NYTimes. Might make the San Diego Union Tribune or maybe on op-ed in the Sacramento Bee but I’ll bet a case of Feather River Brewery Dark Canyon Ale that even if it does none of the national wires will pick it up.
I’ll pass it on to FOX 11, see what happens !!