Will "Going Green" Backfire?

With nearly every politician — from city councils to state legislators, governors  and congress – embracing green technology as the cause du jour, they don’t realize that with every bill signed, they may be actually killing the industry.

It’s kind of like reverse psychology. Politicians will kill green jobs, businesses and technology because they are ramming it down the publics’ throat, just like nationalized health care. And look at how great nationalized health care is being received…

This morning, Governor Schwarzenegger is going to sign AB 110 (Skinner).

In order to understand what this bill is, one must go to the right source. According to the Earth Times, “this is a bill to raise the cap on a key solar policy called “net metering.” Net metering is a simple billing arrangement that allows solar customers to get fair retail credit for the excess electricity their systems generate during daytime hours.”

Even with the public screaming loudly about the state of the state’s finances, legislators and the Governor continue to manipulate the green technology market. AB 32 wasn’t enough apparently.

Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda is collecting signatures for a ballot initiative named, “The Global Warming Solutions Act.” The initiative would suspend AB 32, the cap-and-trade law, until the unemployment rate in California falls below 5.5%. It is scheduled for November’s ballot and appears to be gaining a head of steam.

The Wall Street Journal explained California’s green obsession really well: “A 2009 study by economists at the California State University at Sacramento and commissioned by the California Small Business Roundtable found that the implementation costs “could easily exceed $100 billion” and that the program would raise the cost of living by $3,857 per household each year by 2020. So much for the free green lunch.

The law all but encourages outsourcing to Nevada, Texas, China and India. Even the liberal Sacramento Bee, which supports the law, says that policy makers should be “candid about the real costs of the transition it is contemplating. . . . Industries that are energy-intensive will move elsewhere.”

Meanwhile, a new study commissioned by the Governor’s Office of Small Business Advocacy estimates that the direct cost of current California regulation is $175 billion, or nearly twice the size of the state general fund budget and about $134,000 per small business each year. The Golden State already has the second most business-unfriendly regulatory climate in the nation, after New Jersey and before the cap-and-trade law.”

Instead of allowing the free market to support green technology, politicians are more likely setting it back. When politicians jump on a trendy bandwagon, John Q. Public gets a real distaste for the issue.

Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson is doing the same: “Across the country, from the White House down to states and cities, there is a buzz around all things “green.”  I believe strongly that Sacramento can become a national leader in the green movement.  Think about it: if you want to get into finance, you go to New York. If you want to go into politics, you go to Washington, DC. If you want to get into entertainment, you move to Los Angeles. If you want to get into high tech, you go to Silicon Valley.

My vision is to turn Sacramento into the “Emerald Valley” – the national hub for green business and innovation – where people from across the country come to be at the forefront of the green movement.”

Message to Schwarzenegger and Johnson: Spare us the political pandering to the enviros and the left, and balance the $@*%& budgets! Right now, tax payers don’t want to hear anything about going green… at least private sector taxpayers.

– Katy Grimes