Arnold's enviro scam

John Seiler:

I’ve always thought Gov. Arnold’s embrace of extreme environmentalism, such as AB 32, was a scam to make him look good. Now we’re finally getting some facts to confirm that. From the L.A. Times:

Reporting from Sacramento — California’s energy commission has promised millions of dollars to a struggling corn ethanol business founded by a political ally — and generous campaign contributor — to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger despite public assurances that the commission’s environmental funds would not be used to subsidize that technology.

The money comes from a tax on car owners passed three years ago that goes to a fund for clean-energy technologies. When the fund was set up, its backers said it would not be used for corn ethanol, a decades-old gas additive that many environmental scientists argue is at least as bad for the planet as oil.

The decision to use the fund for an ethanol subsidy has the program’s creator crying foul.

“It’s appalling. We gave them a very clear direction where these funds should be going,” said former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez, who wrote the bill that created the Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. “Ethanol is yesterday’s news. It seems like there’s some inside deal going on.”

Pacific Ethanol, the largest of four companies eligible for up to $15 million in new subsidies offered under the program, was founded by former California Secretary of State Bill Jones, a fixture in the state Republican Party who has given nearly $70,000 to Schwarzenegger’s campaigns, state records show.

Jones himself, one of the few statewide Republicans elected in the last two decades, long has been a recipient of federal farm subsidies. And while in the Legislature back in 1991, he provided the key vote for passing Gov. Pete Wilson’s tax increases.

Any doubts government is nothing but a scam?