A Green CARB Overload

DEC. 22, 2010

While the rest of the world begins to show some sense of reality on global warming hysteria, California is going full speed ahead with the state’s global warming law implementation against all reason and science. Last week, the California Air Resources Board endorsed cap-and-trade regulation.

“Help Defend Struggling Polar Bears from Big Oil” read the subject line of an email I received this week from Al Gore and the Natural Resources Defense Council. “More and more polar bears are drowning and starving,” read the email, apparently because “Big Oil” wants to drill off the coast of Alaska. Following the polar bear email came another from the NRDC, with the guilt-inducing message, “Sea otters are washing ashore on California’s coast, dead, when they should be in the prime of their life.”

And now it is reported that Governor Schwarzenegger wants to be some sort of global warming guru or czar for President Obama. I can see the headline now: “Terminator saves the planet.” Schwarzenegger counts legislation fighting global warming as one of his signature achievements in office.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Schwarzenegger “suggested he might be interested in a post dealing with energy or the environment,” for the president. “I’m a big believer in environmental issues,” Schwarzenegger told the Times, and added that he was interested in a position where he could use his “celebrity power … knowledge and experience” to impact public policy. “I’ve traveled the world. … I’m very familiar with the world.”

Schwarzenegger, already has plans to head to Washington when he leaves office and will be traveling with former Secretary of State George Schultz to the to lobby for a new energy policy.

Let’s see… polar bears struggling because of Big Oil, and Schwarzenegger is “very familiar with the world” …Have I stumbled into Wonderland?

No, this is real, and the news just keeps getting worse.

One more green tech company is leaving California. Nordic Windpower, a Berkeley-based wind turbine manufacturer currently operating in three different locations, announced this week that it is leaving California and moving to Kansas City.

Instead of letting the solar industry succeed or fail on its own, the Obama administration keeps providing solar crack to the California global warming junkies, and Schwarzenegger is gladly accepting.  “The solar sector received its Christmas present a few days early this year when President Obama signed into law a one-year extension of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Section 1603 program, also known as the cash-grant program or the TGP,” reported Solar Industry Magazine.

Wind, solar, and ethanol are all green technologies that don’t produce enough energy to even operate a house full time.

And in the latest line of government green handouts, and another big rook, is the Chevy Volt. Several of the big auto magazines reported that the Volt uses its gasoline engine in a way that was similar to most hybrids, ultimately questioning whether the car was really just an advanced hybrid instead of an electric. Vehicle line executive Doug Parks explained, “The engine never drives the wheels directly. The engine only generates electricity, and it doesn’t do that until the battery is depleted. Electric power is the only way to move the car.”

Free Press columnist Mark Phelan, wrote, “The engine turns on when the battery — charged from a plug-in outlet — is depleted. It spins a generator that produces more eletricity. The engine can simply never move the Volt on its own, several GM executives and engineers said.”

If you take the battery out, the engine will still run, but the car will not move.

Where do green tech advocates think the electricity for the vehicle comes from? It’s not coming from that disemboweled nuclear plant east of Sacramento.

The elephant in the room is the ongoing need for coal. The chief use of coal is for electricity generation, but most people have no idea where electricity comes from.

The United States has more than 100 coal plants, responsible for 57 percent of the electricity generated in the country.

And, nearly 90 percent of America’s electricity is generated by three fuels: Coal, nuclear and natural gas.

But the primary use of coal is for electricity generation.

Sally Benson, a climate and energy expert at Stanford University, testified before the Legislature recently, and said that while much of the debate in California has been surrounding converting its energy system to solar and wind renewable energy, that is not likely to happen even by 2050.

While environmental groups may have successfully sold naïve California voters on “renewable energy” while successfully leading campaigns against coal-burning power and new nuclear plants, Benson said basic engineering is still needed to make the all-renewable dream happen.

And proving the inadequacy of current alternative green technologies, Benson said that advances in batteries and other energy storage systems are needed in order to make solar and wind power available and reliable on a 24-hour-a-day basis.

“With no change in the future, 80 percent of our energy will continue to come from fossil fuel,” she explained.

Joe Vranich, The Business Relocation Coach, keeps track of companies leaving the state to relocate in business-friendly states. As of October, he had calculated that 193 companies left California in 2010. But on Dec. 6, Vranich added another 35 to the list. “35 companies have left California completely, or re-directed substantial capital to build facilities out of state that in an earlier era would have been built here,” he wrote.

While the state of the state crumbles, Schwarzenegger and his green cronies can crow all they want about green technologies while jumping on the gravy train of federal funds.

Phelan summed it up best:, “Add to GM’s checkered record, and it’s a short trip from poorly reported blogs to ‘everybody knows’ GM lied about whether the car is really electric. If you don’t believe Parks and the independent testers who’ve driven the car, though, ask the federal government. It has approved the Volt for a $7,500 tax credit that only applies to electric vehicles. Hybrids need not apply.”

Green technology alone will not pull California up from the abyss – not as long as another 228 companies are saying ‘So Long’ to California in 2010.

–Katy Grimes