510-537-1796 ethanol Stella Sez

ALGORE is my shepherd; I shall not think.
He maketh me lie down with green fascists:
He leadeth me beside the still-freezing waters.
He selleth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of self-righteousness for his own sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of reason,
I will fear no logic: for thou art with me;
Thy family oil fortune and thy 10,000 square foot home, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a movie in the presence of contradictory evidence:
Thou anointest mine head with nonsense; my fear runneth over.
Surely blind faith and hysteria shall follow me all the days of my life:
and I will dwell in the house of ALGORE forever.

In the last 20 years, Southern California’s population has doubled, but the air quality has gotten BETTER, not worse. New rules by government bureaucrats, however, are coming into play that will increase the costs of electricity, gasoline, roads, homes, services, you name it, for literally no significant betterment of air quality, but rather for the politics of science’s latest fad: so-called global warming caused by greenhouse gas. The same greenhouse gas you exhale every day!

Californians already pay among already the steepest prices in the nation for gasoline. A good deal of this is due to the state’s mandatory unique gasoline formula and combined taxes at the pump which are the country’s second highest.

Now, new actions by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are poised to drive those costs even higher.

The agency’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which would require significantly increased use of alternative fuels while dictating reduction in the use of reliable, affordable conventional fuels, is likely to cost consumers billions, according to the California Energy Commission. The Commission also expressed doubt over the existence, availability and cost of the mandated alternative fuels and, perhaps more importantly, over the plausibility of CARB’s assumptions.

Then there’s Cap and Trade, a cornerstone of AB 32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act. Projections place the cost of cap and trade at anywhere from 50 cents to one dollar per gallon added to the retail price of gasoline here just for the 37 million in CA, for a go-it-alone State that contributes less than 1% of the GHG’s being emitted into the worlds atmosphere, and billions in increased general energy costs.

Most recently, CARB adopted a package of “Clean Car” regulations that requires automakers to put 1.4 million hybrids, electric and fuel cell vehicles on the road. The rules also mandate the installation of fueling stations for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, at a cost CARB staff estimates at up to $2 million apiece.

To put this in perspective, there are virtually no hydrogen vehicles on the road today, and CARB’s most optimistic projection estimates those cars will comprise less than two percent of all vehicles in the state by 2017.

With the expectation everyone had a zero emissions vehicle and we used no transportation fuels, how do we replace over $5 billion annually to the California Transportation Fund that is currently being paid by taxes on our transportation fuels? Well the answer is ANOTHER TAX: Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is aware of lost gas tax for roads/bridges/Highway Trust Fund – they are proposing by 2020 a Vehicle Mile Travel (VMT) type of tax.

Here are the inconvenient truths: Due not in small part to CARB’s incremental actions over the years, vehicles and fuels in California are already the cleanest in the world. That has come at a cost, as evidenced by the higher vehicle costs and overall energy costs in our state.

Now, under cover of AB 32, CARB is forcing billions of dollars in higher costs on our struggling economy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming.

The problem is that California and its 37 million citizens contribute less than 1% of the world’s greenhouse gases. Solving a world GHG problem is not the responsibility of the few that live in California. Maybe China and India with 2.4 BILLION contributors may be, but not California’s 37 million.
Recent and pending laws will add an energy tax on those that contribute 1% of the worlds’ GHGs, while the other 99% of the world will have an overwhelming economic advantage over California businesses and consumers.

CARB touts California’s “leadership” in the war on climate change. The “leadership” premise is similar to crossing the street within the confines of the crosswalk and getting hit by a bus – you’re right, but “DEAD RIGHT!”

Those who feel that spending billions to reduce greenhouse gases in a State that contributes less than 1% of the world’s GHG’s may be right, but they are dead right as it accelerates the exodus of businesses and jobs from California, and an unemployment rate that consistently remains among the highest in the country.

With California transportation fuels already among the country’s most expensive and our gas taxes the second highest in the USA, it’s impossible to justify the imposition of billions in higher fuel costs just to retain the title of “leader” in greenhouse gas reductions.

CARB would do well to get out of the crosswalk and stop throwing California’s economy further under the bus.