Since the financial success of “cleantech” seems to be heavily dependent on the dubious cap-and-trade bill now in the U.S. Senate, it seems that CalPERS is risking a lot of retiree money on a piece of legislation that may never pass and, if it does, may very well be an economic disaster — even for the rentseekers it is designed to enrich.
Calpers lost $56.2 billion during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. So what’s another $200 million?
President Obama’s stimulus plan to weatherize America may take more than a generation to break even — if it ever does.
States will spend an average of $6,500 to weatherize homes under the plan, according to a report in Greenwire. Eligible homes house families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, about $44,000 per year for a family of four.
In Indiana, which just received the first tranche of the $132 million in caulking industry welfare coming its way, the average annual home heating cost is about $1,000.
As Obama’s caulking program hopes to reduce average home heating bills by 32 percent — or about $320 per year in Indiana — it could take more than 20 years for the program to break even.
[This space reserved for the photo-op of the Caulker-in-Chief in action!]
In its article “Fossil-energy interests contribute heavily to GOP in climate fight” (July 22), Greenwire reports that,
Oil companies, electric utilities and the coal industry have poured more than $250,000 this year into the coffers of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the party’s House fundraising arm that has played a lead role in attacking Democrats who supported climate legislation.
Gee… I wonder how much Al Gore, his partners at Kleiner-Perkins and Generation Investment Management, Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms, General Electric and all the USCAP companies, the wind, solar and biofuels industries, and all the other climate/energy rentseekers have “poured” into the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — or is that not worth reporting, Greenwire?
In the 1960s and 1970s, German companies and laboratories churned out futuristic technologies, from novel types of nuclear reactors to the world’s first magnetic-levitation train. In the early 1980s, Germany was one of the first countries to develop a national plan for genetics research, setting up labs in Munich, Cologne, and Heidelberg. Per capita, German scientists applied for more biotech patents than Americans did.
Yet only a few years later, German pharmaceutical companies like BASF and Bayer postponed production plans and moved much of their research abroad. Germany lost its spot at the cutting edge of biotech. One reason was the pull of a powerful new startup culture that had developed around American universities in the 1980s. But there was a more sinister reason as well: a powerful coalition of environmental activists, church leaders, politicians, and journalists mobilized fears against medical biotechnology as a dangerous meddling with nature, an attack on human dignity reminiscent of Nazi eugenics. With much of the public behind them, lawmakers tightened regulations, bureaucrats refused to grant permits, and even academic research facilities became targets of righteous protest. Today, most Germans once again accept medical biotech, but most of the industry’s leading companies are found in the U.S.
The American Meteorological Society this week endorsed federal funding of geoengineering — that is, the Society believes that taxpayers should support surplus, unemployable, over-educated madmen willing to research how best to blot out the sun and implement other bizarre schemes in hopes of slowing climate change. Our only question is where the giant rubber-room research facility will be constructed.
Amid the worst budget crisis in its history, the state of California is set to make things worse at the behest of the wind and solar industries.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is set to increase the state’s so-called renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 33% by 2020, up from 20% — meaning that one-third of the electricity produced in the state must come from so-called renewable sources like wind and solar, according to a report in Restructuring Today.
To meet that standard, the utility industry will need to spend an estimated $115 billion over the next 10-plus years. Given that only about $23.5 billion in financing was available annually for renewable projects nationwide before the financial crisis, the new standard would require that California utilities obtain about 50% of available funding each year.
CARB chairman Mary Nichols, a Democrat appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger and a former Clinton administration EPA appointee, admitted to Restructuring Today that,
It’s going to be a challenge to reach that goal without negatively impacting reliability or leading to huge cost boosts for consumers.
A California Senate consultant told Restructuring Today that since the state’s budget crisis has been “temporarily” resolved, the bill containing the new standard is likely to pass and be signed into law this September.
The new standard will essentially require that each man, woman and child in California borrow about $3,108 in principal alone to pay for it — that is, the privilege of paying higher electricity prices for no environmental gain.
The [New York Department of Environmental Conservation] has been getting complaints by state workers that waterless urinals at their building have created a fetid mess complete with “splash back,” “puddles (of urine) on the floor,” and “unpleasant odor.”
Those using the restrooms at DEC’s 625 Broadway headquarters grew so disgusted that in April they filed a union grievance alleging a health hazard and a violation of work rules protecting employees from “elements, such as filth or pathogens,” according to records obtained by the Times Union.
The grievance was dismissed by DEC, then taken to the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations earlier this month where it also was dismissed.
Nonetheless, GOER’s Assistant Director for Safety and Health, Charles Vejvoda, conceded that “if indeed back splash or public urination is occurring, there is a violation of human dignity and decorum.”
He also recommended that the union and DEC try to work out the issues. Displaying some bureaucratic humor, he listed possible remedies including the use of such protective equipment as rain gear, aprons, rubber boots, gloves, or even reducing fluid intake, but concluded that wasn’t feasible.
Since its grievance was dismissed, the Public Employees Federation union has begun urging DEC employees to e-mail and otherwise inform management when there is a problem.
New York blames its employees. Although Assistant Director for Safety and Health, Charles Vejvoda, conceded that…
“… if indeed back splash or public urination is occurring, there is a violation of human dignity and decorum…”
… he also wondered…
… if workers were exaggerating the extent of problems, writing “this reviewer does find the assertion that someone is ‘urinating above the urinals’ quite troubling inasmuch as such a healthy stream would be uncommon in a workforce whose average age is 48.”
He also suggested that “certain individuals may come up short,” as an explanation for the complaint about puddles.
Now that the greens have screwed up urinals, who wouldn’t want to hand over national energy policy to them?
The new green catch-phrase?
H/t to WGY’s Al Roney for bringing this item to our attention.
The ongoing global recession has reduced UK productivity so much that the nation’s CO2 emissions are below the levels set by the Kyoto Protocol, reportsthe Guardian.
But don’t expect the greens top be happy about it. Sandbag’s Bryony Worthington told The Guardian that,
“With too many rights to pollute in circulation, the [Kyoto emissions trading scheme] is in danger of being rendered irrelevant. At a time when other countries are looking to set up their own trading schemes and the world is set to debate a global deal on how to tackle climate change, [this] flagship policy urgently needs rescuing – starting with much tougher caps.”
So a recession isn’t good enough for the greens. We need a depression.
Toyota Prius drivers get 50% more traffic violations than the average driver.
Collision costs with hybrids are about 17% higher than average.
For 2006 hybrid models, insurer costs were 75% higher than average.
The apparent explanation lies in the fact that hybrid owners drive about 25% more than non-hybrid owners — you know, using up all the pre-paid gasoline built into the higher sticker price of hybrids.
… and that’s “the lo-down on hybrid cars,” as Traffic might have sung.
