California, Cap-And-Trade and the AB 32 Folly

For global warming alarmists, efforts to curb greenhouse gasses has moved far beyond a legislative priority, it's reached a religious or philosophy level. I've said and written for quite some time that environmentalism is the new socialism -- a means by the few to control the behavior of the many, irrespective of costs or impact on society at large.

Governor Schwarzenegger and his other "green-thumbed" buddies hailed the passage of AB 32 a number of years ago as ground breaking, a piece of legislation that would be copied by other states in the effort reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Ha! Thankfully that's not the case.

This morning, the San Diego Union Tribune editorialized about the folly of the greenies...saying that in everywhere but California, cap-and-trade legislation has been put on hold. Why? Because it's very costly and it is a job killer, not a job creator. My favorite part of the editorial is:

But in Sacramento – even with unemployment at a 70-year high of 12.7 percent – this common sense is assailed. Even as the respected, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office warns that AB 32’s implementation would force the loss of jobs, proposals to suspend AB 32 by Republican lawmakers and GOP gubernatorial candidates are ridiculed by the governor and the likely Democratic candidate to replace him.

California's Legislative Analyst Office, in a March 4, 2010, letter to State Senator Dave Cogdill indicated that in the near-term, AB 32's implementation would result in job loss. Shockingly (really?!?) the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and AB 32 supporters indicated that it would actually create jobs -- let me guess, those are those mythical "green jobs" that everyone crows about. You can find a copy of the LAO's letter to Cogdill by going to Greg Lucas' California Capitol blog (one of my favorites, by the way, if you're interested in what's happening in Sacramento).

Nationally, seven Democrat United States Senators, including Dianne Feinstein, called for cap-and-trade (really, it should be known as cap-and-tax) legislation to be put aside in favor of job creation and economic revitalization. With the Democrats already facing HUGE electoral losses this November, attempts to move a job-killing national energy tax - which would not make one bit of difference in reducing greenhouse gases - is simply not palatable. This tax would devastate the American economy and ruin many states on a permanent basis. But, going back to my original thesis -- cap and tax is not about legislative priorities. Environmentalism is the new socialism, whereby a "few" control the actions of the many...regardless of the costs...because the "few" know what we want better than we do.

But, in the ideological world of California's greenies, jobs and economic recovery be damned. They mindlessly push AB 32 in spite of its HUGE costs, its job-killing potential and, ultimately, its negative impact that will re-make the Golden State into a worker's paradise...where greater tax revenue flows to the state, government workers grow in number while private sector employment declines and business flee the state. This cycle will create the need for further tax revenues to feed the beast. You get the picture.

AB 32 needs to be suspended now, if not canceled permanently. Politicians can ignore the facts...but they are the facts and they do so at their own peril.

Public Sector Outpacing the Private Sector

USA Today posts a very troubling article today that points out one of the main reasons why the U.S. is in so much trouble -- a phenomenon that's being played out in Washington, DC right now, but is also being repeated at the state and local level throughout our country.

Essentially, to summarize the article, it states that federal employees earn more money than do their private sector counter parts.

My friends who support a big government say, "So what. What's wrong with that?" The answer is simple. Historically, men and women worked for the federal government (substitute state or local, as you see fit). They did so because while they made less money than private sector counter parts, they got a better retirement package, better health benefits and fewer hours (come and go as they please, plus all those holidays). Well, now because of the power of public employee unions, the government employees still have the "primo" retirement package, cadillac healthcare benefits and ample holidays...but their salaries exceed the private sector. I don't blame the unions for being effective advocates for their members...but I do blame the elected officials for caving to them on these unsustainable demands.

No wonder our local, state and federal governments are broke!

Creating and Saving "Green" Jobs...In China

I've always believed that the federal "stimulus" was a total crock -- a $787 billion boondoggle that funded big government and Democrat pet projects, but would do little to create jobs (or save them, too...but since that's a totally made-up statistic, I won't mention it here). Mind you, Barack, Biden and his Democrat pals all crowed about how the stimulus would halt unemployment at 8 percent...it's now at 9.7, having dropped from 10 percent. And, Barack indicated that it would create 3.6 million jobs...with 90 percent of those coming from the private sector. So much for the Obama Administration's prognostications.

Now, there are two interesting articles -- one in the Washington Post and another in Politico -- that calls attention to the fact that 79-percent of clean energy stimulus money grants were given to foreign firms. Maybe I've been looking at the "stimulus" all wrong. As the articles point out, four Senate Democrats -- yes, the President's own party -- are furious that the "stimulus" monies have been doled out to foreign companies.

In Obama's quest to make big oil and carbon-based fuel taboo, and in the quest to create the always illusive "green jobs," the President will do anything and everything in his plans to create these jobs...irrespective of where they are actually located. Heaven forbid that we have ample supplies of domestic energy supplies -- coal, natural gas, wind, solar, geothermal, etc. -- locally. Instead, Obama has to outsource these jobs to foreign countries. Interestingly, doesn't this just trade one "dependence" on foreign sources of energy for another?

Further proof that the "stimulus" is a sham. And, ultimately, who cares if jobs are green, red, black or brown. America just need jobs -- something that the Obama Administration has yet to create.