Californians just rolled 96 million plastic balls (at 36 cents a piece) into a reservoir that serves Los Angeles in an attempt to shade the water and curb evaporation. What are the plastic balls made from? Oil.
The solar industry is jubilant over President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, released in its final form on Monday, August 3. The same day, however, some other news reminded the public of what happens when government policy mandates and incentivizes a favored energy source: Taxpayer dollars are gobbled up and investors lose out. “The fundamental objective of the Clean Power Plan,” according to Solar Industry Magazine, “is the phasing out of coal-fired power plants in favor of low- or zero-emission sources…” It does this through three “building blocks,” one of which is: “increase electricity generation from non-emitting renewable sources, such as solar [...]
The Clean Power Plan might be more aptly named the Grab Power Plan -- as its intent is to empower the EPA to grab power over electricity regulation and force a shift toward unproven renewable energy (if it were clearly a better deal, there would be no need for mandates). States are lining up to oppose this power grab, which might result in massive energy shortages long before 2030.
Obama's "Clean Power Plan" will hammer everything we make, grow, ship, eat and do. It will impair our livelihoods, living standards, liberties and life spans.
Question for Governor Brown: Had Henry Ford never mass-produced the automobile or Edison invented the light bulb, had we never had the industrial revolution and lived in squalor, would California have had one more drop of rain?