South Carolina Endorses Green Socialism

Back in 2007, Gov. Mark Sanford created the South Carolina Climate, Energy & Commerce Advisory Committee (CECAC). Today, it was announced that CECAC had produced it’s final paper on the results. And they are scary…

First, what I didn’t notice until now is the composition of the group. Take a look through the list. Notice anything? There’s lots of academics, industry leaders and special interest groups represented. But not a single “common man”. Nobody is there representing the people of South Carolina. Which makes the recommendations not that surprising.

Here’s the final report in all of it’s glory. Covering 600+ pages, I doubt that anyone is going to take the time to read through all of it’s heft, including the myriad of policy suggestions that the group is making. Here, I’m going to focus on the “cross-cutting” issues, because those are the policy ideas that are the most disturbing to me, and to anyone who values freedom of ideas.

Mostly this is on the basis of “education”. This is the FIRST paragraph on their education section:

A well-articulated, meaningful, broadly implemented and sustained educational process is the means to achieve effective and durable actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Much of
the response to climate change requires a disciplined alteration in lifestyle that shares many things in common with a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, people have to be motivated to attempt and succeed with basic changes in lifestyles. Individual responsibility, community action, conservation, and prevention are the principles upon which change of this magnitude is accomplished. It is no less than a shift in culture. The effort will benefit all aspects of society.

The educational process must define the basic aspects of climate change, including the evidence for cause-and-effect issues; it must specify the significance of climate change for the target audience and each individual; it must clarify and emphasize the role of the target audience and each of its members for a plan of action to mitigate and adapt to climate change; and it must relate the necessary changes in all aspects of people’s lives and their basic beliefs and values— e.g., health, environment, and economic viability.

Public education and outreach programs must build upon existing efforts and institutions, avoid unnecessary duplication, and promote best practices. The sustained success of policy actions recommended by the CECAC, as well as those that might evolve in the future, depends upon lifestyle changes resulting from education, experience, and practice. (All emphasis added)

This is a shocking amount of changing people that’s involved here. But that’s just the start of it. Here are some sections of the policy recommendations that should be, at the least worrisome for anyone who values academic freedom:

• Future generations—Integrate climate change and healthy lifestyle issues into educational
  curricula, post-secondary degree programs, and professional licensing. Emphasize the common basis and goals of response to climate change with protecting the environment and
  achieving optimum health for all people. Consider creating the South Carolina Health Corps, as outlined in Annex B of this document.

• What this means: Teachers will HAVE to follow the party line if they want to be certified as teacher. It will also mean that some climate change education may become required for graduation from HS or college, and this education will have an environmentalist bend to it. I’ll go into the Hitler Youth Health Corps further down.
• The coordinators for each of the target audiences should be credible with those audiences and have the ability to recruit and energize statewide networks of volunteers within each target audience. The state legislature should provide funding for the basic operations of the committee and the coordinators. Funding should be structured in such a way as to take maximum advantage of established mechanisms for education of each of the audiences.
• What this means: The idea is to get as many people “fired up” about climate change as possible. And it’s going to be paid for by your money, whether you like it or not.
• Level of Group Support: Unanimous
• What This Means: All of the people in the advisory panel approved of these measures. There was probably strong pressure to put out a united front (about 90% of these had unanimous approval). I don’t know how you get 20+ supposedly independent people together and get them to agree THIS MUCH on something as controversial as climate change/environmentalism. This goes to speak to the probability that the people put on the committee were selected more on ideological purity than representativeness.
• The state legislature should provide funding to support development and ongoing revision to the
  state Climate Change Adaptation Plan, including (but not limited to) funds to support the analyses needed to guide and inform the development and implementation of the plan and to cover expenses incurred by the Commission on Adaptation to Climate Change and its members.

• What This Means: A legislative blank check for the panel. Not surprising considering that this is coming from the group that would BENEFIT from the blank check.
• Add climate change to public education performance standards for science and social studies; identify gaps in climate change education and specific curricula to fill gaps. [From their notes] Someone has to be the initial teacher of the science of climate change. Integrate climate change and sustainability into core college curricula. (A more direct way of saying what I gleaned from above.)
• Introduce core competencies on climate change into professional licensing programs (energy efficiency in building design and construction, use of recycled materials, etc.).
• What This Means: Now even your plumber has to know the party line on climate change.
• Identify individual community leaders who are not yet acting on climate change, and make a special effort to educate and encourage them to act.
• What This Means: Target the politicians and those in the community who do not parrot the environmentalist/global alarmist policy. May include shaming or punishing those people.
• Develop and use a state-based “brand” on climate awareness and action.
• What This Means: You probably start seeing the Palmetto Tree/Crescent Moon tied into environmentalist agitprop. Possibly the same with “Carolina Girls: Greenest in the World”.

And that’s just ONE section. I’m going to go after the Hitler Green Youth in my next post, because it’s just that troublesome.

And these ideas are not just limited to South Carolina, as 30 other states have done something very similar. For example, compare the South Carolina website to the Montana website, or the Vermont website.

Look similar. I can only hope that South Carolina didn’t spend too much for the Center for Climate Strategy’s expertise. Because they’re pretty much copying the same exact template for every state. Which means that it’s pretty likely that Gov. Sanford got steamrolled on this one. Which is a shame, because Gov. Sanford is supposed to be a maverick Republican, who’s supposed to be a hawk on fiscal issues. I guess not here.

Review of Pickens on Leno

You can see the video here:

http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/episodes/#vid=648021

Skip to the 35:00 mark, that’s when he stops doing his old man impression and gets to the Pickens Plan.

And of course, he started with the $700 billion lie, just like I thought he would. He said that he did the analysis ($700 billion and 70% of consumed oil is foreign) then went with his plan. If the analysis is wrong, which it is, what does that say about his plan?

Then he asserts that we (The US) is paying for both sides of the war, but doesn’t specify which war (Iraq? Afghanistan? On Terror?).

Then he states that the OPEC countries had revenues of $250 billion and now that’s $1.25 trillion. I’ll have to check that out in a bit to see if that’s correct or not.

Then he says “If you want to see where your money is going, go over to the middle east and look at those buildings.” Which contradicts his assertion that oil money is funding terrorism. If oil money is funding terrorism, then it’s not going to building Dubai. I’m pretty sure that terrorists, at least of the fundamentalist Islamic type, do not like Dubai, but they don’t bomb it because they’re Arabs and that would put a pretty big negative on their public opinion. It’s easy to stay popular if you’re attacking a foreigner, it’s less so if you’re attacking someone who looks and speaks like you. But that’s a different story that T. Boone isn’t going try and catch up.

But then he says that he “doesn’t criticize them, but that we’re to blame for the fix we’re in.” Which is a pretty big paradox he sets up. Does he think we’re funding terrorists through the middle east countries we import oil from? Or does he think that there’s nothing wrong with what the Middle East is spending their money on? But you can’t get both ways there.

He then goes into the plan where he says that we have an abundance of natural gas and his usual “it’s cheaper, cleaner and ours” routine he’s done many times before. They get into a little banter about how the US is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas, which is true. He doesn’t mention that there are other countries that have alot more natural gas than we do. What happens when the US runs out of our reserves?

The discussion then turns to municipal bus fleets, and T. Boone uses the opportunity to go after Dallas for considering to run their buses on diesel, about which he says that “clean diesel” is an oxymoron. Jay then compares using diesel like a drug dealer, where they give you the price low and then raise the price later. T. Boone agrees with that analogy.

And again, Pickens is wrong. It’s natural gas that’s historically “cheap”, though rising in cost along with gas. Here’s why. Oil is already been priced high, because we’re already using it as the main transportation fuel. If Dallas is struggling with the decision, already knowing that diesel has already hit the $5 a gallon mark, then what is it going to go from here? However, natural gas is increasing in usage and the price is where it is right now. But what happens in the future (which is what this discussion is all about) is when the Pickens Plan is implemented and everyone switches to natural gas? The price increases much more than diesel, which people switch away from. So it’s actually natural gas that’s like the drug. Which makes Pickens the drug dealer, in this analogy.

He then tops it off with a threat to move to Fort Worth because their fleet runs on natural gas. I’ll believe that when I see it.

Jay then mentions that it’s easy to convert cars to natural gas, though I don’t see anything in a cursory search of the internet that suggests easy (and this isn’t “change the oil” easy, we’re talking “replace the transmission”). 98% of car owners aren’t going to be able to do this themselves, which is more of a sign of the complexity of the situation than anything else.

But then T. Boone has the revealing moment of the interview. He states that “he’s focused on trucks” and gives some statistics on that. What he doesn’t mention that is that the reason he’s interested is because he has a giant financial stake in getting trucks to run on natural gas. He’s on the board of directors of Clean Energy Fuels Corp, a supplier of natural gas to fleet vehicles (trucks). If he can get his plan to focus on trucks, then his company can see a large increase in demand for his services.

And lo and behold, he’s mentioned countless times that he wants the federal government to FORCE fleet vehicles to run on natural gas. In fact, at the 38:41 mark, he almost lets this cat out of the bag. He says:

I want those trucks. And I want the government, and I want the administration coming in to—you know, I started this on July the 8th.

See, he almost said what he wanted to do was force companies to use natural gas. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that servicing fleet vehicles is EXACTLY what his company does. No politicking there at all, no financial benefit to him personally. Nope, not at all.

They wrap up by Jay mentioning that it’s about a $1.50 a gallon to fill up natural gas. This might be true… if you live in Utah or Oklahoma. (It’s no coincidence that these are two major producing areas in the US). Otherwise, you’re seeing above $2 per unit.

And he ends up with a prediction of $200-300 a barrel of oil if we continue with our current consumption. Considering that we haven’t even reached his prediction of $150 a barrel that he said we’d reach this summer, I’d take this with a bit of a grain of salt.

He also never got around to covering the wind part of his plan, but that part also has as many holes in it as his natural gas plan. So it’s probably best not to take up more time, but he did run long on the natural gas part.

So overall, he used his folksy style to cover up a bunch of lies and self-interest for the show. And the worse part is that he probably wasn’t very entertaining to boot. But we’ll see if his book promotion tour brings up any interest in his plan or not.

Sanford issues oxymoron

Sanford issues voluntary evacuation order – Local – Myrtle Beach Sun News.

What’s a voluntary order?  This is one of the more amusing things I’ve heard about the storm that really isn’t, but the media really, REALLY wants it to be.  They’re hoping that it’ll get back to hurricane force winds, though the prognosis isn’t very good for that to happen, especially considering that Hanna continues to weaken.

And as he was announcing the order, even the Governor had to reiterate that it was voluntary.  So why give the order in the first place?  How about issuing an advisary?  Or a suggestion?  But it has to be an order to make it sound important, even if it doesn’t have any meat to it and most people are going to ignore it anyway.

And the best part:

Gov. Mark Sanford just told beachside South Carolinians in Horry and Georgetown counties that if they feel more comfortable getting out of the wind and rain forecast for the next 36 hours, they can begin to evacuate.

So South Carolinians needed to be told by the governor that it’s ok for them to evacuate.  Thank God he said this, because people might have been forced to STAY if they weren’t comfortable with being in the storms path.  Yeeesh.  Have we become so dependent on the state that we can no longer take our safety into our own hands?

The answer is:  of course not.

So far, we have the Governor issuing the voluntary order, the local schools closing up shop for the day as well as the local university, and yet everyone I talked to today was pretty much unfazed with this storm.  As usual, it’s a matter of the tail wagging the dog, as the media is trying to make something out of this.  And as a result, it’s forcing the government to make sure it doesn’t look bad with the media.  In fact, it’s IKE that the people I talked to today are more worried about than Hanna, but that would require long term planning, something the drive-bys are uninterested in doing.

Meanwhile, while the local government employees will get their day off, I’ll be making the drive to the beach, like I do everyday.  Except they have me going from SOUTH to NORTH, instead of NORTH to SOUTH like I normally do.  Which makes no sense, but the bureaucratic dictates of someone two hundred miles away and has probably never done the drive before must be obeyed.  So I have to do something useless and more likely to be problematic, just because someone thinks they have a better idea of how to do my job than the person who has done the job for the past year.  Just like pretty much every bureaucracy.
And I’m sure they also didn’t think that this would force me into the major evacuation route instead of driving against it.  But they wouldn’t think about important details like that.  So I’ll probably be stuck in traffic on US 501 or US 378 tomorrow, all because some genius in middle management came up with a great idea.

Electric Cars Closer to Universal Standards

Remember what I said about government intrusion into how much it costs to fuel your car?

You can apply that to electrics as well, except that the electric market is even more confusing and more tightly regulated than the natural gas market. Everything is micromanaged economically in the electricity market. Even in so-called deregulated markets. I say so-called in this case, because in the course of allowing consumers to choose their electricity suppliers, they added more regulations to govern how the process would work. In fact, there are probably more regulations with consumer choice than under the previous regime. But that’s more of a reflection on the nature of bureaucracy than anything else.

But as an outgrowth in the desire (increased demand) for electric vehicles, electric companies and car manufacturers are coming together to create a common set of standards for the charging of electric vehicles. This isn’t a bad thing, as this will be necessary for the common US/Canada market and to enable cars to be used in multiple places.

But the best part? No mention of government anywhere. So the next time someone, probably a politician, tells you government is needed to develop technology for anything, remember this article and the fact that the private sector can come together without prodding (ie mandates) from the feds.

Ok, I have to make one snarky comment. I found this quote amusing:

“Customers could drive from Montreal to San Antonio and then move to San Francisco and they could be connected and charged,” he said. “We are working together to make sure this can happen.”

Given the 40 mile range of the Volt, the only way this trip is happening is on the back of a trailer.

Pickens Supports Gore for Energy Czar

I really didn’t want this to be an anti-Pickens blog, but if the guy insists on making stupid ideas and backing them up with more stupidity, then I have to call him out on it. It doesn’t look like anyone in the ancient media is going to do that.

So this post is about an interview that T. Boone Pickens gave to the National Journal about his campaign. Unfortunately, the interview at the National Journal is gated, so I won’t bother linking to that, but the Free Republic does have a copy, so you can check out the strangely formatted interview there.

Here, I’m going to just highlight the part where he praises former Vice President Al Gore.