March 5th 2009
LA (LA!) Rejecting Solar Initiative
P
resident Obama’s kowtow to the green lobby – tens of billions of dollars in green tech incentives and tens of billions of dollars in old energy penalties – was on the ballot in LA yesterday. That’s LA, as in Hollyweird and Dem strongholds, as in Ed Begley and abounding Greenie fanatics.
Measure B would give LA’s Dept. of Water & Power authority to install 400 megawatts-worth of solar power on rooftops throughout the city, an action which curiously would increase, not decrease, the cost of power by two or three percent. It was backed by the mayor, the labor unions, the environmentalists and (natch) the LA Times, who all said it would help clean the air by speeding the demise of coal fired power plants. High-fives all around!
Well, the morning after has hit and Measure B is losing in a squeaker, 50.3% to 49.7%. It might still win, but even if it does, voters in LA have sent a couple signals by their vote.
First, they are not in a spending mood. Another two or three percent on their utility bills does not make them happy. Imagine what they’ll think when they hear about the impact Obama’s carbon cap and trade will have on all their bills.
And second, they don’t like dirty green. Opponents to B successfully positioned the vote as all about power – political power – that was rushed onto the ballot without due process. They pointed out that DWP is free to install solar without a vote of the people, so the ballot measure was a way for the city council and its union buddies to lock organized labor into all future municipal energy projects.
If LA can’t pass (or can just barely pass) a measure like this, why should the rest of America agree to the costly green energy measures crammed into Obama’s stimulus bill, which was crammed through Congress so quickly no one had time to read it?
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