Let’s copy California and have less jobs, less money, less energy. Feel that Green Glory!

NSW (and a lot of Australia) is a closeted corner of the world where electronic news can take decades to arrive. The electrons themselves make it downunder in 150 milliseconds or so, but the message may never make it past the ABC-Fairfax filter. Apparently the highest office in NSW wants to emulate California. It’s like it’s 1994.

“When it comes to clean energy, we can be Australia’s answer to California.”

— Rob Stokes, NSW Environment Minister.*

Maurice Newman sets him straight in The Australian.

In short —  companies are fleeing from a green California to Texas where electricity is half the price. For some reason jobs, profits, products and opportunities are following the energy. California’s unemployment rate is 7.4%. Texas’ is 5.1%.

California dreaming is nuts in NSW

“The NSW government must also be oblivious to the steady exodus of Californian businesses and jobs. Companies like Toyota, which after 60 years has moved its US headquarters to Texas, or Occidental Petroleum, which after 50 years has left for Houston. Chevron is next. Other stalwarts like ARCO, Getty Oil, Union Oil, Fluor, Calpine and Intel have all moved in search of a more business friendly environment and lower energy costs. Texas has been the main beneficiary. It has added 200,000 jobs in the energy sector in the past decade while California has barely managed 20,000. Texas leads California in the export of hi-tech.”

“Meanwhile, in the real world, California’s unemployment rate is 7.4 per cent (fourth highest in the country). It compares to 5.1 per cent for Texas and the national rate of 6.1 per cent. California’s relative joblessness lends weight to the UK Versa Economics study, which found that for every job created in the wind industry 3.7 jobs are lost elsewhere.”

“Yet, with electricity prices already 40 per cent above the national average and twice as high as Texas, its aggressive policies are set to push up prices 47 per cent in real terms over the next 16 years. Is this really what the Baird government wants?”

The Australian.

The whole NSW government needs to start reading something other than the Sydney Morning Herald, and to swap the ABC for The Internet.

*Welcome to Australian politics — the NSW Baird government is conservative by Australian standards. It’s hard to believe how effective our media-filter is.

9.6 out of 10 based on 116 ratings

136 comments to Let’s copy California and have less jobs, less money, less energy. Feel that Green Glory!

  • #
    King Geo

    “In short – companies are fleeing from a green California to Texas where electricity is half the price. For some reason jobs, profits, products and opportunities are following the energy. California’s unemployment rate is 7.4%. Texas’ is 5.1%.”

    What two extremes – in sunny California we have the “Leftie Idealists” of which unfortunately many are quite wealthy e.g. the “Hollywood Set” – actors, directors etc. Many famous actors are promoting the CAGW scare. And many of the public are buying it because they know no better. The “Hollywood Set” are still rich and living the life of Reilly, but most of populace – Mr & Mrs Joe average, are struggling to cope with loss of real jobs, sky rocketing electricity prices etc etc. And don’t forget California is drowning in a mountain of debt.

    Now at the other extreme we have Texas – here we have the “real workers” – the “Rightie Realists” – in Texas there is low unemployment with many of the populace either engaged in the booming oil/gas industry or in oil/gas service industries.

    As I have said before the survival of the USA Economy will depend on the Texas-type States, not the California-type States.

    600

    • #
      Bones

      the “Hollywood Set”

      King Geo,you mean like governor Arnie Alphabet,straight from hollywood,doubled the debt and left.

      200

      • #
        King Geo

        Yes Arnie “The Terminator” is one of them and as a 2 term Governor of California he certainly did a good “terminator job” steering California’s Economy down the gurglar – thank god he was born in Austria and not the USA otherwise he probably would have followed in fellow actor Ronald’s steps and become President – only Ronald was a Republican Prez while Arnie would have been a Democrat Prez.

        130

      • #
    • #
      Yonniestone

      This sums up the “Hollywood set” nicely http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKZ4RolQxec people have to remember what these great stars lives revolve around, attention and getting paid for attention, most wouldn’t give a rats a$$ if what they spruiked wasn’t true or if it hurt anyone.

      The big problem now is the Hollywood elite are starting to believe their own bulls$#t and narcissists cashed up with an agenda they truly believe in is a very dangerous cocktail where democracy is concerned.

      I have absolutely no problem with people being wealthy, good for them, but they still have to adhere to the same laws as everyone else including the unwritten law of not shoving your personal views into other peoples lives, the consequences of breaking this law is varied.

      310

      • #
        Winston

        You are talking, Yonnie, about people who are practiced in the art of simulating being human.

        And that is before discussing what they actually do for a living.

        100

    • #
      Tim

      “Many famous actors are promoting the CAGW scare.”

      That is no accident. Money rules in that environment and everyone has their price. How many cigarette companies and car manufacturers are promoted (subliminally) on TV series and movies? Have a close look at your next TV movie and spot the car brands and the ‘hero’ that just happens to appear enjoying a cigarette.

      Even ‘Famous’ people can be bought and paid for by the highest bidder.

      90

    • #
      Rob Taylor

      Standby for the fit to hit the shan in California on Jan. 1st next year. The electorate voted for Cap and Trade. It comes into effect next year. Petrol prices will rise 50c per gallon overnight. The electorate was warned by the petroleum companies but was in such a brainwashed state of mind that it chose to ignore the warnings as just fearmongering by Big Oil.

      20

  • #
    thingadonta

    I think Rob Stokes was promoting a Hollywood movie production.

    20

  • #
    scaper...

    Oh dear, us Queenslanders better get started on building a big fence to keep the fleeing Mexicans from coming in. The way our mining approvals are going, we could build it of coal.

    No wonder Tom Switzer and family are moving up here.

    170

    • #
      Peter C

      WAIT with the fence! I haven’t got there yet.
      Very cold here in southern Mexico.

      150

      • #
        el gordo

        We’ll see icebergs off Margaret River within 20 years, because of global cooling, but somehow we have failed to get the message across to the masses. Aunty and Fairfax need a wakeup call.

        73

        • #
          Jaymez

          I think that is a big stretch given Icebergs aren’t currently sighted off Tasmania or NZ or even Ushuaia!

          40

          • #
            el gordo

            Yeah, just wishful thinking, but if the hiatus collapses and temperatures fall I think it feasible. Keep in mind that Antarctica is getting cooler as we speak.

            ‘In November and early December 2006, for only the second time in 75 years icebergs were visible on the ocean horizon from high hills near Dunedin, New Zealand.

            ‘The early voyages to Australia reported icebergs in similar latitudes to Tasmania and as far north as close to the Cape of Good Hope, while in 1868, one ship reported a sighting off Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia. In 1894 an iceberg was sighted in the western southern Atlantic in Brazilian latitudes.’

            70

            • #
              ROM

              William Buckley an escaped convict from the who decamped in December 1803 from the about to be abandoned settlement “Sullivan” near the present day Sorrento on Port Philip, went on to live with the local aboriginal people for the next 32 years.
              He was interviewed in his later life and his stories of the lives and legends of the native peoples were written down by John Morgan in 1852 in a book The life and adventures of William Buckley

              Apparently one of the local aboriginal legends that Buckley recounted was of that of great white islands drifting past out to sea.

              From which we can ascertain they were most likely ice bergs as far north as the southern coasts of Victoria,.

              How many centuries or tens of thousands of years into the past that occurred we don’t know but it was most likely towards the end of the last major ice age episode of around 21,000 to 19,000 years before the present [ BP ] .
              Although there has been no doubt some very cold periods in those last 20,000 years which were well short of an Ice Age but still brought ice bergs as far north as the southern coasts of Australia.

              Another group of legends spoke of the hunting parties across the vast grass covered plains of what is now Port Phillip which can also be dated to around the same period as the ice age ended and the seas began to rise until they rose past the height of the Bar to Pt Phillip and began to flood the bay to today’s levels.

              And that was a also around the time that the Tasmanian aboriginals were cut off from contact with the mainland and from then on their technology stagnated due to to low a population that was capable of generating innovators to maintain and increase technological advancement .
              Their limited hunting and fishing practices and technologies started to go backwards from that cut off period 20,000 years ago until when white man arrived in the early 1800’s they were a few in number and a far more primitive peoples than the mainland aboriginal tribes.
              They had in fact lost the knowledge to make fire, relying instead on natural fire events and carrying the fire or hot coals to rekindle the fire at the next camp.
               
              Even here the southern Australian tribal people were more primitive than the northern Australian aboriginal peoples due to the last major influx or wave of Aboriginal peoples over the land bridges again when sea ;levels were about a 125 metres lower some 20,000 to 25000 years ago.

              The earlier arrivals were from a number of earlier migrations and influxes of aboriginal peoples originally out of SE Asia and eastern India over the land bridges some 50,000 or 60,000 years ago.
              The later migrations and arrivals of aboriginal peoples forced those earlier aboriginal peoples south using better and more sophisticated tactics in their wars.
              Even today there are quite large differences genetically and in physique between the southern aboriginal groups and the much later, 30,000 to 40,000 years later arriving northern aboriginal groups.

              60

        • #
          Apoxonbothyourhouses

          Could we sneak one in overnight? Not that that would get a run on SMH or the abc.

          00

    • #
      scaper...

      Let’s copy California and have less jobs, less money, less energy. Feel that Green Glory!

      Four simple words…”Not on my watch”!

      21

  • #

    Maurice Newman has it right. Pity he could not fix the ABC.

    90

  • #
    Davet916

    “California’s unemployment rate is 7.4%. Texas’ is 5.1%.” Don’t you believe it for a minute.

    California under-reports the employment percentage by not counting those who have fallen out of the job market, given up or no longer get unemployment insurance. So, if those folks were counted the rate would be more like 20.4% or more. Because of them, we have a fairly strong underground economy.

    I’m not blaming CA only, Texas probably does the same thing. Don’t trust statistics they’re too easy to falsify and politicians don’t want a negative report on their watch. We have entire strip malls and shopping centers either empty or being torn down. There is no recovery here in the capitol. Remember, every person hired by any branch of government is a burden on all the entrepaneurs and private companies paying taxes. To that degree, should they even be counted as employed. Maybe on a different type of dole? Just a thought.

    Davet

    320

    • #
      Rob Taylor

      I live in Texas. The unemployment figures are probably about right this time. School districts can’t hold on to school bus drivers. As soon as they have a year or two of commercial experience, bus drivers are heading to the oil fields to drive fracking trucks for $80-100K per year. Any construction or remodelling company can’t find enough employees to complete projects on time. Homebuilding in the oil fields cannot occur fast enough. Aside from employee sourcing issues, houses are being snapped up off the plan.

      20

    • #
      KinkyKeith

      Speaking of the unemployed or underemployed my recent experiece comparing US airports with Japan.

      http://joannenova.com.au/2014/07/weekend-unthreaded-44/#comment-1520954

      KK

      00

  • #
    handjive

    California. Are we there yet?
    ~ ~ ~
    “The wave generator that became stuck offshore from Carrickalinga while being towed to south-east South Australia may be recycled for parts.

    The $7 million unit was damaged in March, en route from Adelaide to Port MacDonnell.

    The receiver of failed energy company Oceanlinx says it is still negotiating a settlement with insurers, which could take another nine months.

    Mr Rositano says an exclusion zone will remain around it but it is not posing a threat to the environment.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-30/damaged-wave-generator-may-be-recycled/5635284
    . . .
    The Four ‘R’s of Sustainability:

    Reduce * Re-use * Recycle * Rip-Off

    210

    • #

      Going broke? So looks like an ‘Insurance job’ eh?

      01

    • #
      Lawrie Ayres

      I read this last night before going to bed. Big mistake. Had to fire off an angry email to a green conservative. I reminded Stokes that the vegetation laws the Libs said they would repeal before the last election and which he had failed to repeal probably led to the unfortunate death of his departmental officer at Moree. The alleged shooter was a harassed, 79 year old farmer who said he had had enough of the current laws preventing him from farming.

      30

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        I read it in the local paper a few hours ago.

        Sad sad sad.

        In a period when there are so many farmer suicides WHY is the compassion industry so silent??

        This crap has led to the bushfire deaths mainly in Victoria of about 190 people in recent years and left the rest of the country prone to death and destruction by fire as later happened everywhere but most spectacularly in the blue mountains and Tasmania.

        People on farm who have mortgages should be able to expect that land usage rights at purchase will not alter.

        Restriction on land use will impoverish farmers.

        Green crap has a lot to answer for.

        KK

        10

  • #
    Ross

    As I understand it California gets a significant part of it’s energy requirements, to back up it’s own “green ,renewable supplies” from neighbouring states just to keep it’s light on.

    220

    • #
      Bones

      Ross,they only get power from other states if another state does’nt pay more money.Remember Enron.

      30

  • #
    pattoh

    With SA’s predeliction to wind turbines it will be interesting to graph the power price V unemployment.

    I reckon they are on track to catch up with Tas for Federal Government money per capita.

    130

  • #
    Ceetee

    Of course all those leaving are just evil capitalist bastards. sarc. I was just reading the other day how Hollywood was struggling lately. Buggered if I know why because fantasy was always their stock and trade and since it’s been adopted statewide it should be a winner ya’ll. I guess its easy to be fatuously and philosophically decadent when you’re swimming in the dosh. If you aren’t swimming in the dosh then too bad. Blame the evil capitalists fleeing our green utopia. Go Texas I say!. As for NSW, in all honesty how stupid do you want to be ffs?.

    151

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      I was just reading the other day how Hollywood was struggling lately.

      Hollywood’s loss is Wellington’s gain.

      A number of “Hollywood Names’, including James Cameron, have bought rural property in the Waiarapa Region, “Just a pleasant twenty minute helicopter flight from the Miramar Studios”, as the real estate brochures claim.

      Weta Workshop, and leading edge post-production facilities, ready and waiting. Soon the only film people left in California will be the Producers and the Promoters, and of course, the Attorneys.

      10

  • #
    pat

    u all know my low opinion of politicians in general, so nothing they say or do surprises me:

    29 July: UK Register: Lewis Page: Just TWO climate committee MPs contradict IPCC: The two with SCIENCE degrees
    ‘Greenhouse effect is real, but as for the rest of it …’
    The UK’s Parliamentary climate change select committee has just issued a written endorsement of the latest, alarmist UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. However, two MPs – the two most scientifically qualified on the committee – have strongly disagreed with this position…
    “As scientists by training, we do not dispute the science of the greenhouse effect – nor did any of our witnesses,” said Peter Lilley (Conservative) and Graham Stringer (Labour) in a statement issued as the committee report came out.
    “However, there remain great uncertainties about how much warming a given increase in greenhouse gases will cause, how much damage any temperature increase will cause and the best balance between adaptation versus prevention of global warming.”
    The two sceptics highlighted the ongoing hiatus in global warming, which has seen temperatures around the world remain basically the same for more than 15 years, following noticeable warming in the 1980s and early 1990s.
    “About one third of all the CO2 emitted by mankind since the industrial revolution has been put into the atmosphere since 1997; yet there has been no statistically significant increase in the mean global temperature since then,” the two MPs state.
    “By definition, a period with record emissions but no warming cannot provide evidence that emissions are the dominant cause of warming!”…
    The other nine MPs disagreed, however, and outvoted the two sceptics to firmly endorse the IPCC view…
    All in all, the snapshot view provided by the Parliamentary climate change committee would seem to bear out the results of a recent survey – which concluded that the more scientific and mathematical knowledge a person has, the less worried about climate change they tend to be.
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/29/just_two_climate_committee_mps_clash_with_ipcc_the_two_with_science_degrees/

    120

    • #
      Peter C

      Well credit where it is due. Good on Peter Lilley and Graham Stringer and our own scientist MP Dennis Jensen.

      However I am not sure about this from Peter Lilley:

      “As scientists by training, we do not dispute the science of the greenhouse effect – nor did any of our witnesses,” said Peter Lilley (Conservative) and Graham Stringer (Labour) in a statement issued as the committee report came out.

      What Science of the greenhouse effect? It is just a theory. But it seems to be the most tenacious and persuasive theory.

      150

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Be careful Peter,

        To the great unwashed, “Theory” means that something is factual. We have the theory of relativity, and the theory of evolution, and the theory of constraints, and loads of other theories, that have never been disproved. So, it stands to reason that, because these things are true, and indisputable, the theory of anthropogenic climate change must also be true and indisputable.

        That is how the propaganda works, and it is very hard to counter, in people who have no real concept of how the scientific method is supposed to work. Try explaining the concept of falsifiability to a Parliamentarian, and just see how far you get.

        20

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        It could be argued that there is thing called the greenhouse effect.

        Problem is that CO2 is not really a player when water is the main “ingredient” and relegates any CO2 participation to the sidelines.

        KK

        10

    • #
      Ceetee

      @ Pat 7.45 What price the words of scientists in the august presence of pollies then? I hate to say this but I hope they weren’t surprised.

      30

  • #
    pat

    “dozens” is all u need to get space in CAGW-infested/invested Bloomberg:

    29 July: Bloomberg: Coal Miners Clash With Ski Operators Over EPA’s Coal Rule
    By Jennifer Oldham and Mark Drajem
    Singing, Chanting
    In Washington, dozens of activists carrying American flags and miniature windmills sang, chanted and posed for photographs outside of the EPA headquarters.
    The Climate Reality Project offered free Ben & Jerry’s ice cream scoops to those who followed a simple process: file a comment to the White House supporting the rule, sign a petition for the plan and tweet that support to the world…
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-29/coal-miners-clash-with-ski-operators-over-epa-s-coal-rule.html

    50

  • #
  • #
    ROM

    A good expose dated May 2014, on what is going wrong with California can be found in this study [ California Energy Policy & The Inland Empire ] of the Californian” Inland Empire”, a term I hadn’t come across previously but it refers to the two large counties inland and due east of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino and Riverside counties .

    And some of this report on what and why California has gone seriously wrong has a very disturbing ring to it from the Australian perspective.

    The population of the “Inland Empire” is around the 4.37 million people making it the fourth largest market in California and a market larger than that of 24 states of the USA.
    These counties are blue collar counties and thats where California’s energy policies, demanded by the wealthy coastal counties have created increasing unemployment and a significant rise in personal and family poverty according to this study.

    A few excerpts from the study;

    ****************

    Manufacturing.

    The manufacturing sector is where the impact of the state’s energy and regulatory policies appears to be the most prominent (Exhibits 9-10).
    Between January 2010 and March 2014, the U.S. has added 619,000 seasonally adjusted manufacturing jobs. This represented growth of 5.4%. It has occurred as the efficiency of the sector has improved while costs of production have increased in competitor countries.
    In addition, some firms have been repatriating operations because they found that the off-shoring of their production led to a loss of quality control.

    In this same period, California’s performance has been dismal.
    The state has added just 6,600 seasonally adjusted manufacturing jobs, representing growth of just 0.5%. The share of the U.S. expansion that occurred in California was only 1.1%.
    Where the state was once a manufacturing powerhouse, it has managed to create an environment in which the sector remains flat, despite employment growing strongly in the U.S.
    This difficulty has impacted the Inland Empire where the sector added just 172 jobs from 2012 to 2013 (see Exhibit 16 below). This occurred despite the
    area having significant competitive advantages for manufacturing such as space costs that were 51.3% to 88.7% less than nearby coastal counties (Exhibit 11):
    *************
    And the very relevant lessons for Australia’s politicians and governments from California’s Inland empire’s experience’
    ________________
    Bureaucracy & energy costs

    Extensive interviews with manufacturing firms in the Inland Empire indicate that there are three reasons for the reluctance of producers to invest and grow in the region:
     One is the instability and inefficiency of the state’s regulatory processes which make it impossible for firms to know from year to year what requirements will be imposed on them by the agencies setting rules that impact their air and water quality or their labor forces.
    Adding to this difficulty is the length of time it takes for them to gain approvals from these same agencies for their efforts to meet their changing regulations.

    It is thus not surprising that CEO Magazine continues to rank California as 50th and the least friendly place in the U.S. to do business or that the Small Business Friendliness Survey gave the state an “F” rating on its approach to regulation.

     Of growing importance are the cost burdens being forced upon manufacturers by California’s policies that are causing energy costs to skyrocket.
    These come in two forms: o One is the cost of electricity that is being driven to very uncompetitive levels by the most stringent source rules in the U.S. (Exhibit 13).
    Thus, in February 2014, California’s electrical cost per kilowatt hour (kwh) was 10.73¢.
    That was 50.5% higher than Colorado (7.13¢), the next most costly western state. Among adjacent states, it was 65.1% higher than Arizona (6.50¢), 72.5% above Oregon (6.22¢) and 105.6% over Nevada (4.64¢). It 67.7% was higher than Texas (6.40¢).

    For manufacturers who must use extensive amounts of electricity, these costs are a major issue. California’s policies are essentially telling them to either locate or put their growth elsewhere or never come to the state.
    +++++++++++++++++
    And construction;
    **
    From a regulatory standpoint, construction is impacted negatively in two ways. To the extent that AQMD succeeds in blunting the building of new warehousing facilities, the impact will be to reduce or stop the growth of the one portion of the construction sector that has been consistently supplying jobs to workers.

    In addition, California’s Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has become so abused that it is even stopping construction projects wanted by the environmental community.
    The poster child in the Inland Empire was a lawsuit that halted expansion of the Perris extension of Metrolink until a multimillion settlement was arranged with a local NIMBY group. Problems like this are occurring because the act is increasingly used by NIMBYs to stop any project they do not like, by lawyers who use the threat of suits as a cash cow, by companies wanting to slowdown the ability of their competitors to expand, and by unions wishing to force builders to sign
    agreements with them..
    ***************
    I suggest you read the whole study for yourselves.
    We are very uncomfortably starting to look like some of that Californian Inland empire in some of our government’s policies of recent years.

    160

    • #
      Ceetee

      ROM, the green version of a NIMBY is a BANANA – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

      130

      • #
        me@home

        or “Near Anything”

        10

      • #
        the Griss

        Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

        Except wind turbines.

        Which of course do basically…. absolutely nothing.

        60

        • #
          Rereke Whakaaro

          Not true! They do not do absolutely nothing.

          They catch fire, for one thing, which is always good for some entertainment. And they have been known to fall over, which is also good for a laugh. And I have to admit, that they have been known to produce some electricity from time to time, but that electricity is generally out of phase with the network, which can really bugger electric alarm clocks, which is the reason why I am often late for work — “Phase change anomalies, caused by the local wind farm. Sorry chief, I guess that is just the cost of progress”.

          50

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Not everyone in NSW wants to be like California http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2014/07/30/land-clearing-linked-to-nsw-farm-killing.html?cid=BP_RSS_SN-TOPSTORIES_4_LandclearinglinkedtoNSWfarmkilling_300714

    I hope this tragedy isn’t a sign of things to come, you can only push people so far.

    100

    • #
      el gordo

      Thanx for that story Yonnie.

      30

    • #
      gesta non verba

      A farmer near Echuca(Vic) has to apply for a planning permit to keep farming his 120hectare cattle property,the rot has set in(see this weeks Weekly Times).Once urban meets country you can bet the country people will get the shaft.

      50

  • #
    cedarhill

    In several articles beginning with his “Two Californias” (2010), Stanford professor Victor David Hanson describes changes he’s witnessed as a lifelong Californian. One encounters similar articles regarding Detroit’s descent.

    These remind one of the old story of the person that goes out gathering wood. They put each new stick under their arm in a bundle. Finally, when they decide to pick up one more stick, they lose control and the entire bundle slips out of their hands. Energy is likely the last stick the totalitarian movements will attempt to pick up.

    90

  • #
    ROM

    Yonniestone @ #14

    “You can only push people so far”.

    YS you got that one absolutely right.

    The stupidity of the city latte sipping greens and enviros and the enforcers of the various city staffed environmental departments is that having now passed my fifty third year since I started flying in late 1959 in Tiger Moths, there are now a damn sight more trees and tree growth, possibly twice as much tree growth spreading from horizon to horizon today around here and where ever I have flown than there ever was when I started flying those fifty three years ago..

    And those trees are where rural people are, not where the highly destructive, hypocritical and ignorant city greens and enviros are located.

    You won’t find too many trees in the city centres and around those so tasteful and stylish coffee houses and their stylish baristas

    Meanwhile whole hundreds of hectares of tree covered land around the cities are bull dozed without any protest or any action to make way for ever more lavishly equipped houses spread over ever larger areas.

    But still the B’s demand more and more sacrifice by the rural people and impose more and more restrictions and more and more bureaucratic and legal impositions and enforced acceptance of wind turbines and all the other totally useless and irrelevant to human good, ideology bigoted beliefs and dogmas of the green water melon latte sippers and city bureaucrats.

    Recently here in Horsham a farmer was heavily fined after being accused by environmental department inspectors / enforcers of not attempting to control and rid his property of rabbits. The farmer had ripped warrens and done all the normal rabbit control measures but he still had rabbits in spades.
    Why?
    Well the rabbits had to hop about a metre from their numerous warrens on the road sides that are under the direct control of those same inspectors and same department to get through the fence and into the good feed the farmer had in his through the fence paddock.

    And they wonder why farmers get bloody hostile at the arrogance and straight out double standards of so many in the un-responsible, unfeeling, unaccountable underworked, overpaid government bureaucrats in their comfortable heated and A./C bureaucratic offices.

    250

    • #
      Yonniestone

      I remember a sign years ago in a paddock near Shelford Vic that read ‘More trees means less arable land’ it would seem this message is lost on the expert city latte farmers that childishly think food comes from the supermarket.

      Also remembered recently a local farmer here was fined for not controlling rabbits http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/2384048/man-fined-10000-for-not-killing-rabbits-on-his-farm/ same story of hypocrisy as the Pentland Hills ranges are covered in national parks that have been a rabbit breeding haven for decades but decide to victimize a landowner just to justify their parasitic bureaucratic job.

      Notice the $1500 he had to “donate” to the local Landcare group, well what’s the bet some econuts from this group raised the alarm to their comrades in the DEPI to stop this horrendous crime, oh and just out of Bacchus Marsh at the foot of the Pentland Hills is a large Landcare facility that resembles more a military compound than a club for nature loving citizens.

      150

      • #

        ” … that childishly think food comes from the supermarket … ”

        The latte lot and their carbon obnoxide comrades don’t think food comes from the supermarket. They think food comes from the local gourmet deli or that absolutely fab new organic restaurant they just happened to park the Discovery outside of after they had picked up Jhemmimah, Kassidee and Alphonse from their Sit In For Shade Grown Coffee Growers last week.

        90

    • #
      Shannon

      I was not surprised by the shooting incident at Moree this week, by another “handcuffed” farmer..
      My family owned land on the Mid North Coast NSW..and are retired dairy farmers..
      My father had to endure similar (for a short while .then he told “her” to pee off his land and not come back)..
      She told my father he had to chop down “trees” …(Camphor Laurel species) because they were on his land and were attracting birds to feed on the berries and hence contaminate the forest areas 10kms away.
      My father refused saying..he didnt plant the trees and they were needed anyway for cattle shade.
      The environmental officer returned weeks later and told my Dad she was going to “inject” every tree on the property with a “hormone” to prevent them producing seeds !!
      Dad just stood there and told her “you are a f…ing idiot”..!!
      The cost of this exercise would have been enormous ..as besides our property the entire district had hundreds of Camphor Laurel trees growing.
      It illustrated to our family just how void of “common sense” and fanatical, the Green idiots really were,with NO concern about the blantant waste of money needed to achieve their aim.
      Farmers have had enough of the bullshit !!

      30

  • #

    I received an email this morning from my friend in Stockton California, telling me that the cost for retail electricity in his State has finally crept over 16 cents per KWh, and he’s horrified.

    I told him I’m on the next plane there, as we pay 26 cents +per KWh.

    He found it hard to believe.

    Okay then, here’s the link to what they pay retail for electricity in every State in the U.S. the left hand column.

    Electricity Retail Cost by State

    Note how it’s more expensive in the North East States where those smaller States purchase their power from Interstate.

    The left column right at the bottom shows the average cost for the whole of the U.S. and that’s 12.84 cents per KWh for Residential, 10.51 cents/KWh for Commerce, and 6.76 cents/KWh for Industrial. The total averaged cost for electricity is at far right 10.21 Cents/KWh.

    So, noting how much cheaper it is for the Commerce and Industrial Sectors, where they have different prices, all contracted, that disparity is further highlighted at the following 3 links.

    Residential Average Power Bill

    Commerce Average Power Bill

    Industry Average Power Bill

    Note the total number of consumers for each and the total Monthly bill for each.

    So, for Commerce the average bill is six times the Residential average, and Industry is sixty times the residential average.

    Total power distribution is 38% of all power to Residential, 37% to Commerce, and 24% to Industry.

    No matter how you look at it their power is considerably cheaper than ours is.

    Tony.

    220

    • #
      DT

      Tony we need more latest technology renewable green energy to get our prices down. More tax and levies. Socialist market selection of winners and losers. A One World Government to regulate.

      60

    • #

      Now why would Industry in California be fleeing that State and moving to Texas? (rhetorical question)

      Look at that last link I provided in the earlier Comment. (this link)

      Now, scroll down and look at the data for Texas. There are 136,221 individual Industry consumers. The AVERAGE power consumption (per Month) is 59298KWh, so overall, that’s 97TWh of power consumed each year, just in the Industry sector.

      For California, there are 76223 consumers, averaging 52297KWh per Month, so overall, that’s 48TWh per Year.

      The unit cost for Texas is 6.74 cents per KWh, and for California 10.07 cents per KWh, and hey, keep in mind this is retail cost. (and compare that with your power bill here in Oz where electricity costs is around 26 cents per KWh+)

      So then let’s just take one Industry which is right on the average. In California, that Industrial concern will pay $63,200 per year just for their electricity. In Texas that same industry will only pay $47,900 per year, a saving over California of $15,300 or in percentage terms, 25% cheaper to run the same Industry in Texas than in California.

      Now, while this is just the average, imagine a large Industry with large power consumption. A 25% saving on such a big overhead as electricity is would amount to quite a lot.

      Also of note on those same 3 charts is not the cost differential between Residential, Commerce and Industry, but actual power consumption figures.

      The average consumption in Commerce is 7 times larger than for Residential, and for Industry, they use 111 times the average residential consumer.

      Those splits are similar here in Australia, so you can see that any increase in power costs impacts most on Commerce and Industry.

      Now, look again at the Industrial unit cost. There are 21 States where the unit cost is lower than 7.8 cents per KWH, and six of them are lower than 5 cents per KWh, and again let me stress this is the RETAIL price for electricity.

      The U.S. is currently pondering the introduction of a Tax on CO2 emissions, and the proposal is that it should be around $25 per ton.

      This will add around 3.4 cents per KWh to generated electricity, and all of that will be passed directly down to consumers. Imagine Industries in those 21 States where the cost of the electricity they consume rises by between 44 and 80%.

      Tony.

      30

  • #
    Geoff Sherrington

    It is not just a USA problem with ‘celebrities’.
    Did you see Irish Sir Bob Geldof having a right royal rant against Australian policy on carbon tax?
    What would he know? He could not even maintain a marriage or look after his children.
    It is said that he likes the Boomtown Rats. Is that another name for Hollywood citizens?

    160

    • #
      handjive

      Not only does Sir Bob Geldof not like Mondays …

      He likes scaring children with doomsday stories:

      Bob Geldof: The world could end by 2030

      “The world can decide in a fit of madness to kill itself,” he said, according to the Telegraph. “Sometimes progress may not be possible.”

      But, only on Mondays.

      90

  • #
    Geoff Sherrington

    If you have personal energy to spare, do try to get some sense into domestic gas pricing.
    We read daily that the USA has low electricity prices because of the success of gas, much from fracking. Many other countries (and, I’m ashamed to say, some Australian States) have swallowed the anti-fracking propaganda and banned a lovely gas experience like the USA has had.
    In Australia, we have abundant gas and a rapid development of export, especially to China & Japan.
    It is forecast by economists that the domestic price of gas will rise sharply because it will have to compete with the high prices paid for exported gas.
    That sounds like a stupid economic argument to me.
    Why can we not have the domestic price of gas linked to the actual cost of production + reasonable profit?
    Here’s why. It is because some narrow visions of economists are clouding the policy issue.
    Familiar? Like economist Ross Garnaut’s vision of taxing carbon dioxide.
    Note to economists – please but out when you are unfamiliar with the reality of the topic.

    Lobby for reasonable domestic gas prices. It’s a good way to improve employment and national wealth.

    140

    • #
      Spetzer86

      Don’t worry, they’re still trying to shut down USA fracking. You should look into how much fracking is done on public vs private land as well.

      40

    • #
      Joe

      It’s called the ‘Free Market’ Geoff. Nothing stopping any of the gas miners selling their product dirt cheap locally but why would they do that if they can export it to a market willing to pay more? Are you suggesting that we should regulate or subsidise the local gas market? We are striking up more free trade agreements all over the world, the market is global and you can’t start favouring your local market over your export market, that is not playing the global free market ball fairly. You are either a global player or you are not. Oz seems hell bent on being a global player.

      00

  • #
    Jaymez

    In fact you don’t have to look at California – just look at South Australia. They have the biggest wind turbine network in Australia, but the most expensive power costs in Australia (and third highest in the world). Industry has fled South Australia and unemployment is significantly higher than the national average. SA Unemployment is up to 6.6 per cent and participation down to 61.8 per cent. The only state which scores worse is the Greens damaged Tasmania.

    170

    • #
      King Geo

      What would you expect after “12 years of ALP Rule in SA” & another 4 years to come? At least Tassie has seen the light and earlier this year voted in the Libs – clearly the Apple Islanders had had enough of being the laughing stock of Oz. Now SA will take that mantle.

      140

  • #
    ROM

    “It is said that he likes the Boomtown Rats. Is that another name for Hollywood citizens?”

    Na Geoff !
    Rats despite their reputations have morals and even ethics at rat level and they look after their young.

    80

  • #
    el gordo

    Maurice Newman is heroic and a leading intellectual (as yet unrecognised), whereas that left wing lout Robert Mann is not.

    70

  • #
    sherlock1

    Just in case anyone thinks that Hollywood still produces blockbuster motion pictures, most of them are made (or CGI’d) right here in the UK, at Pinewood or Leavesden…

    50

    • #
      Robert

      Seems like more and more of what comes out of Hollywood these days is remakes. Just off the top of my head:

      Original – The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Remake – 2007 as Poseidon
      Original – The Manchurian Candidate (1962 w/ Frank Sinatra). Remake – 2004, same name.
      Original – The Hitcher (1986 w/ Rutger Hauer). Remake – 2007, same name.
      Original – Rollerball (1975 w/ James Caan) Remake – 2002, same name.
      Original – Red Dawn (1984 w/ Patrick Swayze) Remake – 2012, same name.

      and the list goes on and on and on…

      The remake of The Manchurian Candidate with Denzel Washington was actually pretty good. I’ve seen both. The Hitcher traded Rutger Hauer tormenting a young man driving across country for Sean Bean tormenting a young couple driving across country. Very little originality or decent acting really, just a bit more bloody.

      Seems to be the case with most of them, the originals relied upon good acting as the effects were very primitive or non-existant. The remakes, piss poor acting in most but a lot of flash and glitter in the effects department.

      Not much real talent left in Hollywood anymore.

      100

      • #

        I don’t care about the rest, but I’ll never forgive them for besmirching the name of one of the greatest car-chase/comedy heist movies of all time with a so-called ‘remake’. I speak, of course, of The Italian Job.

        40

  • #
    ROM

    Jo does have the Feel the Green Glory in her headline post so I guess this item fits nicely into the post’s meme.
    And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of sickening self righteous hypocritical water melon killers of tens of millions.

    All done through denying billions of humans DDT for malaria control with it’s 50 million deaths, the GMO Golden Rice for the life saving vitamin A deficiency supplements with it’s 10 million dead each year since Golden Rice became available in 2000. The lobbying against and denial of hydro power and coal power for electricity generation and the consequent deaths from lung and pollution causes from inhaled smoke. Death toll unknown but probably running into tens of millions more ,

    All the above quite preventable deaths with a modicum of compassion and concern from the greens and environmental organisations like Greenpeace for those people who are poor beyond comprehension to Greenpeace supporters and who are people just like each of us with the same fears, loving , fervent hopes and lives.

    Greenpeace, the direct killer of the largest number of humans, over 70 or more millions of ordinary people.
    Greenpeace, the killer of more humans than any killer of humanity that has ever existed on this planet before.

    From Dutch News.Nl h/t GWPF blog.

    Staff unease grows at Greenpeace

    [ quoted ] The row over commuting directors at environmental organisation Greenpeace and unease over investment losses has spread to the organisation’s international wing, the Volkskrant says on Tuesday.

    The paper says a large number of Greenpeace International staff are now calling on director Kumi Naidoo to resign after he approved a weekly commute by plane for programme director Pascal Husting. This goes against Greenpeace policy on greenhouse gases.

    The letter’s signatories stress the document is not a ‘staff statement’ but an initiative which has grown from a ‘desire for internal change’.

    Travel policy

    In a list of recommendations, the signatories say ‘a strict travel policy must be adhered to and enforced without exception’.

    The document calls for the re-introduction of staff training to include the core values of Greenpeace and ‘how to live a green life personally’.

    It also says there should be changes in board-level remuneration policy and calls for the appointment of an ombudsman.

    Train

    Earlier this year it emerged Husting was being allowed to commute weekly by plane from his home in Luxemburg to Amsterdam. He now uses the train.

    In addition, Greenpeace was revealed to have lost €3.8m in donations through currency investments.

    In a written answer, Naidoo said he will not step down as director and nor does he support the idea of an ombudsman, saying the organisation already has procedures to deal with complaints.

    Last week, staff at Greenpeace Nederland also wrote to Naidoo, asking him to reconsider his position.

    © DutchNews.nl
    ____________________

    Ah! The politics. I guess Naidoo ain’t going anywhere if he can help it and there goes Greenpeace. over the big power hump and onto the long downhill slide.

    All this just brings to mind once again the Life Cycle of organisations as espoused by the Adize Institute

    Understanding the Corporate Lifecycle

    Just roll over the graph for an expansion on each stage in an organisations / corporations life cycle

    51

  • #
    • #
      the Griss

      Again we have the situation of a Liberal politician seemingly aiming to make sure that past Liberal voters vote INFORMAL next election.

      Many Liberal voters have woken up to the green scam, and we DON’T WANT IT !!

      If we wanted the wasteful useless crap, we would have voted Labor, or even (shudder) Greens !!!

      I have emailed Mike Baird, pointing this out.

      121

  • #
    Mark D.

    Why would anybody want to emulate California?

    The positive value of using California as a model example of economic success ended perhaps 20 years ago. They are now the best example of exactly what NOT to do. Here is a good summary of trends from 2010: http://www.newgeography.com/content/001925-if-california-is-doing-so-great-why-are-so-many-leaving

    Any bets on how the various metrics are trending today?

    It looks like they are on the same path that Detroit paved.

    To Texas: I hope you are screening the constituents migrating from California! If enough of the pro-Labor, pro-Green, pro-Left enter and infect Texas with their disease God help you.

    I suspect, though, that Texas won’t be appealing to most Leftists. Instead they have moved north to Washington State, Oregon and some to Colorado. Actually Nevada has lured more people away from California than Texas.

    80

    • #

      I predict that the California Legislature will soon pass a law to make it illegal to move out of the state. Then, if you do leave, they will have the right to confiscate all of your wealth up to an including the clothing on your back. That it would be a violation of our individual rights is nothing but a minor piffle for them. Our rights are what they say they are and are subject to change without notice.

      We the People of California (as legal citizens of the USA) are to be considered property of the State and must not go against the whim of our glorious leaders. Our glorious leaders are the anointed ones who’s every whim must be satisfied instantly – or else!

      We are supposed to be grateful that they allow us a few crumbs from our meager incomes. To think otherwise will be held as a hate crime punishable by not being permitted to travel except as commanded by the government.

      It is way past time to say goodby to the golden state! Run, don’t walk to the nearest exit before it is too late.

      110

      • #
        Mark D.

        Are you planning to leave Lionell? Or are you planning a stampede of the rats out of the state so you can reclaim her? If you could evict all the useless ones (send them to New York City as infill behind all the ones leaving to Texas from there) you’d have a pretty nice place once again and at least we can keep them in one place.

        Serious though, I actually read an Op Ed piece this morning about the notion of blocking transfer of wealth out of CA. Is this really being tossed around? I can’t imagine how they could do it even if they wanted to……but then there is that huge deficit…….

        50

        • #
          Lionell Griffith

          I know of no announced plan. It is simply the next logical step in the process of destroying what California was when it was at its best.

          Sadly, I can’t leave the state because of my personal circumstances. Otherwise I would have been long gone.

          Most of my assets are out of state. My local fixed assets are heavily mortgaged. My work is software engineering. I deliver my services over the internet and work out of my apartment. The results of my work is such that it can be carried in a small thumb drive. Even if the state were to confiscate my software, they wouldn’t be able to make use of it without my assistance and cooperation. There is little chance they could understand it well enough to know it is worth taking even if I were willing to cooperate with them. About all they can take that is worth something is a small amount of savings. It would finance perhaps a hundred nanoseconds of their operations and is hardly worth taking. As a consequence, about all I have left in California is my antique body with too many painful joints, a few friends, a medical system that is keeping me functional, and a 26 year old Peruvian Paso gelding.

          My basic plan is to live as free as I can, as well as I can, as long as I can, and have no regrets when the end comes. The most I can do to change things is spread ideas that I have found leading to successful living. My hope is that, since men have free will, they can decide to change their path. They can discover that having future is possible but only if each makes the effort to learn, think, and act in such a way so as to create the future rather than to destroy it. So far its destruction is in the lead.

          130

          • #
            James Bradley

            Lionell,

            You guys still have elections – right – the more people hurt the more basic issues matter.

            And let’s face it the reason you have the second amandment is in case your government turns against its people – that has to be an insentive to eventually do the right thing.

            40

            • #
              Lionell Griffith

              We have something called elections. The takers out number the makers. Its heads they win and tails you lose. Prop 13 is the only edge we makers have and it is under severe attack.

              Guns can only take out one taker at a time. Ultimately, stopping feeding them will be more effective. Ironically, the takers are making sure the making will be stopped and they are thereby eliminating the source of their free lunch. They are their own terminators. All we have to do is nothing. The challenge is not to be collateral damage.

              60

              • #
                James Bradley

                Lionell,

                We have much the same problems here only without the guns.

                Still, I’m sure we can manage to sit by and watch them eventually self destruct on both hemispheres.

                20

          • #
            The Backslider

            My work is software engineering. I deliver my services over the internet and work out of my apartment.

            Groovy! Me too! 😛

            10

  • #
    Eliza

    Gee I think MSM should be made aware of this. The guy needs to be fired immediately from his Uni job http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/29/these-are-the-sort-of-people-we-are-up-against/#more-113703

    60

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Dr. Russell Seitz, another dysfunctional psychopath to add to the list, Anthony was right to not allow comments on this err….person as his bent musings will forever reveal his true character.

      And I thought a Frank Burns could never exist.

      20

      • #
        Mark D.

        Yonniestone, While his comments about a persons deafness are deplorable (and maybe Seitz evev realized that as the page is gone from his site), I followed the web to his CV: http://harvard.academia.edu/RussellSeitz/CurriculumVitae where I don’t find the usual list of warmist ventures and in fact is rather interesting.

        His parody of Watts web site: http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/ on average is low level ranting but some of his writing offers a thinking perspective. He didn’t like Dr. Evans Notch Filter though: http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2014/07/not-even-string-theory.html still he offers no independent analysis or thought just copy-pasting Motl.

        He has only 74 “followers”.

        Too bad he isn’t posting here, I’d like know more from him.

        31

      • #
        the Griss

        And a stupid little bow-tie.. OMG !!!

        You just KNOW that he is an egotistical, self-aggrandising, inner-city, latte-sipping, *anker !

        32

        • #
          Annie

          That doesn’t always follow The Griss. My OH is definitely none of those things but he sometimes sports one of those silly little bow ties in preference to the undressed look of no tie and open neck shirt, and just for fun!

          40

          • #
            the Griss

            Ok then, A HIGH probability that he is …. etc.. as above 🙂

            41

            • #
              the Griss

              ps , there is a big difference to doing for fun, and it being part of “what you are” 😉

              I apologise if I upset the OH, or you. 🙂

              50

  • #
    dp

    Agreed – I love the smell of poverty in the morning. NOT! Just know though, that when everyone is poor there is no generous hand, even the proxy hand of government, left to fill the extended hands of the chronically poor and everyone will be left to shift for themselves. Sounds like Haiti. What’s to become of Hollywood’s limousine liberals?

    60

  • #
    lance

    How to start a business in Califoria

    10

  • #
    Brent

    I can confirm first-hand, jobs moving out of California. The company I work for used to own a data center in Mtn. View, CA. But it was finally deemed too expensive to run so everyone in the building got layoff notices though IT was asked to remain and help pack up and move the servers to Wisconsin for the next 6 months. The reasons management gave for the relocation was because cost of living and cost of electricity were both far too expensive in California (and we already had some other IT staff in Wisconsin). Bummer.

    90

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Cost of electricity? Well that may be a problem too but now the problem has become water — big time. The drought is in full swing and the situation is becoming critical. It may become necessary to leave the state to take a shower.

      And Sacramento fiddles around while we protect a little 3 inch fish that isn’t even native to the Sacramento River delta instead of using the water for human benefit.

      70

    • #
      KinkyKeith

      Hi Brent

      Commiserations.

      Have previously heard that so many people are leaving California that removalists/carriers can more or less charge what they like and for people coming back into the state you can get a real good deal.

      KK

      20

      • #
        Roy Hogue

        KK,

        Ha! Got it right this time! 😉

        Who in his right mind would come back to California once having left?

        My wife and I have a good friend from our square dancing days, a very good test engineer, who lost his job a good 15 years ago now, who spent a year or more looking for something in California. He started his own home repair and painting business to survive. He finally found something in Texas that was right in line with his experience and he’s been thriving there ever since. Why would he come back except to visit friends occasionally and his mother while she was still living?

        This isn’t a friendly place to those with enough motivation to want to stand on their own feet. Not anymore.

        20

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          To keep you all up with current events: we live in a really conservative town over all. Yet in this morning’s newspaper I see that the largest and best known shopping mall has decided to go solar with huge panels to be put up on the top level of the parking structure so they will also form “carports” to protect parked vehicles from the sun.

          I don’t know what the deal is but the management isn’t just a bunch of fools who fell off the turnip truck yesterday so there must be some financial advantage to it — how do you spell, state or federal subsidy and a guarantee of either Edison buying all the generated power not used at an advantageous rate or a guarantee of a lower than market price per kWH from whoever will own those panels?

          It would be interesting to find out who will own those panels and what the financial arrangement really is. But the mall is a private corporation and not subject to FOIA or other compulsion to disclose what’s going on.

          This is more proof that what invades popular culture will be attractive to the not so skeptical I would think.

          20

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            This smells like the deal the local rec and park department went for that I described several months ago. And I keep wondering what will happen when the subsidy money runs dry.

            20

  • #
    handjive

    Doomsday Global Warming Television Ad

    Easy Money for them. Tough choices for us.

    20

  • #

    Electrons do not move at that speed. I’m a little rusty on the topic of electronics, though I did study the subject for many years. Since electrons contain mass, the amount of energy to propel an electron with mass at the speed… well I’m a little rusty on my physics, though I did study the subject for many months…

    10

  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Not one of the other 49 states in the U.S. is emulating California. That should tell you all you need to know.

    If anything, emulate Texas where they have a governor with a firm grip on his responsibility and the nerve to carry it out. He may not be so good in a debate but he’s good down in the trenches where it counts.

    70

  • #
    pat

    TonyfromOz says –

    “I told him I’m on the next plane there, as we pay 26 cents +per KWh.”

    check latest electricity bills (post carbon tax repeal) – mine and others, who are already calling in to talk-back radio, have noticed a rise from 26+ to 28+ from July 1.

    no doubt the excuse is something like the rise in price would have been higher if there wasn’t a repeal, but it is not a good look.

    70

  • #
    pat

    30 July: WSJ: West’s Sanctions Against Russia Remain Relatively Porous
    By Marcus Walker in Berlin and Laurence Norman in Brussels
    “The EU’s core business with Russia has been left untouched,” said Stefan Lehne, a scholar at Carnegie Europe, a nonpartisan Brussels think tank.
    Mr. Lehne said the EU is likely to adopt further sanctions against Russia, including tighter financial-sector restrictions, but that energy supplies won’t be touched. “If you really restrict Russian energy exports, then you hurt the EU as much as Russia.”…
    “I’ve always said that energy deliveries, such as oil, gas, coal and uranium, from Russian into European markets…shouldn’t be put on a sanctions list,” EU energy chief Gunther Oettinger said in Brussels last week…
    http://online.wsj.com/articles/wests-sanctions-against-russia-remain-relatively-porous-1406742070

    30 July: Marketwatch: Sara Sjolin: Russia’s markets rally as gas sector avoids sanctions
    The U.S. and the European Union may have agreed to tougher, “phase three” sanctions on Russia, but the country’s financial markets were shrugging off the new restrictions in Wednesday’s trade, with both stocks and the ruble making substantial gains…
    Gazprom OAO , the world’s gas producer and Russia’s largest company, added 1.6%, while natural-gas company Novatek jumped 2.6%…
    *** A question remains after this round of sanctions: Why did the West refrain from including the gas sector in the restriction measures? Perry from Hantec Markets said that Europe especially is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to punishing Russia, as their economies have close ties.
    Some 25% of Germany’s energy needs are fulfilled by Russian gas, oil and coal imports, so a serious supply disruption could hurt Europe’s largest economy…
    http://www.marketwatch.com/story/relief-rally-in-russia-as-gas-sector-avoids-sanctions-2014-07-30

    ***self-interest prevails.

    20

    • #
      ianl8888

      … Some 25% of Germany’s energy needs are fulfilled by Russian gas, oil and coal imports …

      It’s actually closer to 40%. The issue has been noted for well over 6 years now and is one of the reasons that Germany is building new lignite-powered electricity generation

      Even Germany’s Greens are nervous about depending on importing Russian energy supplies

      60

  • #
    pat

    no MSM carrying this so far!

    EU carbon prices drop on Russia sanction news
    LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) – European carbon prices lost more than 3 percent on Tuesday afternoon as wider energy prices fell on news that the EU had reached a deal on economic sanctions against Russia that would not target gas or coal imports…
    http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.6166841?&ref=searchlist

    20

  • #
    ROM

    California like many other wealthy government ruled conglomerates of today is merely carrying out on a State sized scale that old, old and well proven saying that my mother used to regularly quote.

    “Clogs to clogs in three generations”

    The first generation works hard and long and creates and builds

    The second generation carefully nurtures and builds further on the hard work of the first generation.

    The third generation filled with hubris, arrogant, selfish, greedy and wealthy, not from their own efforts but from the hard work of their forbearers, just pisses the whole lot up against the wall.

    And so the cycle starts all over again.

    We are seeing this in so many wealthy western nations right now today.
    We here in Australia are far from free from it in our own hubris and greed and already we are having a good taste of the destructive attitudes of a wealthy generation who has never had to make sacrifices or collectively, work very hard to get what they have.
    They firmly believe and demand that it is their right and their entitlement to use all that accumulated treasure and wealth and knowledge so hardly gained by past generations as they wish for their own enjoyment and dissipation. And to do so without having to do any hard yakka or suffer any inconvenience or make any sacrifices themselves to create more wealth and more of those societal facilities and privileges and freedoms for the use of future generations, as did the past generations.

    Those “Old White Men” and Women that we have seen sneeringly referred to even here on Jo’s blog by a couple of hubris laden intelligence challenged whack jobs, were the builders of the nation, the creators of the culture, the upholders and creators of the laws and the upholder’s of the freedoms that allow those sneering insults to be publicly proclaimed today without any retribution against those same insulting sneerers who are no doubt, paid up members of the rapacious watermelon green pack who have regularly threatened any who dare to oppose or publicly doubt their ideology and dogma.

    110

    • #
      Carbon500

      ROM: further to your comments about the ‘old white men’ jibes, I’ve often thought that among these you’ll find the experienced, wary, and genuine scientists who saw through the CAGW scam very quickly!

      30

  • #
    ianl8888

    On the actual thread topic:

    It cannot have escaped most people’s notice that the O’Farrell, now Baird, Lib Govt is almost completely indistinguishable from the previous ALP Govts

    The corruption and abuse of power is less advanced (O’Farrell didn’t last one term) but that’s only a time factor. Policies are not changed, only implemented with less MSM fanfare to mute the dissatisfaction

    O’Farrell proudly boasted in the beginning that he had appointed himself “Minister for Western Sydney”. Baird has avoided that – he calculates that he doesn’t need the seats to survive and the opposition to current policies in Sydney’s west is too hostile publicly to deal with … so it is ignored

    The underlying factor allowing this dismal situation is the extension from 3 to 4 year terms. Four years is simply too long for most of the population to remember all the cynical stuff-ups and 180o changes of mind … all the populace knows is that they don’t have to bother about all this crap for longer periods than previously

    Devil’s scrambled eggs

    40

  • #
    ROM

    Off Topic again.

    And still another Renewable domino falls;

    Did Tony Abbott really pull the trigger on renewables and the Great Carbon scam?
    It’s starting to look like it, just that tiny push by a high profile political and the entire creaking and increasingly derelict and never economic or viable international renewable energy structure begins it’s long downward slide towards oblivion.

    JAPAN KILLS SOLAR POWER, PAVES WAY FOR RETURN TO NUCLEAR ENERGY

    80

  • #
    Ian Hill

    Off topic but noteworthy at the moment; Ninemsm report – a massive cold front moving across eastern Australia will change temperatures from “baking” to “brrrr” in 24 hours, where baking is a “record” 25C in Sydney and 20C in Melbourne.

    The Sydney record is later described as the hottest since … 1990!

    And so it continues.

    40

    • #
      the Griss

      Yes it truly is a beautiful winter day so far.

      But you can feel the breeze starting to bite a bit as it picks up.

      30

      • #
        scaper...

        A nice warm day here in Brisbane. Hovering around 25C at the moment. Sitting on the back deck, drinking beer and doing quotes.

        The warmest winter days I’ve experienced here were in 1987.

        30

        • #
          James Bradley

          Good luck to you, Scaper – damn freezing down here on the Southern Tablelands. Wind howling, prediction of snow, enough wood for a few days and then I’ll have to go out and cut a ute load… and don’t get home until midnight.

          20

    • #
      ROM

      Its blowing hard here in Horsham and the very first drops of rain are hitting the roof as I type this.
      The cold pool behind this lot looks like a stinker again so back to the “snake proofs” aka long underpants and etc.

      [ Snakes, so the rural myth goes, aren’t supposed to be able to bite through two layers of clothing although I doubt that any snake around in this weather would be able to get up enough enthusiasm to try.
      If he’s a Red Bellied Black Snake he gets a free pass from me as they clean out and eat the Browns which are increasingly common around here and deadly as well..
      The Red Belly’s supposedly have according to the herpetologist, too short fangs to get much toxin into a person although I wouldn’t want to push my luck and try one out. ]

      30

      • #
        Yonniestone

        I remember as a child my grandfather saying “Never play with snakes…unless your a bit how’s your father”

        I also remember my parents faces when I asked what ‘how’s your father’ means. 🙂

        20

      • #
        Glen Michel

        Yep ROM,I remember as a lad pulling a 5 foot brown ou t of a 6foot Black ! Those browns’ are rather cantankerous to say the less

        10

      • #
        Annie

        It was lovely, if windy, in Alexandra today. The rain and the drop in temp came at dusk on the way home. ‘Back to normal’ quoth we!

        00

      • #
        Annie

        ROM: We’ve had all sorts of snakes at our place…tigers, browns, copperheads and red bellied blacks. I’m not desperately keen on any of them.

        00

      • #
        KinkyKeith

        Red belly blacks are predictable if not cornered but I do not want to find myself near a brown.

        KK

        10

  • #
    pat

    u need to add the billions listed in the comments as well:

    WUWT: BREAKING: Senate report exposes the climate-environmental movement as being a cash machine controlling the EPA
    How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/07/30/breaking-senate-report-exposes-the-climate-environmental-movement-as-being-a-cash-machine-controlling-the-epa/#more-113745

    10

  • #
    pat

    was the applause for extorting money from Chevron for CAGW programs, or for the Chevron win?
    pity the Doctors Medical Center missed out:

    30 July: Marin News California: Robert Rogers: Richmond approves massive Chevron refinery project
    Chevron’s five year-plus quest to initiate a $1 billion upgrade to its century old refinery, the largest in Northern California, was approved by a divided City Council late Tuesday after the company and city staff hammered out a last minute deal upping community investments and installing safety and piping upgrades as part of the project.
    The vote passed 5-0, with two abstentions, and triggered a raucous applause from the crowd…
    Like the July 22 hearing, Tuesday’s meeting was held at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium because of the large expected crowd. More than 600 turned out…
    Chevron also announced that it would increase its community investments into local nonprofits and green jobs programs from $30 million to $60 million over the next decade. In the package approved Tuesday, the number swelled to $90 million, including money for college scholarships for local kids and donating land for a solar panel field…
    Several expressed dissatisfaction that no money was included for Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, the largest emergency room in the area and the one that treated most of the people who sought treatment after the 2012 fire. The hospital is expected to close or be drastically downsized due to financial troubles…
    Council approval does not clear the way for Chevron to begin construction, however. The company said it will have to return to a Contra Costa County court that halted a previous version of the project in 2009 to get that judgment lifted.
    http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_26244423/richmond-approves-massive-chevron-refinery-project

    MSM not touching the Chevron story as yet; more interested in pushing a story about California/Mexico signing pact to fight “Climate Change”, with California sharing with Mexico its experience in developing a carbon emissions trading program!

    00

  • #
    John Smith101

    A bit off-topic but this might provide background to what is going on. It might be worth a posting on its own.

    http://www.epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=8af3d005-1337-4bc3-bcd6-be947c523439

    James Delingpole covers it here:

    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/07/30/Shock-US-Senate-Minority-Report

    30

  • #
    John Smith101

    Sorry, I forget to add a title to my above posting: The Chain of Environmental Command: How a Club of Billionaires and Their Foundations Control the Environmental Movement and Obama’s EPA. I think this is very important.

    30

  • #
    Ursus Augustus

    The only thang bigger’n Texas in the US of A is California’s sanctimony.

    As a mate of mine put it after returning from the US, Perth has the weather California thinks its got.

    40

  • #
    Yonniestone

    I fear Geelong, Victoria, has caught the green fever looking at the local paper today http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/emotional-ceremony-brings-end-to-alcoa-smelter-at-point-henry/story-fnjuhovy-1227008793682 a sad day for Australian industry but wait a sustainable future to the rescue! http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/m-farming-precinct-would-create-1000-jobs-backers-say/story-fnjuhovy-1227008562165
    Phew that was close, and now they just have to close down that dirty Alcoa power station in Anglesea and the rest of it’s horrible industry on the water front and everyone can become sustainable farmers living in tree houses with machines driven by unicorn farts.

    40

  • #
    flatfour

    The truth always takes time to permeate through the system. There is so much inertia and the belief that surely people will see sense. But sometimes they don’t, so major moves become imperative whilst all suffer. In the end no one gains as so much is spent rectifying the stupidity of those who govern us.

    10

  • #
    pat

    a reminder that the endgame is looting the Super/pension funds in the name of CAGW:

    2 pages: July 30: Institutional Investor: Global Market Thought Leaders: Aniket Shah: Finance & the Art of Sustainable Development
    (Aniket Shah is an investment specialist with the Investec Investment Institute, part of Investec Asset Management, in New York)
    http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/gmtl/3366635/finance-and-the-art-of-sustainable-development.html

    can’t copy the above, but to summarise:
    page 1: World Bank/UN are thinking through post-2015 development agenda. UN Millennium Development Goals end then, next set of goals will focus on reducing energy systems’ carbon footprint, etc. references Harvard Business Review article (see second link)
    page 2: Set a price on carbon. CC is no longer a controversial topic; Henry Paulson Republican, Al Gore Democrat have elucidated the critical challenges brought about by climate change. Of climate scientists, 99 percent (REPEAT 99 PERCENT) believe that man has altered climate patterns & caused global warming. US military has called CC one of the biggest threats facing humanity.

    subscription required for full Harvard Business Review article, but u get the picture here:

    Jan-Feb 2014: Harvard Business Review: Focusing Capital on the Long Term
    by Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman
    (Dominic Barton is the global managing director of McKinsey & Company. Mark Wiseman is the president and CEO of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board)
    Since the 2008 financial crisis and the onset of the Great Recession, a growing chorus of voices has urged the United States and other economies to move away from their focus on “quarterly capitalism” and toward a true long-term mind-set…
    A host of solutions have been offered—from “shared value” to “sustainable capitalism” —that spell out in detail the societal benefits of such a shift in the way corporate executives lead and invest…
    Practical Changes for Asset Owners
    ***The world’s largest asset owners include pension funds, insurance firms, sovereign wealth funds, and mutual funds (which collect individual investors’ money directly or through products like 401(k) plans). They invest on behalf of long-term savers, taxpayers, and investors. In many cases their fiduciary responsibilities to their clients stretch over generations. Today they own 73% of the top 1,000 companies in the U.S., versus 47% in 1973. So they should have both the scale and the time horizon to focus capital on the long term.
    But too many of these major players are not taking a long-term approach in public markets…
    http://hbr.org/2014/01/focusing-capital-on-the-long-term/ar/1

    00

  • #
    pat

    FOCUSING CAPITAL ON THE LONG TERM: Keynote address to RI Europe 2014: Long-term, sustainable capitalism
    Eric Wetlaufer, Senior Vice President, Public Market Investments
    June 4, 2014
    Responsible investing is something we take very seriously at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. With CPPIB’s in-house Sustainable Investing team housed in the Investment Department that I oversee, it is something I am particularly passionate about…
    So first, who is the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board?
    We are an investment management organization with a critical purpose – to help provide a foundation on which Canadians build their financial security in retirement…
    Over the exceptionally long horizon over which CPPIB invests, environmental, social and governance factors, have the potential to be significant drivers – or barriers – to profitability and shareholder value.
    They are long-term factors that we, given our mandate, simply must consider. This is why… as you may have noticed earlier… I referenced our in-house sustainable investing team.
    We believe the term “sustainable” aligns best with our long-term investment focus and mandate…that integrating ESG factors into our investment decisions and management of our assets is essential to drive long-term investment returns …it is not a separate mission…
    How can we expect business leaders to make the right long-term decisions…to make the investments today…in particular with regards to the environment…that will pay-off 20 years from now?
    At CPPIB, we believe that when capital is deployed with a view to sustainable, long-term value creation, all market participants benefit. Society as a whole benefits…
    That’s why last spring, CPPIB announced a joint endeavor together with McKinsey & Company, called Focusing Capital on the Long Term. It is an initiative to develop tools, metrics and approaches to enable institutional investors and corporate directors to think beyond short-term mindsets and focus on long-term value creation…
    Fortunately, we are not going this alone and leaders from 17 other organizations around the world have joined us…including true leaders on sustainability issues, such as Unilever… corporates with an exceptional long-term perspective, such as Tata…and large global players in the investment community, such as BlackRock and GIC…
    The world’s largest asset owners (pension funds, insurance firms, SWFs and mutual funds) own 73% of the top 1,000 companies in the U.S., versus 47% in 1973…
    The actions of individual organizations matter, but it will be the collective tide that changes the course of the ship. As leaders and influencers in this system, we must continue to advance individually…but also work collectively to push wide-spread action via the many coalitions and organizations that exist for this purpose…
    http://www.fclt.org/content/dam/fclt/en/ourthinking/EW_RI%20Europe%202014_remarks_June%204%20(Update%20for%20website%20June%206,%202014)v.pdf

    Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCIT): Advisory Board Members includes:
    Dominic Barton, McKinsey & Co.
    Marc Wiseman, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
    Henri de Castries, AXA
    Larry Fink, BlackRock
    Paul Polman, Unilever
    Nitin Nohria, Dean, Harvard Business School
    Cyrus P Mistry, Chairman, Tata Sons
    Lynn Forester de Rothschild, E.L. Rothschild
    Sir David Walker, Barclays
    http://www.fclt.org/en/members/advisoryboard.html

    00

  • #
    Andrew McRae

    Movie buffs alert: Snowpiercer.

    Now comes the thrilling Snowpiercer, the first English language film from masterful South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho (The Host, Mother). Based on a French graphic novel and starring Tilda Swinton, Chris Evans, John Hurt and Ed Harris, it imagines a future ice age triggered by a botched experiment to reverse global warming, and unfolds among a community of survivors on a train which circles the world in perpetuity. A brutal class system is enforced on board to keep the rich away from the poor, but a group of subjugated passengers (led by Evans) rise up and fight their way to the front.
    Jason di Rosso

    This movie was allegedly released in Australia last week. I’ve only just heard of it now, but when I search local cinemas I don’t find it showing (or in Coming Soon). Did a movie with Ed Harris and John Hurt really last only one week?
    Can anyone find where this movie is showing?

    00

  • #
    Keith

    Mark Perry’s blog Carpe Diem often highlights contrasts between California and Texas. Look at item 3 on this list of charts. Since 2011, more permits for single family homes have been issued in Houston than in the entire state of California.

    http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/07/tuesday-afternoon-chart-fest/

    00