California's Irreversible Decline

Adapted from an earlier article on Al Fin Energy


Employers and productive citizens are moving out. Unskilled and poverty stricken welfare-dependent illegal aliens are moving in. California has been in a politically-instigated decline for decades, but California's voters and its political class has learned nothing from the decline.

For decades after World War II, California was a destination for Americans in search of a better life. In many people’s minds, it was the state with more jobs, more space, more sunlight, and more opportunity. They voted with their feet, and California grew spectacularly (its population increased by 137 percent between 1960 and 2010). However, this golden age of migration into the state is over. For the past two decades, California has been sending more people to other American states than it receives from them. Since 1990, the state has lost nearly 3.4 million residents through this migration.

What has caused California’s transformation from a “pull in” to a “push out” state? The data have revealed several crucial drivers. One is chronic economic adversity (in most years, California unemployment is above the national average). Another is... state and local governments’ constant fiscal instability, which sends at least two discouraging messages to businesses and individuals. One is that they cannot count on state and local governments to provide essential services—much less, tax breaks or other incentives. Second, chronically out-of-balance budgets can be seen as tax hikes waiting to happen. _Great California Exodus

And don't forget California's looming energy crisis, caused entirely by dysfunctional energy policy originating in the Sacramento.

California is obligated by legal mandate to provide 1/3 of its electrical power by "green energy," including intermittent unreliable forms such as big wind and big solar, by the year 2020. Governor Brown of California wants to increase that requirement to 40% of California's electrical power via intermittent unreliables. But what will happen to California's already shaky economy as power consumers are forced to pay higher and higher rates, and as power brownouts and blackouts become more common -- as in a third world country?

One of the hidden costs of solar and wind power — and a problem the state is not yet prepared to meet — is that wind and solar energy must be backed up by other sources, typically gas-fired generators. As more solar and wind energy generators come online, fulfilling a legal mandate to produce one-third of California's electricity by 2020, the demand will rise for more backup power from fossil fuel plants.

"The public hears solar is free, wind is free," said Mitchell Weinberg, director of strategic development for Calpine Corp., which owns Delta Energy Center. "But it is a lot more complicated than that."

Wind and solar energy are called intermittent sources, because the power they produce can suddenly disappear when a cloud bank moves across the Mojave Desert or wind stops blowing through the Tehachapi Mountains. In just half an hour, a thousand megawatts of electricity — the output of a nuclear reactor — can disappear and threaten stability of the grid.

To avoid that calamity, fossil fuel plants have to be ready to generate electricity in mere seconds. That requires turbines to be hot and spinning, but not producing much electricity until complex data networks detect a sudden drop in the output of renewables. Then, computerized switches are thrown and the turbines roar to life, delivering power just in time to avoid potential blackouts.

The state's electricity system can handle the fluctuations from existing renewable output, but by 2020 vast wind and solar complexes will sprawl across the state, and the problem will become more severe. _LATimes

Big wind and big solar -- the "intermittent unreliable" forms of energy generation -- are "feel-good" public pacifiers for coastal dwellers steeped in carbon hysteria. But are these well indoctrinated, pseudo-intellectual academically lobotomised and politically correct devotees of faux environmentalism willing to pay the ultimate costs of their lefty-Luddite neo-Malthusian ideologies? Probably not.

... by 2017 the state will be short by about 3,100 megawatts of flexible power that it can dedicate to meeting reserve needs — about what three nuclear reactors produce. The company is pushing the state Public Utility Commission to require that capacity. The commission has been noncommittal so far. _LAT

Here are the top 10 reasons why businesses are leaving California, as of May, 2012:

#1 – Excessively Adversarial: For eight years in a row, Chief Executive magazine found California to be the worst state for business. Editors said the state appears to have slipped deeper into the “ninth circle of business hell,” a reference to Dante’s Inferno. “The economy, which used to outperform the rest of the country, now substantially underperforms.” They’ve called California the “Venezuela of North America.”

#2 – Severe Existing Tax Treatment: The Tax Foundation in its 2012 State Business Tax Climate Index lists California at No. 48. CFO Magazine ranked California the worst state for tax treatment, as do many other rankings.

#3 – Future Tax Increases: Businesses will face higher income and sales taxes. The state has the largest budget deficit of any state. Employer costs will rise in 2013 as payroll taxes increase to bail out the Unemployment Insurance Fund (insolvent by $10 billion) and to cover excessive borrowing from the Disability Insurance Fund. Future bond borrowing costs will grow because California is S&P's lowest-rated U.S. state. (Bloomberg News, May 18, 2012: "Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking a 38,000 percent spending increase for a proposed high-speed rail system” despite a $15.7 billion deficit.)

#4 – Worst Regulatory Burden: California approved global warming cap-and-trade initiatives with 262 pages of new regulations and fees going into effect in early 2013 even though the state contributes less than 1 percent of the worlds’ green house gases. The draconian measures ignore Bain & Co.’s “regulatory hassle index” that found “California is far worse than any other state by a very significant margin.”

#5 – Unprecedented Energy Costs: California’s commercial electrical rates already average 50 percent  higher than in the rest of the country. The new 2013-2018 “green energy” mandates will boost rates by a minimum of another 19 percent in many California localities, which will harm companies in every industry.

#6 – Dreadful Legal Treatment: The Civil Justice Association of California said the state ranks 44th in legal fairness to business. In 2010, the Institute for Legal Reform found Los Angeles’ courts were the second worst in the nation for legal fairness, after Chicago’s, while San Francisco’s courts were the sixth worst.

#7 – Most Expensive Locations: The Milken Institute found that California businesses pay 23% more than the national average in operating costs. McAfee avoids hiring in California and saves about 30 percent to 40 percent every time it hires outside of the state. 

#8 – Oppressive Permitting Procedures: Obtaining permits from public agencies is extraordinarily expensive and time consuming because of confusing, extraneous and harsh requirements. Example: It can take 2 years to obtain permits just to build a restaurant in California while in other states it can be as little as 1-1/2 months.

#9 – Unfriendly Even to Small Businesses: In 2012, Thumbtack.com and the Kauffman Foundation gave California an “F” grade from small businesses for overall business unfriendliness, difficult regulations, tax code, licensing and health and safety. The finding echoes the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council in Virginia 2011 conclusion that California ranked 49th overall in terms of business friendliness.

#10 – ‘Composite’ Findings Put California Last: Development Counselors International in a 2011 survey of executives found that ranked California as having the worst business climate of any state based on operating costs, taxes and deficits. That reinforced the “Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2010” study that placed the state at the bottom based on labor costs, taxes, litigation abuse, crime rates, demographics, school dropout rates and other factors.

_NCTimes

As faux environmental political activists push California's utilities and more reliable power producers closer and closer to the brink, expect "power blackouts and brownouts" to move to the top of the list for reasons why businesses leave the golden state.

California is under the total control of morons, who elect imbeciles such as Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Brown, and Maxine Waters as their representatives. The clock is ticking down on their idiocy. Try not to be hurt too badly by the fallout that will accompany the state's downfall.

Hello, My Name is Stockton, California. Prepare to Die

This piece is adapted from an article previously published on Al Fin Potpourri


Like many other California cities, the cost of pensions, pay, and benefit packages is bankrupting Stockton, California. In fact, Stockton has already declared bankruptcy. The city cannot afford to hire new police officers, because all the money is going to pay for the pensions and benefits of old police officers and other municipal employees -- current and retired.

Murder, rape, and robbery are becoming the new normal in Stockton, something of a preview of coming attraction to other Calfornia cities who find themselves in the same fiscal boat.

In Stockton, California, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year, your chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime such as murder, rape, robbery or assault are 1 in 70, which is nearly four times higher than the national average.

Your chances of being the victim of a property crime are even more likely, with 1 in every 17 residents of the city facing the prospect of having their house broken into or car stolen this year.

This is what happens when a city, county, state or federal government can no longer pay its bills and is forced to lay off workers. In the case of Stockton, the city has cut tens of millions of dollars from their budget, mostly targeting law enforcement and other essential services. _Stockton's Woe

In fact, in cities across the "blue zone" of the US, municipal workers' unions have enough power to bankrupt cities, and force the same type of hardship on their citizens.

Detroit, Michigan, is the true forerunner of municipal decay. And as you might guess, the municipal workers' unions of Detroit stand front and centre to blame for the downfall of motown, motor city.

What we are seeing is the doom of cities -- from Obama's Chicago to Detroit to inner city Philadelphia. Murders, flash mobs, out of control gang violence, and fat cat wealthy unions able to control elections and determine who gets elected to oversee their contracts.

Government officials on all levels are stuck. They are overloaded with debt and have no more money to spend. The only option is to start cutting services like law enforcement, emergency medical response, public food and homelessness support, and other social services like rental assistance. The effect of this collapse of government services is rising crime across the entire spectrum of criminal activity including murder, theft and organized attacks like flash mobs.

This is more than likely coming to a town near you in short order, no matter where in the United States you live. _shtfplan

The comments following the article linked above are also interesting.

Private citizens are being forced to come together to form citizen's vigilance groups, militias, and armed neighborhood watch posses. This is what comes from the US electing a president who is viscerally antagonistic to the private economic sector and the non-governmental economy.

If Obama is re-elected, expect the situation to grow even worse. Much worse.

A newbies' guide to UAVs -- fly your own security drone to monitor the mean streets around your gated community.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

"Walking Corpse" California Chooses Deeper Grave

Today, when comparisons are made, California is most often compared to Greece — another idyllic place with a sunny, Mediterranean climate on the verge of bankruptcy.

In the end, only the voters of California can change things. But on Tuesday, they opted for more of the same governance that will only make conditions worse. _Source

ImgSrcCalifornia is a large and populous state. It was once a desirable location for both families and businesses. But decades of being feasted on by professional political parasites has taken a toll on the once-golden state. Recently, California voters put the exclamation mark on their state's nosedive.

• With just 12% of the U.S. population, California has almost a third of the nation's welfare recipients. Some joke the state motto should be changed from "The Golden State" to "The Welfare State." Meanwhile, 15.3% of all Californians live in poverty.

• In a ranking by corporate relocation expert Ronald Pollina of the 50 states based on 31 factors for job creation, California finished dead last.

• In another ranking, this one by the Beacon Hill Institute on state competitiveness, California came in 32nd — down seven spots in just one year.

• California is home to 25% of America's 12 million to 20 million illegal immigrants. A 2004 study estimated that illegals cost the state's citizens $10.5 billion a year — roughly $1,200 per family.

• Unfunded pension liabilities for California's state and public employees may be as much as $500 billion — roughly 17% of the nation's total $3 trillion at the state and local level.

But the real political problem lies in Sacramento, the state capital, which is run not so much by politicians as by the unions they've sold out to — state employees, nurses, teachers and prison guards.

...Moreover, as its tax base shrivels, the state is lurching ever closer to fiscal insolvency. At some point, it will ask Congress for a bailout, and how likely is that with the new Republican majority?

Worse is the feeling among the state's businesses of an entrenched, almost pathological antipathy toward any job-creating activity...

...So far this year, thanks to California's unfriendly political environment, strict regulations and high taxes, 32 companies have announced they'll either expand elsewhere, move or shut down operations, according to the California Manufacturers & Technology Association. _IBD

California voters are like puppets on strings controlled by public sector unions, the faux environmental lobby, the trial lawyer industry, and the academic lobotomists of America. If you want to live where government is most dysfunctional in the entire US, California is your place.

What do you bet on the likelihood that the three dysfunctional state stooges: California, Illinois, and New York state, will soon be standing in line for massive state government bailouts from the federal government? Obama is no doubt willing, but the complexion of the US Congress has changed a bit.

Do you think Obama could re-distribute a few $trillion to his corrupt friends at the state level without anyone in Congress noticing?

Update 8Nov10:

You've racked up nearly $70 billion in general obligation debt, and that doesn't include your $500 billion unfunded pension liability. Your own analysts predict you'll face a hole of at least $80 billion over the next four years.

Your government's run by a brothel of environmentalists, lawyers, public-sector unions and legislative bums. When they're not taxing or spending, they're creating regulations and commissions like the Board of Barbering and Cosmetology and the California Blueberry Commission. Many businesses would leave if it weren't for your sunny climate.

...Jerry Brown will be your new (old) governor. This is the man who acted as a gateway drug to your spending addiction three decades ago when he gave public-sector employees collective bargaining rights. Helping enforce your wacky laws will be Lt. Gov-elect Gavin Newsom, the San Francisco mayor who flouted state law by allowing same-sex marriage.

...You've also just re-elected Barbara Boxer (that's Senator Barbara Boxer) to a fourth term. She boasted on election night that it's her "eleventh straight election victory, and what a sweet one it is . . . [since] everything was thrown at us, including the kitchen sink, and the stove and the oven and everything, millions of dollars of negative ads from known and unknown opponents, millions and millions of dollars."

We've tried to help you, California. Some spent millions on campaigns to entice you to change your reckless behavior. And you told them to kick rocks.

So here's our final warning: When you inevitably crash and burn, don't count on us to bail you out. _WSJ

Al Fin Refuses California Use of Syndicate Hit Men

Despite being pressured by some of California's most powerful political operatives, Al Fin is holding steady in his refusal to allow hit men from the Al Fin Syndicate to assist California state, county, and municipality governments to balance their budgets. With California municipalities -- starting with Vallejo -- being forced to declare bankruptcy over the cost of their exploding pension obligations, some of the craftier government executives appear to be looking into creative methods for reducing their liabilities.

While some retired government workers in California may collect yearly pensions as high as $200,000 to $500,000, a good hit man will generally charge no more than $25,000 a hit, according to the FBI. Australian hit men receive only about US $10,000 per hit, and Russian hit men will rarely charge over US $1,000 a hit. Depending upon contractual benefits to surviving family members, a government might well come out ahead by seeking professional help.

Across the US, government employee pensions are roughly $2 trillion in the red. Already overburdened taxpayers in the private sector are left holding the bag, being forced to work into their seventies so that government workers who retired in their fifties can take expensive and extended vacation cruises.

California's unfunded pension liability is about $60 billion, and that for Illinois is about $55 billion. Both states are sinking rapidly due to the absence of government executives willing to stand up to public employees' unions. New Jersey is also in a serious situation, but the new governor, Chris Christie, is attempting to implement some tough measures which may save the state from defaulting on its sovereign bond debt.

Thanks to public sector unions, several US states are in danger of defaulting on sovereign debt -- just like Greece and Spain. Governments whose workforce is thickly infiltrated with union workers will find it easy to raise wages and benefits when their economies are doing well. But when the economy crashes and tax revenues dry up, the same governments find it virtually impossible to adjust wages or benefits downward, for union employees. Default on sovereign debt can follow.

US federal government programs such as Medicare and Social Security, are likewise ballooning in cost, as the baby boom generation hits retirement age and younger generations fail to maintain tax revenues high enough to pay for the exponential rise in expenses. Consequently, President Obama and the Pelosi congress have devised a clever means to kill off large numbers of US senior citizens, and called it ObamaCare. An unfortunate side effect of ObamaCare is that it will burden the US economy with many $trillions more debt, but perhaps to Obama and Pelosi that is another good thing about the plan.

The use of hit men to eliminate the most costly recipients of overblown public employee pensions is likely to be limited to California -- where peculiar rules make it especially easy for mediocre employees to retire to the guaranteed lifestyle of a millionaire -- and to Illinois, where it is impossible to tell the difference between government and the mob. For most of the other 48 states, the stark example of their most irresponsible fellow states may jolt them into at least temporary sobriety. Hit men should not be necessary.

Regardless, you can rest assured that no Al Fin Syndicate hit men will be allowed to assist California to get out of its public employee pension mess. Al Fin feels that the California Assembly got itself into the mess, and it should either get itself out of the mess or die trying. Either way. ;-)

California Cost of Living 30% Higher Than US Avg

According to 2006 census estimates from the American Community Survey, the median household income in California was $56,645. In terms of ranking, that made California the sixth most prosperous state in the nation. But how did California fare, once the cost of living was taken into account? The answer is not very well. The economists who published the 2006 data, Bettina Aten and Roger D’Souza, did not deflate income data by the full 29.1 percent when calculating the real effect of cost of living. Rather, they exempted certain components of income, such as government transfer payments. Using this attenuated calculation, real median household income in California in 2006 was $47,988. In terms of ranking, that dropped California down to 31st place. (Were the data deflated by the full 29.1 percent, the state would have fallen all the way to 48th place.) _NewGeography_via_NewsAlert_

Very interesting. California ranks 48th out of 50 in prosperity, when its cost of living is taken into account. Unfortunately, things are just going to get worse, for the state that was once considered golden.

New York state would fall all the way to last place, out of all the states, if its 30% higher than average cost of living were considered.

All things being equal, people will live where they can maximize their standard of living. Not surprisingly, states that have seen the largest population growth in recent decades tend to be those with a low cost of living, notably in the South and in the Mountain West. On the other hand, states with a high cost of living have typically seen population growth lag. This is particularly true among certain Northeastern states that should have boomed, if nominal income were the best guide of how well a state is doing. Examples include Massachusetts, Connecticut and to a lesser degree, New Jersey, which has the second highest median household income in the nation.

In sum, the cost of living says a great deal about a state, its politics and its future. _NG

Businesses are fleeing California as if from a sinking ship. Meanwhile, Sacramento has learned nothing from California's growing distress. California state and municipal governments have made only token attempts to reduce costs. The sweet relationship between the California state legislature and public employee unions prevents any meaningful, saving reforms.

As California opens its treasuries to powerful unions, and undocumented aliens, it waves good-bye to larger numbers of employers, industries, retirees, and taxpayers. It doesn't look good.

California Accounts for 2/3 of US Housing Losses

"66 percent of potential housing value losses in 2008 and subsequent years may be in California, with another 21 percent in Florida, Nevada and Arizona, for a total of 87 percent of national declines."

"California had only 10 percent of the nation's housing units, but it had 34 percent of foreclosures in 2008," Lucy and Herlitz reported. _Reason

California is the great basket case of the US. And it is a preview of coming economic attractions for the rest of the US under Obama. Obama is not cleaning up the economic mess. He is inflating it -- growing it incalculably larger. There is nothing so bad that foolish men (and women) cannot make it far worse.

For more on how the "sand states" of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida took housing value down to the cellar, check out Steve Sailer's blog.

Special Bonus: How the 2008 surge in oil prices helped take the wind out of the sails of the world economy.

How congress influenced credit rating agencies.

This is not a thinking person's congress, and Obama is not a thinking person's president. Whatever voters thought they would get by voting for Obama, they are in for an unpleasant surprise. At this point, anyone who voted for Obama and continues to support his policies has earned the label "Obama zombie." Just as in most third world countries, the US is dividing between the politically connected (and favoured) and all the rest.

Final Bonus -- Jim Rogers rains on the parade of any economic optimists out there:

California in Steep Decline: Obamanation Future?

In wide regions of the state—from San Diego up through the Central Valley—the only boom is in the foreclosure business.

California has suffered under out-of-control government spending for decades, and is finally on the verge of a rapid collapse. The same type of fantasy ideology that has guided California on its downward path has now gained control of the US government. Wise investors and businessmen will take heed, as will heads of household. How bad is it going to get? Look at California, then extrapolate.

You can blame many factors for California’s fall from grace: too much immigration from poor countries, the impact of global competition on technology and aerospace industries, the end of the Cold War, failing schools...... Yet other states have weathered similar storms and still gained ground on the Golden State.

The real problem lies in the decline of the state’s political culture.

...During [Jerry] Brown’s watch....the Democratic Party came increasingly under the sway of public employees, trial lawyers, and narrow interest activist groups. Their ability to raise money and impose their political will often outweighed that of even the most powerful business interests.

...California’s shift to the Democrats had become inexorable and, with the fading of a GOP counterweight, influence within the party flowed to its more radical factions further to the political left. As a result, the state.... seemed determined to wage war against its own economy. As pet social programs, entitlements, and state employee pensions soared, infrastructure spending...shrank to less than 3 percent.

The educational system, closely aligned with the Democrats in the legislature, accelerated its secular decline. Once full of highly skilled workers, California has become increasingly less so. For example, California ranks second in the percentage of its 65-year-olds holding an associate degree or higher and fifth in those with a bachelor’s degree. But when you look at the 25-to-34 age group, those rankings fade to 30th and 24th.

Instead of reversing these trends, the state legislature decided to spend its money on public employees and impose ever more regulatory burdens on business. _Newgeography_via_Newsalert

And so it continues, despite the current reign of "Republican" Governator, A. Schwarzenegger. The process of devolution in California government has gathered too much momentum for anyone to save the state now. The same process of rapid decay is also found to be accelerating in New York State, Obama's Chicago, Washington DC, Detroit, and other Democratic Party strongholds.

It is easy to see where all this is leading the US, given the recent election results. Whether ACORN inflated Democratic votes artificially or not, it is clear that the majority of the electorate voted in such a way as to encourage big government policies--the same type of policies currently turning California into a fetid sinkhole.

If you want to know what is likely to happen to the US economy under Obama, look at where Obama's big government spending, big taxation, big regulation policies are already in force. Kahl-ee-forn-ya.

Will California Secede from the US and Join the EU?

Image Source

In many ways, California stands out from the rest of the US. With its coastal Mediterranean climate, and adherence to dieoff.org style energy deprivation policies, California might fit into the EU better than the US, in many ways.

1. The percentage of residents on welfare in the Golden State is now more than triple that of the rest of the U.S. If it reflected the rest of the country, California would have 800,000 fewer people receiving welfare.
2. While caseloads in the rest of the U.S. have dropped over 30% in the past five years, California’s has gone up about 6%.
3. As a result, though it has only about 12% of the total U.S. population, California’s share of the welfare caseload has risen from 22% in 2002 to over 30%.
4. There are more welfare recipients per family in California, and that number has crept upward in the past couple of years, perhaps indicating that California welfare mothers are bearing more children that those in the rest of the U.S.

Governor Schwarzenegger and his state were very fortunate during his first few years in office. The economic growth created by the Bush tax cuts came at just the right time. The state also received some lucky onetime windfalls, including the hundreds of millions of dollars founders and insiders at Google coughed up when they cashed in their stock options.

Unfortunately, it appears that the good fortune enabled the state to avoid serious expenditure reform in welfare, and surely other areas, which Schwarzenegger should have aggressively undertaken when he took office. __Source

California's flight from reason began many decades ago, but for a number of reasons, has not yet fully reaped its sad consequence. Elected representatives such as Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, and Maxine Waters attest to the depleted mental resources of the California voter. As more industries, more intelligent citizens, and large employers limp their way out of the state for better economic opportunity, the toxic concentration of obliviousness grows ever higher within the golden state.

California can still be a pleasant place to visit. But if you're thinking of starting a business there, you may want to think again.

Political Peak Oil; Biome Under Seafloor; Roasting Biomass Like Coffee Beans

Image Source

Politicians in Washington DC have been grandstanding for the camera, to demonstrate their "deep concern" about high oil prices. The only problem with that political posture is that it is the politicians themselves who are directly to blame. We are experiencing political peak oil.

Of natural crude, we have large reserves off the coasts of California and Florida. However, no drilling in these areas has been permitted by law since the late 1960’s. China, however, by using agreements with Cuba to drill in this area, will begin doing so shortly.

America also has additional reserves in the Gulf areas, from Florida to Texas. However, no drilling is permitted in most of these areas. Mexico, however, has no such restrictions.

In Alaska, both onshore and offshore, we have large areas of proven reserves, which are not allowed to be developed by law. Canada has no laws prohibiting such development.

In the mountain Western states, large amounts of oil are available in the shale rock formations. However, EPA regulations prohibit their development.

In the far West, vast areas of tar sands remain undeveloped due to environmental restrictions. As with the geographic areas noted above, most of the land is owned or controlled by the federal government. Canadian use of tar sands is a major source of their oil exports.

The conversion of coal to oil, a technology available for over 100 years, remains another untapped resource, due to legislative and environmental restrictions.

The bottom line is that America could have become energy independent with regard to crude oil by the mid 1980’s. In the area of electricity, the addition of more coal fired generating plants, nuclear power plants, and additional hydro electric plants could have made the need for gas and oil fueled electrical plants unnecessary by 1990. That would have freed up more crude for other purposes, and reduced our overall consumption of oil. In addition, our electrical generation capacity would substantially exceed our present needs, rather than the sporadic shortages we now experience.

Some analysts have estimated that if all of these options had been initiated in the immediate aftermath of the OPEC embargo, crude oil today would have a domestic price of 40-45 dollars per barrel, with secure supplies, and uninfluenced by foreign costs or international speculators. Why didn’t this happen?

It is popular to blame the oil companies, oil cartels, or greedy speculators. But in truth, we are in a bed of our own making. It is not the usual suspects who have passed laws based on bad science, radical environmental lobbies, self interest, political agendas or ignorance of technological advances and free enterprise economics. It is the result of our own government, mainly through the ineptness of Congress. __Source

The biggest comedians on television recently were not David Letterman or Jay Leno. No, the biggest jokers were Senators Barbara Boxer of California and Dick Durbin of Illinois. Maxine Waters, California Representative, was something of the joker herself--promising to socialize nationalize American oil production. Congress is an ass. We knew California was in a self-inflicted energy deprived tailspin. Now Boxer, Waters, Durbin et al want to do the same thing to the entire US.

Of course, we can substitute biomass for much of the oil and coal that we burn. In fact, by roasting the biomass in a manner similar to coffee roasting, we can increase the amount of energy in the biomass--making it burn hotter and cleaner. We can turn waste biomass into gas, and use that gas to fire conventional gas turbines to generate electricity, or convert the gas into liquid fuels to power transportation vehicles such as trucks, farm tractors, heavy equipment, buses, automobiles, ships, and planes.

But the most intriguing news about biomass in the past week comes from studies of the deep ocean floor--bizarre life forms buried deep beneath the ocean floor. In fact, there may be more living biomass buried under the seafloor than in all the plants on Earth's surface.

...the rocks beneath the sea appear to be teeming with life.

John Parkes, a geobiologist at the University of Cardiff, UK, hopes his team's discovery might one day help find life on other planets. He says it might even redefine what we understand as life, and, bizarrely, what we understand by "age".

Parkes has been hunting for deep life for over 20 years. Recently, he and his colleagues examined samples of a mud core extracted from between 860 metres and 1626 metres beneath the sea floor off the coast of Newfoundland.

They found simple organisms known as prokaryotes in every sample. Prokaryotes are organisms that often have just one cell. Their peculiarity is that, unlike any other form of life, their DNA is not neatly packed into a nucleus. __Source

It is too early to say how the under-the-seafloor prokaryotes relate to early life on Earth, or perhaps even life on other planetary bodies in space. Prokaryotes are more primitive than eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus), and given the relatedness of under the seafloor prokaryotes to deep ocean vent prokaryotes, this form of life appears quite ancient.

Life on Earth is ubiquitous. It exists high in the atmosphere, deep under the Earth's surface and seafloor, within its oceans and polar ice, and virtually everywhere on the surface. But as much life as exists already, there is room for orders of magnitude more life. Energy from the sun and the Earth's heat and chemistry is virtually limitless, for human purposes.

As Craig Venter and his merry band of synthetic biologists devise ever newer forms of life, custom-made to serve human needs, we will discover even more ways that life can exist on this planet.

California the Golden State: Drowning in Debt, Energy Starved, Mis-managed

California's big industries have stopped building facilities in the Golden State. Instead, the motto is "anywhere but in California!" The government of California has been dominated by anti-business interests, making it plain to large businesses that California has other, larger priorities.

...heavy manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries have been fleeing the Golden State in droves for lower-cost locales. Twenty years ago or so, you could count eight automobile factories in California; today, there’s just one, and it’s the same story with other industries, from chemicals to aerospace.

...The shortages are starting to rattle some Silicon Valley heavyweights. Intel chief executive Craig Barrett, for instance, vowed in 2001 not to build a chip-making facility in California until power supplies became more reliable. This October, Intel opened a $3 billion factory near Phoenix for mass production of its new 45-nanometer microprocessors. Google, meanwhile, has chosen to build the massive server farms that will fuel its expansion anywhere but in California. The most celebrated is an enormous installation along the Columbia River in The Dalles, Oregon, a facility that will house tens of thousands of computers, requiring mind-boggling amounts of power. A 1.8-gigawatt hydroelectric power plant will offer Google power for a small fraction of what it would cost in the Golden State. The irony is that the Silicon Valley companies that have become the face of California’s twenty-first-century economy are increasingly building the facilities that will give them their future value in other states.

...Despite California’s desperate need for more power, opposition to energy projects remains nearly as prevalent today as at any time during the previous three decades. State law explicitly prohibits the construction of new nuclear plants, and legislative efforts last summer to repeal it went nowhere, even though more and more states are looking to nuclear power as a clean energy alternative. A de facto moratorium on conventional coal-fired power plants (which generate half of America’s electricity) has been in place for decades in California; none exists anywhere in the state. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense are working to get dams torn down, even though large-scale hydropower supplies nearly one-fifth of Californians’ electricity.

...Even renewable energy projects can have trouble getting off the ground, often because of Not-In-My-Backyard objections. “NIMBYism is a huge problem in our state, a whole creature unto itself,” says Joe Lyons, a lobbyist for the California Manufacturers Technology Association. “It cuts across all sectors. Even in the most remote locations, where you wouldn’t think it would be difficult to site a new project, or even on federal lands, it is still extremely difficult and there is always opposition.” For instance, attempts to build a geothermal facility on federal lands deep within the Modoc National Forest face relentless opposition from Indian tribes, which consider the site sacred. Local hostility also threatens to hold up construction of several major transmission lines designed to bring more than 5,000 MW of power from renewable energy sources to Southern California consumers.

...Given all its failings, what sort of leadership example does California offer the rest of the country? It’s hard to claim credibly that California illuminates the world when it has trouble illuminating itself. Further, California’s particular path makes sense only if the rest of the country refuses to follow it. The state’s lawmakers and regulators have enacted policies that for several decades have allowed Californians to feel good, even smug, about their environmental credentials. Yet California’s economic prosperity has relied on the fact that other states have built power plants and established sensible regulatory regimes that don’t force businesses to flee. The power plants scattered throughout the western United States, as well as the factories in the American Midwest and South, have consistently saved California from the folly of its own anti-energy agenda. __CityJournal

You should not think that California's mismanagement at the state government level is limited to the energy and environmental sectors. California's huge, mounting budget deficit is affecting its ability to provide medical care and quality educational services. California's government seems confused about the basic concept of fiscal management.

The Golden State is being deluged by impoverished, uneducated, often violent illegal immigrants from South of the border. The immense burden this human wave throws onto the law enforcement, medical services, and educational departments of both state and federal government agencies is ever growing--with no end in sight.

California is losing its large industries and employers at just the time when it needs the revenue that they represent.

It is not likely that California government officials will ever wake up from the reactionary leftist slumber that has taken them captive. The public of California--increasingly dominated by non-tax payers from the South, appears not to notice or not to care about the lack of responsibility or absence of fiscal sanity in Sacramento.

If California is the trend-setter for the US, the rest of the US can only hope that in this case California stands alone.

He Ain't Slow, He Ain't Fast, He Just Half Ass

Russians have a name for it: "Oblomovism". A fictional character from a novel,

"(Oblomov) has inherited property that's decaying because he won't get out of bed to manage it. When the novel appeared, everyone agreed that it defined a pervasive element in the Russian character. A new word was born, Oblomovism."

[from National Post]

Social entropy. Decline from neglect. In Russia, Zimbabwe, Detroit (see photo above), Venezuela. Decay--a winding down of the clock. Just drive down the street of a middle-aged neighborhood, and observe which houses and properties are maintained and which are neglected. Houses which are owned by the resident may be kept better, due to the incentive of maintaining personal or family wealth. Renters have less incentive to maintain a property's value. But even owners, like Oblomov, can "let things go."

Peak Oil enthusiasts predict a massive decay of society when fossil fuels grow too scarce and expensive to use for normal upkeep and support of society. Global Warming acolytes anticipate collapse of society from greenhouse gases. Although both viewpoints lack credibility, forces of societal decay and collapse are still visible on a smaller scale, and subject to spread and acceleration.

Some societies are prospering and some are decaying. Why? Various authors from Adam Smith, to David Landes, to Jared Diamond, to Richard Lynn, to David Warsh have written entire volumes to try to answer the question.

History suggests that in the long run, even the greatest and most powerful societies will decline, and fall into disrepair. Some populations seem to naturally fall into "Oblomovism"--natural decay. Other populations fight against entropy for centuries. Lenin tried to force the "Oblomovism" out of the Russian character, but ultimately failed. Even in decaying societies, pockets of prosperity appear. Even in prospering societies, pockets of poverty stubbornly persist.

Societies are maintained by intricately inter-connected systems of information and material flow. Knowledge and decisions. As modern Japan and Singapore illustrate, information flow is more important than absolute levels of physical resources. Societal trust is important. A healthy society thrives because its people are motivated, capable, free to act, informed, and blessed with minimal resources.

The many "wealth of nations" approaches taken by the authors above, seem to emphasize particular needs of healthy societies--and neglect others.

Natural societal experiments--such as post-colonial experiences, and forced diasporas of market dominant minorities from countries--illustrate the importance of certain population characteristics (Zimbabwe, Uganda, Lebanon ...). The division of nations by two competing systems of government and economy provides another interesting look into administrative requirements of societies (East and West Germany, North and South Korea . . .).

Saudi Arabia--despite its oil wealth--is a society perched on the edge of rapid decline and collapse. The oil emirates of the Persian Gulf have opened much more to the outside, and appear to possess a vitality and potential to outlive the oil era. Arab backwardness will be hard to overcome, but the emirates are trying. If Saudi Arabia reluctantly relaxes its draconian oppression by religious law and cultural inbreeding, it may also experience a renaissance of sorts.

Latter day multiculturalism--rapid growth of unassimilated tribalism--has the potential to destroy a society much more quickly and surely than Peak Oil or Climate Change. Bad government--the destruction of personal incentive by excessive growth of central government--will cut the legs from under a society. Restricting information flow in a society creates dangerous turbulence that will eventually erode the societ's foundations. Corruption that diverts resources from the productive to the unproductive short-circuits a society's innovativeness.

There are too many ways for a society to fall into "Oblomovism," even if the natural, unfettered tendency of the society is to work hard and prosper. From California, to North Korea, to Zimbabwe, to Cuba, to Venezuela . . . bad government suppresses the natural tendency of populations to try to prosper.

Of those who understand these issues, no one is in a position to create the conditions for a society to prosper. Humans need to be smarter, wiser, longer-lived, more experienced, and better balanced emotionally.

Image credit Sweet Juniper via Joanne Jacobs