NC Media Watch

I watched property rights sausage being made this afternoon

Russ Steele

Following a power lunch with fellow conservative bloggers, I motored up to the Rood Center to watch the Board of Supervisors deal with item 21.

SCHEDULED ITEM: 1:30 P.M. Jory Stewart, Planning Director
21.    Public hearing continued from Tuesday, January 11, 2011 to consider the appeal filed by Crawford and Josie Bost regarding the Zoning Administrator’s denial of Parcel Map (PM09- 009) and Petition for Exceptions (MI10-004) on property located at 19100 B-4 Ranch Road, Nevada City (Assessor’s Parcel Number: 62-150-32). (Dist. I)
ADJO

Right up front Crawford and Josie agreed with most of the recommendations of the Planning Staff to remove the gate on the emergency access road at the border of their property, to improve a segment of the emergency access road and to get legal commitments from the home owners on Deerhaven Lane. Deerhaven Lane is part of the secondary emergency access road.  The only issue was that one property owner was insisting on a gate as the emergency access road crossed over his property. His property had been vandalized several times and GPS maps shows the road went through his property, and it brings unwelcome visitors to his home.        

The county staff did not want a locked the gate on the road, based on an ordnance that was passed in May of 2010. This was after the Bost’s had requested their lot split in 2009, and a exception in Jan 2010.  In other words,  as the lot split was making it’s through an expensive and time consuming process,  the County planners kept raising the bar the Bost family had to jump over.  It was clear the no-locked gate regulation stated that it only applies to locked gates on emergency access roads after May of 2010.

Why were we even here,  kept rattling through my brain.  The lot split was applied for in 2009, long before the new gate regulation.  As Supervisor Owens, said it was unfair to apply regulations retroactively, and Supervisor Weston seemed to agree. I had to leave before Supervisor Scofield spoke. Later this evening I learned here that the BOS voted 3-2 to allow the locked gate.  It seem to me the Staff was stretching their authority, and three of the Supervisors were injected some common sense into the process.  

The most interesting part of the meeting was the parade of those apposed to the lot split. The usual lefties, some aging hippies, some neighbors, made their way to the microphone to object to the lot split.  The aging hippies wanted to go back and review the zoning established during the last upgrade to the General Plan in the 1990. Reading between the lines,  this was what I heard from this group.  “ Hey, we did not get our way during the General Plan Update, so why should the Bost family have an opportunity to take advantage of our failure to keep the zoning at 40 acres.” 

One final thought. The rational given by Supervisors Lamphier and Beason for their no votes seemed to be more contrived to satisfy their political constituency than a rational assessment of the facts. It was clear, the regulation the planning commission was using to block this lot split did not apply in this case, and even a mediocre lawyer could made a good case in court. Congratulations to Supervisor’s Weston, Owens and Scofield for using some common sense in deciding this issue. 

Green job turkey eats $535 million in Porkluus

Russ Steele

I have written about this in previous posts here and here, but now it is official, Solyndra, which was supposed to have showcased the effectiveness of the Obama administration’s stimulus and green jobs initiatives, turned into money eating green turkey.  This green turkey has attracted the attention of a congressional committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse in the stimulus bill.

The Daily Caller has the story here:

According to a Feb. 17 letter signed by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, Michigan Republican, and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican, to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Fremont, Calif.-based solar panel manufacturer squandered $535 million of stimulus money.

The company became the first recipient of an Energy Department loan guarantee under the stimulus in March 2009, which was intended to “finance construction of the first phase of the company’s new manufacturing facility” for photovoltaic solar panels.

The Energy Department estimated in a March 20, 2009 press release that the loan guarantee would create 3,000 construction jobs and a further 1,000 jobs after the plant opened.

Exit questions: If the federal government can not create green jobs with a half a biilion dollars, how can it fill their other green job promises?

More on California's High Speed Rail

Russ Steele

A number of readers have jumped in to defend high speed rail citing examples of rail success in Europe.  Ellen and I have traveled by train multiple times in England, Scotland, and France. On one trip we brought a rail pass with car rental at each stop. We were staying in country cottages and visiting our oldest daughter attending York University.

On another trip we took the high-speed train from London to Paris with our youngest daughter who was finishing an education abroad semester. On a previous trip to France,  Ellen and I used regional rail. All the train trips were an enjoyable experience. On the Eurostar train to Paris, the three of us and one other couple were the only ones in our rail car. With only five people to serve we received incredible attention from the staff.

I wondered at the time, with so few riders on the Eurostar, how could it be profitable. According to a Skynet story here it has never been profitable and even with record number of passenger, who are avoiding airline hassles, it is not projected to operate in the black. 

Thomas Sowell has some thought on California's high-speed rail in his article Reckless Spending at TownHall.com

Building a high-speed rail system between Los Angeles and San Francisco may sound great to people who don't give it any serious thought. But we are a more spread-out country than England, France or Japan. The distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco is greater than the distance from London to Paris-- by more than 100 miles.

In Japan, the distance between Tokyo and Osaka is comparable to the distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco. But the population of Osaka alone is larger than the combined populations of Los Angeles and San Francisco-- and Tokyo has millions more people than Osaka. That is why it can make sense to have a "bullet train" running between Osaka and Tokyo, but makes no sense to build one between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

However little President Obama knows or cares about economics, he knows a lot about politics-- and especially political rhetoric. "High-speed rail" is simply another set of lofty words to justify continued expansion of government spending. So are words like "investment in education" or "investment" in any number of other things, which serves the same political purpose.

The problem with California's high-speed rail is it will suffer same fate as the Eurostar, it will never be profitable. After the Federal government gives California money to build it, then the California tax payers will have to foot the bill for operations and maintenance. It will be just another black hole sucking in our tax dollars for ever. Not a good bargain, just for the the bragging rights of having a high- speed rail.

Exit Question: How can California HSR every be profitable? Please explain!

Are the Nevada County BOS going to violate the Brown Act?

Russ Steele

I wrote about Item 20 on the Board of Supervisors Agenda for 02-22-11 here and got beat up by our local lefties for questioning the approval of this marketing effort.  Now there is a different issue.  According to my understanding of the Brown Act all agenda items and supporting material are suppose to be available to the public 72 hours prior to the meeting when the Supervisors will be making a decision. Item 20 calls for Board approval of a Logo/Branding/Tourism Website.

SCHEDULED ITEM: 10:30 A.M.
20.    Presentation by Switchback Public Relations and Marketing, Inc., Nevada County Strategic Tourism Plan-Marketing.

Approval of the Logo/Branding/Tourism Website.

The Blogging community been waiting for the new Logo and Marketing Plan to be posted to the County Web Site. So, far they have not been posted. 

A regular reader of this blog sent a query to Switchback Public Relations and asked for a copy of the Logo and Marketing Plan and was informed by Switchback that they cannot give a copy to anyone prior to it's presentation to the Board of Supervisors.

I am not a lawyer, but it would seem to me that under the Brown Act the Logo and Marketing Plan are supporting material and should be make available for public review 72 hours prior to the Board meeting, especially if they plan to approve the Logo and Marketing plan as stipulated in the item 20 of the Agenda?

Exit Question: Will the BOS violate the Brown Act if they approve the new Logo/Branding/Tourism Web site tomorrow (Tuesday, 22 Feb 2010) with out public review?

Reality check - Is CO2 really a dangerious pollutant?

Russ Steele

EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson and American Public Health Association representative Lynn Goldman, M.D presented statments before the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, Committee on Energy and Commerce, United States House of Representatives, February 9, 2011, in an attempt to make the case that "CO2 is a pollutant and an endangerment to mankind."

Now, H. Leighton Steward, Chairman PlantsNeedCO2.org and CO2isGreen.org. has presented an alternative view which is posted in ICECAP and can be viewed here. 

                 Administrator Jackson begins by stating that all Americans rely on the Clean Air Act to protect them from harmful air pollution.  I agree. Next, Administrator Jackson says she is relying on the 2007 Supreme Court decision that EPA could consider greenhouse gases an air pollutant.  Administrator Jackson neglected to include that the Supreme Court also said the Administrator could exclude a greenhouse gas if she could present evidence that the gas was not a pollutant or endangerment to mankind.  This gets to the heart of the issue since Administrator Jackson has singled out carbon dioxide as the key substance to regulate on the grounds that, as Administrator Jackson so frequently comments, "CO2 is a pollutant and an endangerment to mankind."  That anyone would say that CO2 is a pollutant is incredible, but particularly when said by Administrator Jackson who is a degreed chemical engineer. 
 
 There is not a single case, short of multi-thousands of parts per million (ppm) of this trace gas, that indicates CO2 to be a pollutant.  CO2 is the staff of life.  Earth's food chain begins with plants and as we all learned in elementary school, CO2 is what plants eat.  In fact, as thousands of peer reviewed laboratory and field studies show, the more CO2 plants "eat", the more robustly they grow.  This is not speculation based upon man-made models; this is from real, empirical observations.  I present three examples demonstrating that CO2 is not a pollutant; first, many commercial greenhouse operators grow the fruits and vegetables we buy in the grocery and where they and their staffs work, in an atmosphere of 1,000 ppm CO2.  The workers suffer no ill effects and the plants grow profusely.  Earth's current atmosphere contains only 390 ppm.  Secondly, as testified to the Unites States Senate, Princeton distinguished Professor William Happer has pointed that our very own government allows CO2 levels to build up to 8,000 ppm in our nuclear submarines where our sailors reside for week s at a time.  Thirdly, we breathe in the current 390 ppm of CO2 and breathe out 40,000 ppm (!) with our lungs incurring no toxic or detrimental effects.  For this Administration and especially Administrator Jackson to continue to refer to CO2 as a pollutant is far worse that a slip of the tongue or exaggeration; it is grossly misleading to our country's citizens.

Welcome New York Times Readers

Russ Steele

If you have dropped by after reading Verne Kopytoff article on Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter in the NY Times Internet Section, please look around. If you have any questions about why I blog, local or regional issues I blog about, or blogging in general, please post a comment. Again, welcome to NC Media Watch!

Joel Kotkin on California's High-Speed Rail

Russ Steele

I have been a follower of Joel Kotkin for years, I have found his insightful analysis of demographics and urban growth spot on when I was working on advanced transportation systems projects for TRW in the 1990s. 

Perhaps nothing so illustrates President Obama’s occasional disconnect with reality than his fervent advocacy of high-speed rail. Amid mounting pressure for budget cuts that affect existing programs, including those for the inner city, the president has made his $53 billion proposal to create a national high-speed rail network as among his top priorities.

Our President may be an intelligent and usually level-headed man, but this represents a serious case of  policy delusion. As Robert Samuelson pointed out in Newsweek, high-speed rail is not an appropriate fit for a country like the U.S. Except for a few areas, notably along the Northeast Corridor, the U.S. just lacks the density that would make such a system work. Samuelson calls the whole idea “a triumph of fancy over fact.”

Arguably the biggest problem with high-speed rail is its extraordinary costs, which would require massive subsidies to keep operating. Unlike the Federal Highway Program, largely financed by the gas tax, high-speed rail lacks any credible source of funding besides taxpayer dollars.

Here is what Joel had to say about California's High-Speed Rail program.

Mr. Spock – set phasers to “incinerate”…

Russ Steele

As a former Air Force Electronics Warfare Officer (EWO) the untimate countermeasure has always been one of my interests. Here is a report from the Fox Nation on a poweful new laser that comes close to the ultimate countermeasure - incineration:

The Navy just set a new world record, a test blast from a new type of laser that can shoot cruise missiles from the sky in seconds with a deadly accuracy that simply doesn't exist in the military's vast arsenal today.

And that new record moved them one step closer to proving the "holy grail" of laser guns is real.

To create incredible power requires incredible energy. After all, the more power one puts into a laser accelerator, the more powerful and precise the light beam that comes out on the other end. During a private tour of the Jefferson Lab in Newport News, VA., on Friday, FoxNews.com saw scientists blast unprecedented levels of power into a prototype accelerator, producing a supercharged electron beam that can burn through 20 feet of steel per second.

Scientists there, in coordination with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), injected a sustained 500 kilovolts (KV) of juice into a prototype accelerator where the existing limit had been 320 kV -- a world's record, the scientists explained.

"This is brand new -- it has not been done before, in the world," said Carlos Hernandez-Garcia, director of the injector and electron gun systems for the FEL (Free Electron Laser) program, who added that Friday's breakthrough was the culmination of six years of development.

H/T to PoliPundit.com

How will PEV owners pay fair share of road maintenance fees?

Russ Steele

President Obama wants to put a million electric cars in the road. Market research reports are warning our political leaders that there will surge if plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in Los Angles, San Francisco and the Sacramento Metro Area. Details here.

The questions is if we have a lot people driving cars which don’t use gasoline or diesel where will the road taxes used to maintain state highways come from?  Who will make up this shortfall? The taxpayer? And states are not too happy about the loss of gas and diesel fees, either.

States have historically relied on motor fuel taxes to fund highway infrastructure, but with revenue declining, cash-strapped states could turn instead to high tech "road user fees" to build and fix our roads.  I wrote about his issue in December of 2004 for the Capitol Journal:  Ridin' with a tax collector onboard.

Working in parallel with Minnesota, the Oregon Road User Fee Task Force looked at 28 different revenue sources to replace the lost motor fuel tax revenue. The Oregon Legislature adopted the Task Force findings, which recommended a road user fee based on the distance traveled, phased in over twenty years. The fee would be calculated based on vehicle miles traveled using an electronic odometer and GPS location system, with the information downloaded over a wireless transmitter at the gas pump.  Vehicles without the electronic odometer, such as transit vacation vehicles (RV's) from other states, or older vehicles without the internal electronics  and computers, would continue to pay motor fuel taxes at the pump. An onboard Global Position System will determine when the vehicle is in Oregon.  

Oregon tested this road pricing concept as part of a one-year alternative gas tax collection program. The Oregon DOT launching the 12-month pilot program in April of 2006 to test the technological and administrative feasibility of this concept. The program included 285 volunteer vehicles, with 299 motorists, and two service stations in Portland. The test program was a success. The test results can be downloaded here.

Based on the Oregon results, I think it would be appropiate that all plug-in electric vehicles have an onboard data collection systems and that downlaods the miles traveled whenever the vehicle is plugged into a tax payer subsidised charging station. Details on taxpayer subsidized charging stations at the bottom of this article.  The miles traveled can be recorded and billed to the plug-in electric vehicle owners, with fees due at registration every year.  One, this would help defray road mantainece cost. Two, it could discourage plug-in electric vehicle owners from using tax payers susidized charging stations.

Is their a cure for Range Anxiety?

Russ Steele

Writing the other day about a surge in plug-in electric vehicles here reminded me of a conversation I had in the early 1990s about electric vehicles with Pat Kelly, a former Air Force navigator and at the time fellow employee at TRW. The GM EV1 was not on the market yet.

Both Pat and I were electronic warfare officers and navigators in short range aircraft, he in Tactical Air Command and me in Strategic Air Command. He had spent a tour over Thud Ridge in the back seat of an F105 Wild Wessel confronting North Viet Nam surface to air missile batteries and I had been a right seater in the SAC FB-111.

While we shared a common back ground, at times were rivals in the Air Force. He was a TAC guy and I was a SAC guy, even thought we were both working on the same problem.  How to get immediate electronic intelligence into computer driven electronic warfare systems under combat conditions. We just viewed the world from a different point of view. His was a tactical warfare perspective and mine was more strategic nuclear warfare.   

Pat and I were enjoy a scotch and soda in a motel bar, we had just spent the afternoon listening to the genius at Cal Tech Pomona talking about the future of electric vehicles. Part of our mission at TRW was to look for new ideas, emerging technologies, and connect the dots to future business opportunities.

Without introduction, Pat said, “They will never sell”  “What will never sell,” I asked.

“Electric cars,” he answered. “Range anxiety!”  This was an insightful comment on a condition that is slowing the sales of electric vehicles today.