Russ Steele
CA is still in a depression and the environmentalist are more worried that we are not meeting the goals set out in AB-32 the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, then crating jobs. Never mind, they there has not been any significant warming for the last 15 years and in Sacramento, the source of AB32, for the last 30 years.
CA Political News has the story here:
California is not on track to meet the most ambitious goals of AB 32, the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, according to Carl Blumstein, director of the California Institute for Energy and the Environment.
“It’s very challenging,” said Blumstein, addressing an August 4 event at the University of California Sacramento Center.
Blumstein did not challenge any part of AB 32, which calls for reductions in greenhouse gasses (GHG) by 80 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2050. But Blumstein said that “we are not on course” to meet the 80 percent goal for 2050. The goal for 2012 is 20 percent.
According to the California Energy Commission, as of 2010 natural gas accounts for 41.8 percent of state energy, with nuclear power 13.9 percent, unspecified 12 percent, large hydro 10.7 percent and coal 7.7 percent. Renewable sources amount to 13.7 percent of state energy. Solar power accounts for only 0.03 percent of that amount.
California must “confront climate change,” said Blumstein, who did not indicate whether all scientists agree that climate change means inexorable warming by human agency, to be remedied by government regulation. He did not refer to 30-year data on temperatures, which show cooling in the Sacramento area.
Read the rest of the story here. I agree, that California needs to “confront climate change” but we need to ask, what happens if the cooling trend continues. Reputable scientists. in peer reviewed papers, have said the sun is going into a long slumber, and when that has happened in the past the planet has cooled, for 30 to 70 years. Past cooling has a huge impact on agriculture and millions starved. What happens to California agriculture, which is a major part of the states economy, if the cooling continues? Should we be preparing for cooling and not warming, that is what the real world data is telling us, but our political leaders are looking for problems elsewhere.