NC Media Watch

Prop 23 Update: Green Job Explosion a Pipe Dream

Russ Steele

During the Prop 23 debate our local left told us that an explosion of green job were going to bring California out of the recession and voting for Prop 23 was going to destroy that dream of green wealth. Now reality has set in and the pipe dream has exploded, and even the über-liberal New York Times has taken notice.

In the Bay Area as in much of the country, the green economy is not proving to be the job-creation engine that many politicians envisioned. President Obama once pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years. Gov. Jerry Brown promised 500,000 clean-technology jobs statewide by the end of the decade. But the results so far suggest such numbers are a pipe dream.

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A study released in July by the non-partisan Brookings Institution found clean-technology jobs accounted for just 2 percent of employment nationwide and only slightly more — 2.2 percent — in Silicon Valley. Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent.

Federal and state efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed, government records show. Two years after it was awarded $186 million in federal stimulus money to weatherize drafty homes, California has spent only a little over half that sum and has so far created the equivalent of just 538 full-time jobs in the last quarter, according to the State Department of Community Services and Development.

The weatherization program was initially delayed for seven months while the federal Department of Labor determined prevailing wage standards for the industry. Even after that issue was resolved, the program never really caught on as homeowners balked at the upfront costs.

Oh my, now what?  We told our local lefties, who were supporting the full implimentation of AB-32, that going green would be a job killer.  It did in Spain, which was often cited as a model for California to follow by our former RINO Governor. As the study demonstrated,  "Rather than adding jobs, the study found, the sector actually lost 492 positions from 2003 to 2010 in the South Bay, where the unemployment rate in June was 10.5 percent."

Exit Question:  How are we going to recover from this lefty driven green pipe dream?

Another Company HQ is Leaving California

Russ Steele

As a freelance writer and RV owner, Trailer Life has been one of the my target publications since 2005.  The Affinity Group Inc. publishes Trailer Life Magazine in Ventura CA.  This week I was informed by the editor that I am working with on several stories that the company is moving it's Headquaters from Ventura California to Minneapolis, Minnesota in November. 

According to the Funding Universe Data Base "the Affinity Group Holding Company is the parent company of several businesses, including Affinity Group, Inc. (AGI), that provide goods and services to the outdoor recreation market, primarily recreational vehicle (RV) enthusiasts. Through its subsidiaries, the company owns and operates the Camping World chain of retail stores for RV parts and camping equipment and oversees several clubs for RV owners, including the Good Sam Club, Coast to Coast, Camping World's President's Club, Motorhome America Club, as well as Golf Card International. AGI publishes books, such as campground directories and buyer's guides, and consumer magazines, including Trailer Life, Highways, MotorHome, and several regional publications. Another publication, RV Business, serves the recreational vehicle industry. Through several Internet sites and a cable television show, AGI provides technical and non-technical information to RV enthusiasts and act as forums for RV-related businesses. The company publishes several magazines for other outdoor recreational activities, including ATV Sport, American Rider, Woman Rider, and Thunder Press."

According to Hoovers Affinity Group Inc. has 1,637 employees, but it is not clear how many are at the Headquarters in California and wil be moving. My editor will not be moving to Minneapolis, and I will soon have a new editor.

Exit Question: How many more companies will be leaving California for more business friendly states?

Jerry Brown takes owenship of Arnold's high speed black hole

Russ Steele

The Sac Bee Capitol Alert has the story here:

Gov. Jerry Brown said this afternoon that California's embattled high-speed rail project should move forward, despite growing criticism about the project's management and cost.

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Brown said he is "really getting into" the project and that "we're working directly with the authority to get their act together."

High Speed Rail will become the biggest black hole that California has ever created and we the tax payers will be be responsible for filling an bottomless pit.  High Speed Rail has just never pencils out, while the Fed will help to fund, the maintenance and operation will be the responsibility to CA taxpayers, and the fare box will never support the operation, just like we have to subsidize our local Gold County Stage by 85%.  Perpare your wallets!

Oh my, Obama had better have a really great jobs plan

Russ Steele



I am hearing rumors that “The One’s” jobs plan is just more stimulus spending. His basic political philosophy will not allow him to do what really needs to be done, lower taxes, reduce small business regulations, put the EPA in a coma, turn on California water, and start drilling for oil in the US.  We can drill and grow our way out of the econmic hole we have dug for ourselves, but first we have to put the EPA in a political coma.

Prop 23 Update: Lost another one, moved to Texas after 42 years in CA

Russ Steele

The Orange County Register has the story: Manufacturer moves to Texas after 42 years in O.C.

EDM Laboratories Inc., founded in Orange County in 1969, has moved to Corpus Christi, Tex. because California taxes and fees are too high, said owner Mike St. Amand.

Here some cost details from the article:

“The main thing that was getting tough — and I think this is true of every manufacturing company in California — is the state charges sales tax on leased equipment,” he said. “If you leased $1 million in equipment, you’d pay $25,000 a month in lease payments and then pay $1,900 a month in sales tax. Most states don’t do that.”
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Plus the county charges property tax on the equipment, which many states don’t charge, he added.

“My company truck registration cost $600 a year (in California) and $85 in Texas,” he continued. “My car insurance is less here. Gas is 50-cents-a-gallon cheaper. Electricity cost me $3,000 a month in California; last month running the air conditioning full time it cost $800.”

These are the challenges that are facing every California Company. It is not wonder that companies are leaving the state.

 H/T to a regular readers for providing a link to this stroy.

Yet again, another green business throws in the towel

Russ Steele

Here is another green business that cannot succeed in the US.

Solar module manufacturer Solon Corp will lay off 60 local workers as it shuts down its production facility in Tucson, the company said Monday. Solon, part of German-based Solon SE, said it will seek lower-cost sources of solar modules for utility and commercial photovoltaic systems in Asia.

Tucson Sentinel, 15 August 2011

Obama promise of green jobs was more rhetoric than reality.

Prop 23 Update: Oh No! Not another Green Company down the tubes

Russ Steele

Another one of Obama's green pets files for bankruptcy.  Details in the Boston Herald here.

Evergreen Solar Inc., the Marlboro clean-energy company that received millions in state subsidies to build an ill-fated Bay State factory, has filed for bankruptcy.

Evergreen, which closed its taxpayer-supported Devens factory in March and cut 800 jobs, has been trying to rework its debt for months. The company announced today it is seeking a reorganization in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware and also reached a deal with certain note holders to restructure its debt and sell off certain assets.

Now you can see why investors are turning way from renewable energy.  These companies are build on a soft government subside foundation, a foundation that is crumbling in real time while we watch.  Run Bertha, Run

Yea, this should turn out really well?

Russ Steele

According to the Sac Bee Capitol Alert:  Low-income advocates to urge boycott of Amazon.com

Advocates for the poor will urge Californians today to boycott Amazon.com until the online retailer begins collecting sales taxes. Representatives of the Health and Human Services Network of California will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. on the Capitol's north steps asking state residents to close their Amazon.com accounts until the company stops fighting a law intended to force online retailers to collect California sales taxes.

Representatives of the Health and Human Services Network of California will hold a news conference at 10:30 a.m. on the Capitol's north steps asking state residents to close their Amazon.com accounts until the company stops fighting a law intended to force online retailers to collect California sales taxes.

Sorry, folks I just joined the Amazon Cloud and I am not giving up my account so that the Democrats in Sacramento have more money to waste on job killing legislation.

Prop 23 Update: Renewable Energy Money Pit is Almost Empty

Russ Steele

During the Prop 23 vs AB-32 debate conservative bloggers warned the once the subsidies ran out the corporate interest in wind and solar would decline and than vanish. This morning P. Gosslin at The NoTricksZone blog has a English tranlation of a German language article in the German Technology Review.

The article starts with this introduction:

Companies of the finance-intense sector of renewable energy are getting their supply of cash cut off. Investors are opting for lower risk projects.

Gosslin's post continues: 

Almost everywhere globally governments are scaling back programs that support renewable energies.”
And so it’s only normal that venture capital companies are now opting out. Investment strategies are changing. Technology Review writes:

Germany, Italy and Spain are reducing subsidies, in America the money from the 2009 stimulus package is slowly running out.”

According to Technology Review, people want quicker returns and less risk. Well who doesn’t? Technology Review writes:

During the last years many finance companies began, however, to invest in long-term projects with high capital requirements. That only worked mainly because they were able to expect subsidies from the state. Thus hundreds of millions flowed into start-ups in solar technology, which first had to build expensive plants to get the technology ripe for the market. The profits came later, if at all.”

Now the state subsidies are shrinking and new startups will have little chance of competing against the already established companies – too risky. The bubble has nowhere to go but to implode. So watch the politicians soon scramble and start blaming “speculators” and “greedy finance companies” for the mess they themselves created, and then start calling for more financial regulation.

It is no wonder that Al Gore has "gone postal" his dream of huge profits have collapsed along with the flight of investors. We warned this would happend, but the proponents of AB-32 assured voters that it would not happen.  Now what?  Obama is killing coal power, the EPA is trying to stop the development of shale gas with the banning of proven drilling techniques, and now investors are running from renewables. One has to ask, What Now? 

Obama Hack Attacks Perry's Record - Fact Check in the Thinker

Russ Steele

Jeffrey Folks compares California and Texas in his article,  Obama and the Perry Miracle.

On Friday David Axelrod argued that Perry's record of job creation in Texas was not what it seemed.

Yes, Texas has created more jobs over the last decade, while Perry has been governor, than any other state.  For several of those years, in fact, it has created more jobs that all the other states combined.  But, Axelrod insisted, Perry should not get any credit for that accomplishment.

After all, Texas is an oil-producing state.  In fact, it is the largest oil and gas producer in the country.  And, yes, Texas also benefits from the presence of large military installations.  So it was more or less inevitable that Texas, with its oil production and military installations, would add jobs and enjoy strong economic growth during the past decade.

Just like California. California?  Yes, California is the third largest oil and gas producing state, right behind Texas and Alaska.

California is also host to some of the nation's largest military installations.  There are, in fact, 32 military bases in California, including Edwards AFB, Travis AFB, Vandenberg AFB, Camp Pendleton, the Presidio of Monterey, Fort Irwin, and the San Diego and Coronado naval bases, the largest naval installations on the west coast. By contrast, there are only 15 military installations in Texas.

California is also home to some of the largest aerospace and high-tech contractors in the nation. Rockwell International, Lockheed, and Northrop, major defense contractors, are all located in southern California.

What California lacks is the kind of political leadership that will attract new business. Economic growth in California -- one can hardly call it "growth" -- has been stagnant or worse over the past decade. In 2008-2009 GDP growth in the state was minus 2.2%.  Along with a stagnant economy comes high unemployment.  In June 2011, the states's unemployment rate stood at 11.8%. That same month the unemployment rate in Texas was 8.2%, well below the national average of 9.2%.

You can read the rest Folks' article here. Gov. Rick Perry has been the most successful American governor in living memory, and the White House is scared.  Obama is killing jobs and Perry is creating jobs.  The question is,  could California be creating jobs also if we had Rick Perry style of leadership in the state?