California Greenin'

Today, Schwarzenegger announced, with I-405 traffic in the background, that the I-405's 10-mile long carpool lane (aka high occupancy lanes) construction project has been delayed. The $730 million project, ( yeah, the one that will absorb Los Angelenos' latent use the second it opens), is delayed.

We never learn. We cannot, we will not, ever!, build our way out of congested freeways, until the day we realize the only way to do so is to reduce driving. I propose we throw just a few hundred thousand to a couple of paint trucks and convert two of the existing lanes into HOV lanes. Project done. Perhaps then, with a total crush of traffic squeezed into a few less lanes, Southern Californians will get out of their fucking cars.

Nonetheless, California, the greenest state in the union, assumes [incorrectly] that several billion more towards roads and bridges will help push us out of our wretched economy. That's because that's all our economy is based on...perpetual motoring. California is hoping, indeed begging, that freshly printed federal dollars will be pumped into this golden, green state to spur more freeway building. Obama to the rescue.

Mr. O is in an interesting position. How to you re-employ a few million more Merikans without pushing them towards "road and bridge" building? Truth is, he won't. We're gonna have a few hundred thousand more miles of pavement by the time he's out of office, with a few million more motor vehicles plying them, supporting farther flung suburban sprawl (i.e., construction jobs) with the corresponding increase in VMT. We will increase our alternative fueled cars from the existing 0.02% to 0.09% and declare we've won the battle against foreign oil and global warming.

Yep. Our "green" state of California won't immediately get the 405 expansion, the Lincoln highway bypass, or the fourth bore of the Caldecott tunnel. That is, we won't be able to shove several hundred thousand more motor vehicle commuters daily from Long Beach to Irvine, from Wheatland to Roseville, or from Walnut Creek to Alameda.

Pity.

The TARP Tithe

We are being made aware how charitable donations are down, coincident with greater need. This is never a good thing. I can't say I've ever really made great strides towards charitable donations. It isn't something I've been conditioned to do. One thing I've done for years, because I claim single zero on both Federal and State income tax witholding, is donate considerably to the charities listed on the state tax return, and also to endangered native animals. They need my money too. I fully admit to donating less than 10% of my income, yet I should do more.

As donations are down, so are tithes to the church. The church building boom has also gone bust. It's a minor overall point, but some churches have fallen into the economic abyss and have declared Chapter 11, attempting to wipe out all or a portion of their debts.

I find it interesting that someone who's all powerful, all perfect, all knowing, and all wise, somehow can't handle money...just like much of his flock. Churches pay no property taxes but enjoy the economic privilege to declare bankruptcy and/or foreclose. I'd bet the Evangelical Christian Credit Union has its collection plate out, asking for a TARP tithe, too. The money wouldn't be used, of course, to lend to other underwater churches; it'd be used to shore up the credit union's balance sheet and to write-down parishioner's losses.

The good news in all of this, if you can call it good, is that there is going to be an awful lot of empty Mervyn's stores, Linen N' Things stores, skating rinks, sporting goods outlets, failed supermarkets, bowling alleys, auto dealership showrooms and U-Stor-It warehouses ripe for ready conversion into churches. They won't need to build whole new buildings. All they'll need are small construction loans to renova...wait, scratch that.

Merikan Express

Earlier today, American Express, the credit card company, received three thousand three hundred and ninety million dollars in bailout money. The federal government went out of their way today to put us into that much more debt by shoveling money over to a company who's existence is predicated on millions of Merikans staying in debt. Apparently, debt servicing payments to American Express aren't enough to keep the company out of debt, so we further indebt the same indebted public to de-debt them.

People are foreclosing on their debts to American Express. All you have to do is listen to AM talk radio to figure out why. All the Hannity, Rush and Savage broadcasts are espousing "personal responsibility," no government intervention and free markets, while every commercial break has advertisements for debt consolidation and debt elimination programs. How to settle your debt for a fraction of what you owe...that is, how to fuck over everyone who ever lent you money. People are doing this in droves, American Express is losing, and now I the taxpayer am forced to their rescue.

American Express applied for and won commercial bank status last month to allow them access to TARP funds. Now they can run out into the financial shitstorm with a tarp overhead to keep them high and dry from the toxic rain pouring down on the industry, while I get wet holding up my corner of the tarp.

Why do we even need American Express? Would their loss be catastrophic to you? To me? Would we implode without that 8th credit card in our wallets? Consider that all this TARP money will not, not! be used by American Express to make lending easier to the hordes of plastic junkies in this great nation. Not used to reduce rates. Not used to lend to others. Nope, it'll be used to offset "heavier than expected" losses in credit markets they ventured recklessly expanded into during the Grand Boom of 2001-2006.

The Solstice

I've never been to Detroit, save for a connecting Northwest flight through Detroit Metro. I blog from two thousand miles away in Northern California, where today on the Winter Solstice I can ride my bicycle around town, to work, wherever. It's easy for me to criticize others for their perpetual driving habits because I don't have to worry about three inch thick black ice and where accidentally leaving a window open at night could result in death.

Because it's easy, I will continue to criticize. It's easy not only because I can claim environmental superiority, but also because the big three have done [nearly] everything they could to dig themselves into this hole, a black hole. It is indeed black; black because my family of three is going to be shelling out about $250 ($83 each) to support their cause to potentially get them out of the red. And Detroit will be happy:

That's $83 bucks per Merikan, if we float them twenty five thousand million more dollars we don't have. While the government remains busy employing Merikans in dollar bill making, Chrysler will be furloughing employees for the entire month of January.

I wonder...will their gates swing open come the first of February? With this injection of monopoly money and with a car czar or czarina overlooking their operations, will they develop a sustainable long term business plan? Can they, when government encourages price fluctuations in gasoline that creates Prius demand one day and Ram truck demand the next?



It's been said that Christmas falls about four or five days following the winter solstice, because ancient peoples needed a few days to verify the sun was indeed rising again. After watching it slowly fall for the last six months they celebrated the birth of the sun (the birth of the Son). Today, the sun continues to fall on Detroit, just a few degrees more each day, their nights are longer, their days shorter. Their sun isn't going to start rising tomorrow; it's sinking slowly towards the horizon, someday never to rise again.

Bonded By Blood

California Legislative Democrats pushed a bill earlier this week that:

1. Eliminated the state gas tax of $0.18 a gallon.
2. Raised taxes in the same amount, offsetting the lost gas tax, and
3. Created a new state gas "fee" of $0.39 a gallon.

This would have raised several billion dollars to close the gap on our state budget deficit.

The two "taxes" offset one another, preserving revenue neutrality, so they don't need a 2/3rds majority and can piss on the Republicans. Fees aren't taxes...so the Democrats, who don't have 2/3rds of the votes in the legislature but who do have more than 50%, sent this bill to Schwarzenegger.

Who promptly vetoed the bill.

It's really too bad because I would have liked to see higher gas taxes. Err...gas fees. Maybe they're gas surcharges. Perhaps gas assessments? Or gas tariffs? Call them what you will.

The Republican legislators won't raise taxes. They either bonded by blood or convened a circle jerk but they are steadfast in their opposition to raising taxes. And the Democrats are steadfast in finding shortcuts around them to raise taxes and/or not cut as much spending.

This is La Boisselle, 1916. A stagnate, ineffective legislature. They are failing in their most fundamental role; they are failing to govern. State workers may soon be sent to furlough...and this might only be the start of a total fiscal meltdown. EDD will be running a $2+ billion deficit by the end of '09 -- too many unemployment checks written and not enough unemployment insurance payments to cover them. And of course, we recently extended the number of weeks people are eligible, making the whole fucking problem worse.

We fail, we consistently, utterly, and hopelessly fail, to recognize that we want services but refuse to pay for them. We want home values to appreciate 20% per year but refuse to pay when they don't. We want our vehicular toys but refuse to pay for them today, and if we're asked to pay for them in the future, we refuse and declare bankruptcy. We want the cheapest shit we can buy from discounted big box retailers, wiping out whole local communities, while we refuse to pay Merkian wages to make them.

And we refuse to believe our drunk-on-credit, drunk-on-indebtedness could be the cause.

Forks, Knives, and Spoons

In a little more than 30 days we'll have a new EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, who'll slice the head off Stephen Johnson with a butter knife. All accounts suggest she will overturn six years of litigation, unwarranted delays, claiming-no-authority-to-regulate and dubious waiver denial decisions, and will overturn last years' California waiver denial.

First of all, I don't like guys named Stephen. That's like Steff-en. PH is not a V. So my bias is clear. Secondly, this man wasn't just in bed with the Bush administration, he was spooning Dubya.

The removal of any possible doubt of his politics occurred on Dec. 19, 2007, following two years, two! of delays in issuing a decision on California's waiver request for implementing tougher emissions standards for vehicles. He stalled and hemmed and hawed for two fucking years, only to announce his decision to deny the waiver on the same day -- within hours, in fact -- that less substantive federal legislation was signed into law, H.R. 6. Had that law not been signed (with near virtual bipartisian voting) Johnson would still be sitting on the waiver request.

At the time, there were 12 other states who signed to follow California. Today, even though we still don't have a federal waiver, there are 19 states signed on. These twenty states will likely have the ability to follow the California standards once Johnson is out on his ass thirty days from now and the next EPA reverses this asinine decision.

Well, that's my hope anyway.

What's of further interest to me is that in the text of the auto bailing bill, lies the requirement of a restructuring plan that:

• achieves and sustains the long term viability, international competitiveness, and energy efficiency of the three autos.

We will find a way to float money we don't have to these companies, watch. This nation will soon be spending another thirty thousand million dollars that we don't have to help the big three to implement this restructuring plan.

Now that we'll be a few more billion in the hole, the Republican leadership in Congress writes (here) that to force tougher emissions regulations on Detroit would "effectively bar the American auto manufacturers from competing in...America." To do so would stick a fork through our economic heart during this "most desperate hour."

So -- Don't force tougher emission standards, to which they can't comply, yet force a restructuring plan that considers energy efficiency, presumably because their 'failure to consider' is what led them to die on the vine in the first place.

Unbelievable. Only in My Merika.

Green Collars

I had mentioned the futility of going into debt to finance home energy improvement projects under deflation; it doesn't make much sense to do it if I can defer it, particularly if deflation impacts the price of energy.

It might be cheaper in the future to purchase goods and services. Future energy might be cheaper such that the goal of an energy improvement project (that is, saving money) is negated. And paying interest on debt is much more corrosive during a deflation.

But man! The nominal cost of borrowing money is so low! I could refinance my existing mortgage of $37,800 plus another $20,000 and take care of a great many things: AC, duct sealing, attic insulation, low-e windows, hot water recirc pumps, envelope sealing, water heater, and the nominal rate would likely be around 5%! Lower than my current 5.625%.

But...I will defer. Energy is now too cheap to save. If deflation continues it is better not to take on any more debt, and to focus on paying down existing debt. And as I hoard my dollars, the economy slows. The HVAC guys will have one less job to do. It's a fascinating dynamic.

I wrote all that to say this: if someone like myself, who proclaims to give a shit about energy consumption, won't ignore these deflationary costs, then who would? I consider my direct cost, to be sure, but within a basket of other considerations; non-renewable resource depletion, global warming, military adventures expenditures, air quality, etc. I am willing to consider a great many other hidden social benefits, and very few people would...so if I won't take the plunge to reduce my energy use, who would?

Remember, Obama wants 5 million green jobs. My home projects would employ green workers. He wants 5 million green jobs in a nation that employs 1.5 million jobs in the non-renewable energy sector -- when gas is a buck fifty, when there's a 16 year payback on solar panels, and when people like myself are not debt-financing improvements and not hiring green collar workers...is this possible?