Senate Democrat Leader Lies to Voters - What Else is New?

"Corruptus in Extremis"

Senator Kevin de Leon

A liar, a crook and a jackass

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CBS News Sacramento)  –  Organizers of last fall’s swearing-in celebration for Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said no taxpayer money was used to put on the event at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, but a review by The Associated Press found taxpayers subsidized more than $25,000 for legislative staff and security to attend.

Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins also spent $15,000 from her budget to fly staff members to swearing-in events at the Capitol and in San Diego's Balboa Park, the AP found.

Senate and Assembly expense reports obtained under the Legislative Open Records Act show nearly 30 security and top-level staffers traveled to Los Angeles for de Leon’s event while 20 legislative employees traveled to Atkins’ events.

Jon Coupal, president of the anti-tax Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, said there are instances when staff needs to travel. A swearing-in is not among them.

“It’s not like an inauguration,” Coupal said. “The pomp and circumstance for a legislative leader just doesn’t make any sense.”

The two Republican leaders, Sen. Bob Huff of Diamond Bar, and Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto, did not hold swearing-in celebrations as minority party leaders, according to their offices. Both declined to comment on the events held by de Leon and Atkins.

Bob Stern, who ran the former government reform-group Center for Governmental Studies and worked as an aide in the Legislature, said as long as taxpayers weren’t paying for food and drinks, he thinks the spending is appropriate.

“I have no problem with staffers, particularly flying in California, to attend the swearing-in of a leader,” Stern said. “In a sense, I think they almost should be there.”

The speaker and the president pro tem are elected to lead the bodies by fellow lawmakers at the beginning of each session. Previous ceremonies took place at the state Capitol and have been relatively low-key, according to the California State Library’s research bureau. An exception was former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in 1998.

De Leon invited 2,000 guests, including about 200 officeholders, to witness his swearing-in ceremony Oct. 15 at the Disney hall. The celebration included a mariachi band and food trucks, and the invitation called it an “inauguration,” language usually reserved for presidents and governors. Villaraigosa used the same description for his event.

The California Latino Legislative Caucus Foundation, which receives donations from special interests seeking influence in the Legislature, said it paid the roughly $50,000 tab for de Leon’s gathering. Caucus organizers emphasized at the time that no taxpayer money was involved.

But Senate expense receipts showed the secretary of the Senate, Daniel Alvarez, who is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the Senate, traveled to de Leon’s event, as did de Leon’s policy director, budget director, communications staff and his education, environment and other policy consultants.

Those 16 staffers charged $12,000 for hotel, airfare, car rental and related expenses.

The Senate’s chief sergeant-at-arms, Debbie Manning, brought a team of a dozen security members to the event, including sergeants whose main responsibility is to provide security at the state Capitol.

Manning declined to comment about the sergeants’ expenses, which made up $13,000 of the $25,000 in costs billed to the Senate. She referred questions to de Leon’s press staff.

De Leon said the event required added security due to the number of elected officials who attended. He said Senate staff also participated in a policy retreat while there. He said the upper house has reduced overall travel expenses by 12 percent in the last year.

“When it comes to protecting state officials or their constituents, we are not in the habit of second-guessing the security recommendations of the chief sergeant or experts,” de Leon said in the statement.

Atkins was sworn in inside the 80-member chamber on May 12. She celebrated with a gospel choir, a gay and lesbian color guard, and her family. Records show seven district staffers flew up for the event at a cost of nearly $3,000 and another $3,200 was spent on program printing.

On June 6, Atkins hosted a community celebration attended by about 450 people. The free event was open to the public and the city of San Diego helped defray the costs by giving her use of the city-owned facility in Balboa Park.

Records show 10 staffers and consultants as well as three sergeants charged a little over $8,000 to staff the event. Another $800 was spent to print programs.

“All the staff was integral to the success of the event,” said Atkins’ spokesman, John Casey. He said costs were minimized and the only refreshments were cookies and water.

Democrats seek to ban chewing tobacco in baseball

The Nanny State

• As a non-smoker I have no problem with bans on smoking in public places.  Everyone has the right to breath clean air.  But nanny state bans on chewing????  That act harms no one but the user.  But Big Brother Government is out to control your every action no matter how private.

(Reuters) - Major League Baseball players would be banned from using chewing tobacco at games in California under a bill expected to be introduced in the state legislature on Tuesday, the first in a nationwide campaign planned by anti-tobacco activists.

The bill targets baseball's ubiquitous habit less than a year after retired San Diego Padres outfielder Tony Gwynn died of cancer of the salivary glands, believed related to chewing tobacco or "dipping" it by lodging it between the lip and the gum.

"Tony Gwynn was somebody I thought was a spokesman for baseball, a great role model as a person," said Assembly member Tony Thurmond, a Democrat who represents Richmond and other suburbs east of San Francisco and the bill's author.

"I'm hopeful that this bill will lend to his legacy, that it will help to prevent illness for young people and young athletes."

Smoking is already banned in Major League Baseball, and the minor leagues have prohibited dipping and chewing, although some say the minor league rules are not strictly enforced. Major League Baseball strongly discourages the use of smokeless tobacco, but has not banned it.

Thurmond's bill would ban use of all tobacco products at baseball stadiums in the state, including dipping, chewing, smoking or using electronic or e-cigarettes. It would also require baseball stadiums to post signs announcing the ban in all dugouts, bullpens, locker rooms, bathrooms and at all entrances.

A spokesman for Major League Baseball did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

How About a $40 Home? - ‘Tiny houses’ for California homeless

Cheap Homes for the Homeless

A San Francisco Bay area artist has done what government has failed to do:  build affordable homes for the homeless.

An Oakland artist is ingeniously battling homelessness in Oakland, California: he builds small houses out of materials he can find in the streets, with each edifice costing around forty bucks.

The tiny homes are made of pallets, bed boards, washing machine doors, and other bizarre objects that catch Greg Kloehn’s attention. Mr Kloehn first noticed that homeless people built shelters from whatever they find in the street, and he wanted to make a house like this.

He jokes that he constructs "illegal homes out of illegal garbage." The cost of one house is “$30 to $40,”Kloehn told RT.

“The real cost is just in the wheels: I buy large casters for the bottom, so that they are mobile, and then nails, and screws, and paintbrushes. But everything else I get for free,” he said in RT News.

The houses are just comfortable enough to lie down in a warmer place than a cardboard box, and the homeless in Oakland are “so happy,” Kloehn told the Independent. "One cried and got on his knees to thank me. They think I should make them bigger and suggest improvements. They like to decorate them themselves.”

Currently, about 25 people use the homes. One couple’s home burned down, another one was stolen, and a third was sold.

“It is tough out there. So I keep making more," Kloehn said. It takes about a week to finish a house, depending on the style.


“There are some quick, easy homes in maybe two or three days. But some more elaborate ones, some more Victorian-style ones, some different dome shapes – it takes a little bit longer," he told RT.

Some people choose to change their homes, Kloehn said to RT. “One guy remodeled the house and made it twice as big!”

The creator chooses funny names for the homes: R2D2, The Settler, Romanian Farm House, Uni-bomber Shack, the Tank and The Chuck Wagon to name a few.

“They are not just homes but fast becoming a life style option. They are usually cheaper than regular homes, giving more people the opportunity of ownership,” he said.

"By skipping the traditional 30 years mortgage, perhaps the tiny home movement could even reshape the way we think about work and what we want to accomplish with our lives."

In the Olden Days
Back in the olden days when men were free, it was your God given right to build the largest and best home that you could on your own land and provide shelter for your family.
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Now endless government regulations at every level prevent the building of affordable housing resulting in homelessness for many.

Ex-Lovers Kamala Harris and Willie Brown

Meet The Ex-Lovers

Harris met Brown in 1994 when he was speaker of 

the state Assembly. She was 29, he was 60. 

(From The San Francisco Weekly News in 2003)  -  Willie Brown, Harris' spurned ex-lover and unsolicited political backer.

Hallinan and Fazio aren't attacking Harris' platform (which they both profess to generally share) or professionalism (each admits that Harris is a competent prosecutor). Rather, they are knifing her with innuendo, saying her ties to the outgoing mayor would cause her, as district attorney, to look the other way should her former beau or his political minions ever be credibly accused of committing crimes in office.

The charge that she is Brown's puppet -- that she's guilty by association with a mayor who has not been found guilty of anything -- infuriates Harris. Though in third place in recent polls, she's a political comer. She's whip-smart, hard-working, and well-credentialed to be San Francisco's top criminal prosecutor. She's hauling in campaign cash like there's no tomorrow. And topping it all off, she's a beautiful blend of East Indian mother and African-American father who may draw votes particularly well among women and minorities. 

If she manages to come in ahead of Fazio in the Nov. 4 election, and if Hallinan fails to win more than 50 percent of that vote, she'll face the district attorney in a December runoff. In a high-profile sprint against an aging incumbent, Harris -- with her brains, connections, and buppie glamour -- might just emerge victorious.

If she can just get out from under this damn Willie Brown thing.

Harris routinely tries to distance herself from her ex-squeeze, whom she hates even talking about. The mere mention of their former liaison makes her shoulders tense, her hands clench, and her eyes narrow.

"I refuse," she says vehemently, "to design my campaign around criticizing Willie Brown for the sake of appearing to be independent when I have no doubt that I am independent of him -- and that he would probablyright now express some fright about the fact that he cannot control me.

"His career is over; I will be alive and kicking for the next 40 years. I do not owe him a thing."

She acknowledges that Brown is an "albatross hanging around my neck" and fears that voters who dislike him will ignore her candidacy -- even as she dismisses such an act as irrational. "Would it make sense if you are a Martian coming to Earth that the litmus test for public office is where a candidate is in their relationship to Willie Brown?" Harris asks. "Willie Brown is not going to be around. He's gone -- hello people, move on. If there is corruption, it will be prosecuted. It's a no-brainer, but let's please move on."

Would that politics were so simple.

San Francisco voters tend to have long memories, and Brown himself is complicating Harris' attempts to shed him politically. He personally gave $500 to her campaign, and a political consultant who worked on both of his mayoral runs is raising money for Harris -- without her consent -- using a pitch letter signed by Brown. Harris denies asking the mayor for fund-raising help and knows it gives her antagonists even more ammunition.

She also knows there's not much she can do about it, except to keep saying that the affair is ancient history and that she is a good candidate with good ideas. But as Harris well understands, the more she tries to explain away the Willie factor, the bigger a factor he becomes.

Read More . . . .

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D.A. Kamala Harris Wins Fewer Felony Trials Than Any Big-City Prosecutor in California

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Recent weeks have brought plenty of headaches for San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, including a scandal at the SFPD crime lab and questions over her office's failure to disclose police officers' criminal pasts. In this week's cover story, SF Weekly reports on a longer-brewing problem: an alarming decline in felony trial convictions -- including homicide cases -- under the most recent two years on Harris' watch.

We report that Harris has won only 55 percent of murder trials since the beginning of 2009, and that in the first quarter of 2010 her office's conviction rate for all felony trials was only 53 percent. By contrast, the most recent statewide average for prosecutors was 83 percent. 

Last year, Harris' felony trial conviction rate also fell below those of district attorneys handling criminal cases in California's 10 largest cities. (Data was not available for Sacramento, the state's seventh-largest city.) The story is based on statistics and trial records obtained from court officials and prosecutors in San Francisco and throughout the state.  (San Francisco Weekly)

California Democrats to dictate "fair employee scheduling" for businesses

Democrats:

"Schedule your workers the way we 

tell you to or get fined."

California Democrats introduced a bill Tuesday that would require large food and retail employers to schedule workers at least two weeks in advance, or face penalties for last-minute staffing changes.

Known as the “Fair Scheduling Act,” Assembly Bill 357 was introduced by State Assembly members David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Shirley Weber, D-San Diego. As introduced, the bill would apply to food and retail employers with 500 or more employees. It is designed to address the growing number of employers implementing “just in time” and “on-call” scheduling practices to minimize labor costs.

The bill is the first of its kind at the state level, and aims to improve working conditions for part-time and low-wage workers, who often struggle with issues like child care, balancing shifts between two jobs, finding transportation, and pursuing education and training reports Restaurant News.

“Without fair and predictable work schedules, more and more Californians, particularly part-time and low-wage workers, are struggling to plan for basic life necessities, like child care or a much-needed second job,” Chiu said in a statement. “California can lead the way once again by providing for fair scheduling for the men and women on the front lines of an increasingly unequal economy.”

The lawmakers said the Great Recession has fundamentally changed California’s workforce. The state now has the largest percentage of hourly workers in the country.

Last year, Chiu, who served previously on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, introduced a similar bill there, which takes effect in July. That bill affects employers with more than 20 employees, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

AB 357 would require large employers to pay penalties if shifts are changed with less than two week’s notice. What those penalties would be remains to be seen. The meat of the legislation is yet to be determined, and the bill is seen as a placeholder for further development.

Matt Sutton, vice president of government affairs and public policy for the California Restaurant Association, declined to comment on the specific legislation, given that details are not yet available.

The restaurant industry is expected to vigorously oppose attempts to further regulate scheduling, which is often based on unpredictable factors that likely won’t be addressed with a one-size approach.

“We’re staffing based on customer demand and foot traffic,” Sutton said. “Even the weather could be an issue. None of that is predictable.”

Democrats tell Catholic Church to remove morality clauses

Democrats Are Fucking Assholes

Leftist loon Commie Democrats are dictating 

what the Catholic Church should believe.

(San Luis Obispo Tribune)  —  California lawmakers on Tuesday urged the archbishop of San Francisco to remove from a teachers' handbook morality clauses they say are discriminatory and divisive.

The Democrat lawmakers said in a letter to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone that the clauses "foment a discriminatory environment" and send "an alarming message of intolerance to youth."

Cordileone earlier this month presented teachers at the archdiocese's four high schools with a statement that says Catholic school employees are expected to conduct their public lives in a way that doesn't undermine or deny the church's doctrine.

The statement outlines the church's teaching that using contraception is a sin and that sex outside of marriage, whether it is in the form of adultery, masturbation, pornography or gay sex, is "gravely evil."

The archbishop said the statement would be added to the faculty handbooks.

Cordileone's media office said he was not available to comment Tuesday.

The archbishop has said the document was designed to bolster the schools' primary mission of educating faithful Catholics and that "no teacher will be required to sign any kind of statement or oath."

The letter, written by Democratic Assemblymen Phil Ting of San Francisco and Kevin Mullin of San Mateo, was signed by every lawmaker representing the communities served by the four Catholic high schools in San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties.

Cordileone's statement "strikes a divisive tone, which stands in stark contrast to the values that define the Bay Area and its history," the letter reads.

A group of parents and students from the Catholic high schools plan to hold a candlelight vigil outside St. Mary's Cathedral in support of teachers Wednesday, which is Ash Wednesday, a holy day that starts the Lenten season in the Roman Catholic church.

"We call on the Archbishop to reconsider his proposal, stop his attack on our LGBTQ family members and friends, and instead, affirm the fundamental Catholic values of love, respect and justice," vigil organizers said.

Read more here: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2015/02/17/3494914/lawmakers-urge-sf-archbishop-to.html#storylink=cp

Koch Group Claims California Endangers Donors by Demanding Names

A 180 Degree Turn

• I no longer believe in disclosing contributions.  Disclosure has done nothing to stop corruption.  But disclosure opens up opportunities for the corrupt Elites running government at retaliate against those who oppose them.

(Bloomberg) -- A Koch brothers advocacy group contends California Attorney General Kamala Harris has no business demanding the names and addresses of its donors, who might face “grotesque threats” if identified.

Americans for Prosperity Foundation, co-founded by billionaires Charles and David Koch, promotes limited government and free markets and conservative causes. Compelling disclosure of the nonprofit organization’s contributors may put them at risk of being targeted by the group’s opponents and intimidate would-be donors, the foundation is set to argue Tuesday in federal court in Los Angeles.

“Grotesque threats have been leveled against known associates of the foundation, ranging from threats to kill or maim, to threats to firebomb buildings,” the organization said in its request to block California from seeking the information while it fights the state in court.

The political network overseen by the Kochs aims to raise almost $1 billion in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The fundraising goal of $889 million was announced on Jan. 26 at a Koch-organized summit of 450 wealthy donors and small-government activists in Palm Springs, California.

The brothers are ranked on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the world’s fifth- and sixth-richest people with a combined net worth of $100 billion.

State proposes 21 percent gas tax cut?

From the "I'll believe it when I see it" department

(San Diego Union Tribune)  -  San Diegans enjoying relief at the pump these days can expect a little more this summer, this time thanks to the state of California.

The Board of Equalization released a proposal on Friday to reduce the per-gallon tax Californians pay on regular gas by 7.5 cents per gallon, a 21 percent cut from the current 36-cent excise tax. The new rate of 28.5 cents per gallon could be approved Feb. 24 and take effect July 1, the start of the 2015-16 fiscal year. Californians will still pay some of the highest gas taxes in the nation, based on sales tax, federal taxes, and other fees.

“A gas tax cut of this magnitude would be great news for California drivers,” board member George Runner said in a statement. “The proposed cut stems from falling gas prices and the resulting over collection of tax.”

On Friday, a regular gallon of gas cost $2.77 in San Diego County, tax included, the Auto Club reports. So a driver who travels 15,000 miles a year at an average 20 miles per gallon buys 750 gallons a year, saving $56.25 over the year with the reduced tax rate. Alan Gin, economist at the University of San Diego, said each penny saved on gasoline equates to an extra million dollars for consumers to spend.

“It’s not big if you look at the overall economy of San Diego, in terms of its gross regional project,” he said. “It’s just a little bit of a help.”

The board has been charged with setting the excise tax rate under a complex system approved in 2010 by the state legislature and then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the fuel-tax swap. The system allowed the state to take some money away from fixing roads to put toward future appropriations. To do this, California reduced the sales tax rate from 8.25 percent to 2.25 percent, and then made up for it by nearly doubling the excise tax rate from 18 cents per gallon to about 35 cents per gallon.

The new system was required to generate the same amount of money as the old system would have, which has led to adjustments each year. Taxable sales of gasoline fell each year from fiscal 2005 to 2013, finally increasing 0.9 percent to 14.57 billion gallons from fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2014.

Because of the ebb and flow in consumption and price, the board can do what’s called a “look back” and see how much tax revenue was actually raised in the two previous fiscal years versus what would have been collected under the previous system. It can then adjust the excise rate moving forward either upward or downward, based on prior activity as well as estimations on future price and consumption.

“The excise rate is set to replace exactly what was lost under the old sales tax system,” said Steve Gill, a professor of accountancy at San Diego State University. “In the short run, the tax can differ due to price estimates being off but it is required to be reconciled the next year.”

Read More . . . .

GOP struggles finding U.S. Senate candidate

Why Even Bother?

• GOP voter registration keeps falling.  Simply, why should people vote for a big government loving GOP when they can get a full strength big government loving Democrat Party?

(From Cal Watchdog)  -  With California Sen. Barbara Boxer retiring in 2016, Democrats have enthused over their deep bench of ambitious politicians ready and willing to replace her.

Republicans, by contrast, have been more timid. A few party figures have stepped forward, but bold-faced names have not, leaving a big opening for someone with a good network and deep pockets.

Indicative of the state GOP’s challenges and opportunities, Neel Kashkari declined to run for the seat Boxer will vacate in the U.S. Senate. In fact, he did not even go public himself with the news, allowing adviser Aaron McLear to tell CNN that he would not make a bid.

Last November, Kashkari lost a bid to unseat Gov. Jerry Brown, 60 percent to 40 percent.

But another big-name Republican who has played in California politics has opted against a Senate bid for a much different reason. Carly Fiorina failed to beat Boxer in 2010.

Now the former Hewlett-Packard CEO’s ambitions are higher. She has enough money to start a campaign to succeed President Barack Obama.

Fiorina’s ability to parlay a Senate loss into a national campaign has underscored the wisdom of Kashkari’s determination to sit out 2016. As Tim Alberta observed at National Journal, the Golden State has given driven politicos on the right a powerful path to national significance:

“Though she could not overcome California’s liberal electorate in her 2010 Senate race, Fiorina showed significant improvement on the stump over the life of the campaign. Her 10-point loss did not tarnish her stature as a rising star among Republican women; in fact, her opportunities and exposure have steadily increased. She served as a vice chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2012. Her successful takeover of the [American Conservative Union] Foundation board last year was the clearest indication yet of her political chops — and ambition.”

Kashkari’s own gubernatorial run was widely seen as a way to build authentic party goodwill and significant name recognition. Those were two resources best put to use in winnable races, or in the quest for a position in a future Republican administration in Washington, D.C. Kashkari served in the Treasury Department of President George W. Bush.

A Shifting Demographic

Fiorina’s loss to Boxer and Kashkari’s loss to Brown dramatized the demographic difficulties facing California Republicans with an eye on the Senate. The state’s demographic changes have continued to shift in a direction that doesn’t initially favor the GOP.

“Most of California’s new voters are Hispanic, and they tend to register as Democrats or as independents,” Southern California Public Radio reported. “Republican voter registration has withered to 28 percent, while Democrats hold 43 percent.”

Nevertheless, the upside-down numbers might “create an opportunity for the GOP. Some analysts have suggested that a big field of Democrats could dilute the party’s vote in the Senate primary, allowing one or two Republicans — Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside is among those considering a bid — to slip into a November runoff.”

As it turns out, Chavez, a retired colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps., admitted his interest has been driven by the encouragement of state party figures. “Chavez, whose district includes much of north coastal San Diego County, said leaders in the state’s Republican Party asked him to consider running. He said he doesn’t have a timetable for when he’ll make a decision,” U-T San Diego reported.

Read More . . . .

My personal choice is starting a new
political party that stands for something.

PG&E to increase your bill to pay for other people's electric car needs

Corruptus in Extremis

• PG &E, SoCal Edison and San Diego Gary & Electric pump millions of dollars into the campaigns of political hacks.  The hacks in turn grant them a monopoly.
• Now the utility monopoly wants to increase your electric bill to fund charging stations for wealthy electric cars owners.  (Note that gas stations are paid for by privately raised funds.)

(Greentech Media)  -  Pacific Gas & Electric filed a proposal yesterday for $654 million in ratepayer dollars to build 25,000 electric vehicle charging stations across its service area in northern and central California.

If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, the program will be the largest deployment of electric vehicle (EV) chargers in the country. California, the leading market for plug-in cars in the United States, currently has about 6,000 public charging stations.

Consumer advocates, however, including the Utility Reform Network (TURN), are concerned that the program puts an unfair cost burden on ratepayers for infrastructure that only a small percentage of customers will use. A typical residential customer would pay an additional 70 cents per month to cover the costs of the program from 2018 to 2022.

"We are very skeptical about the value of investing so much ratepayer money and betting it all on electric vehicles," Mark Toney, executive director of TURN, told the San Jose Mercury News.

PG&E estimates it will incur $551 million in capital costs and $103 million in operating expenses over the course of the five-year program. Pending approval, installation would begin in 2017.

The utility says it’s justified in asking ratepayers to finance the program because it supports the state’s larger sustainability agenda, which will benefit all Californians.

The other two big regulated utilities in California -- Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric -- also recently submitted proposals to build EV charging infrastructure in their territories.

Romano said ChargePoint supports SCE’s filing, in which the utility would install the electrical infrastructure, offer a rebate for charging stations, and have control over compatibility requirements that third-party providers must meet, but would not own the chargers or select which companies to work with.

“I think the very appropriate role of the utility is to help get the power to the box,” said John Boesel, president and CEO of CALSTART, a public-private partnership promoting clean transportation. “But I think then, at that point, it should be open to the market to figure out who they want to actually buy their electricity from.”

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Rich People
Making you pay more for your electric bill so they can have charging stations for their overpriced electric cars.

Stupidity - World's largest solar plant opens in California desert

U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, right, and Georges Antoun, COO of First Solar,
tour the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight Solar Farm near Desert Center on Monday. (Photo: Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun)

The project is not bad . . . only dumb

• Solar is exactly the way to go.  But this project is a joke.  The world's largest solar plant powers as "massive" 160,000 homes in a state with nearly 40,000,000 people.  Simply, there is no way to build enough of these plants to power the People's Republic. The way to go is to put solar panels on each individual home.

(The Desert Sun)  -  Riverside County is now home to the world's largest solar power plant.

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell joined state officials near Desert Center on Monday to commission the 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar project, which generates enough electricity to power 160,000 average California homes. Desert Sunlight received a federal loan of nearly $1.5 billion, and Jewell called the project's completion an example of the loan guarantee program's tremendous importance.

"When you are stepping out with new technology, when you are trying something that has been untested before, a loan guarantee program from an organization like the Department of Energy is what provides you, as a lender, that certainty that you can step up and support the project," Jewell told The Desert Sun.

Conservative lawmakers have derided the loan guarantee program, arguing that it's wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. Critics have pointed to the program's $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, a Fremont-based solar panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

But the Department of Energy reported last year that it expects to make a profit of $5 billion to $6 billion from the program. The department funded five traditional, large-scale solar farms, and Desert Sunlight marks the last of those projects to go online.

"They're all rock-solid, money is good, living up to every kind of condition we put in the loan documents in terms of performance, in terms of commercial operation," Peter Davidson, executive director of the Department of Energy's loan programs office, said in an interview last week.

The loan guarantee program did more than fund five solar photovoltaic projects, Davidson added: It helped launch the large-scale solar industry. In 2009, there were no traditional solar farms in the United States larger than 100 megawatts. Now, 17 such projects have been financed, according to a Department of Energy report released Monday.

Solar panels "existed before as a technology, but that technology hadn't been deployed at a large scale," Davidson said. "Once we've done that, the government steps aside to let the private markets take over."

Desert Sunlight employed an average of 440 people during more than three years of construction, and it now has about 15 full-time employees. Money provided by the project's owners — as part of an agreement negotiated with Riverside County — is also being used to fund $400,000 in improvements to the community center in nearby Desert Center.

"The debate's over — we're going to be moving to more renewable energy," Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit said. "We are ideally situated, here in eastern Riverside County, to host this kind of development in the future."

This is the future
There are solar panel companies right now using the current tax system to install solar panels on individual homes at no cost to the home owner.  My son works for one of these companies.  The panels are installed reducing a person's power bill from about $300 a month to $60.
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Normally big corporations get the tax breaks to build huge solar and conventional power plants and then charge the public high power rates.  Under this system the average family gets to put the savings of solar power directly in their pockets in the form of reduced monthly bills.