Regulators decree with no idea how to implement their orders | Tim Talk | Tim Hunt | PleasantonWeekly.com |

Local Blogs

Tim Talk

By Tim Hunt

E-mail Tim Hunt

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add...  (More)

View all posts from Tim Hunt

Regulators decree with no idea how to implement their orders

Uploaded: May 25, 2021


The California Air Resources board just demonstrated again how dangerous it can be to give single-focus agencies sweeping power. Think what we’ve learned from dictatorial health departments and governors.
The board unanimously decreed last week Uber and Lyft must have 90% of their trips in electric vehicles by 2030. That the companies, thanks to their successful initiative campaign last November, do not own the vehicles nor employ the drivers was simply ignored. Company officials said that they support the 2030 goal, but asked the pertinent question of who will pay for the cars. The air board could not answer that question in a three-hour hearing according to Rachel Becker of CalMatters.
The air board was given this responsibility in a 2018 law, but will not be responsible for enforcing it—that’s up to the state Public Utilities Commission.
The thrust toward renewable energy, as last summer’s brownouts demonstrated, is fraught with challenges. Consider the environmental impact from making batteries and what to do with the giant windmill blades when their useful life ends at 20 years. Those blades are not recyclable—they’re headed for landfills.
“As the Manhattan Institute’s Mark C. Mills writes, ‘A single electric-car battery weighs about 1,000 pounds. Fabricating one requires digging up, moving and processing more than 500,000 pounds of raw materials somewhere on the planet. The alternative? Use gasoline and extract one-tenth as much total tonnage to deliver the same number of vehicle-miles over the battery’s seven-year life.” And much of this mining occurs in countries with no concern for child-labor laws or the destructive impact on the environment,” writes Bruce Thornton, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center.
“But, as Mills explains, “Building one wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2,500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of non-recyclable plastic. Solar power requires even more cement, steel and glass—not to mention other metals.’ Those materials will also have to be minded or manufactured, which requires energy. And that energy will necessarily come from hydrocarbons whose emissions will cancel the reductions from using “sustainable” and “clean” energy, which in fact is neither,” Thornton wrote.
Community.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Rich Buckley, a resident of Livermore,
on May 25, 2021 at 10:26 am

Rich Buckley is a registered user.

These environmental agencies are captured agencies caught in regulatory boxes created through three decades of environmental, elite controlled, Globalist-agenda driven, academician-supported bogus science. Captured and corrupted as they still remain, break-free contingencies of scientists are struggling to claw their way out of their boxes. The environmental narrative is shifting before our eyes through better atmospheric, solar system and galactic measurements.

Through better measurements tiny but vital new theories of Solar Forcing, Electric Universe and Sun Cycles are replacing the old CO2 hockey-stick religious cannons.

May 24, 2021 at 2:30pm, the first ever broadcast of an environmental truth talker, Dane Wigington, Geoengineering Watch Web Link Main Stream Radio occurred. Was it a break through or was it a diversionary tactic to divert your attention from UFO announcements already rolling in from government agencies?

It doesn't have your attention yet I realize; let's pick this topic up again in as we reach December.


Posted by Lahommed, a resident of Dublin,
on May 25, 2021 at 10:39 am

Lahommed is a registered user.

We need to realize it takes a lot of environmental destruction to put those electric cars out there....perhaps old school fossil fuels are not as bad as many thought?


Posted by Rich Buckley, a resident of Livermore,
on May 25, 2021 at 11:44 am

Rich Buckley is a registered user.

Low and behold, Morris posted on this item today: (removed because it was promoting a website)


Posted by Michael Austin , a resident of Pleasanton Meadows,
on May 25, 2021 at 5:24 pm

Michael Austin is a registered user.

BAAQMD:

An unelected frenzied, out of control bureaucracy!

When I image Jack Broadbent and his engineering staff in my mind. I am reminded of nincompoop people, the likes of Maxine Walters, Adam Shift, Barney Frank, John Kerry, Wilbur Mills, Eric Swalwell and others too numerous to list.


Posted by Maskedman, a resident of San Ramon,
on May 26, 2021 at 8:15 am

Maskedman is a registered user.

The used batteries are considered toxic waste. Be prepared for more autism babies.


Posted by Maskedman, a resident of San Ramon,
on May 26, 2021 at 8:15 am

Maskedman is a registered user.

The used batteries are considered toxic waste. Be prepared for more autism babies.


Posted by FrequentWalkerMiles, a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood,
on May 26, 2021 at 4:08 pm

FrequentWalkerMiles is a registered user.

More sustainable and less environmentally damaging batteries to replace lithium based battery is just five years away, my classmates who majored in material science assured me, twenty years ago.


Posted by Jake Waters, a resident of Birdland,
on May 26, 2021 at 8:28 pm

Jake Waters is a registered user.

First, I must acknowledge the above comments as spot on, smart, and honest. For white liberals and Democrats, this is called a conversation.

My initial thought on this piece was: why do government officials have the right to impose this degree of implementation without our approval? White liberals and Democrats have not substantiated their theory that solar and wind have any sustainable degree necessary to maintain a healthy and productive life. Let inventors such as Elon keep working with their products, and let the public decide through purchases if it appears to make their life better. Don't ram a bad idea down our throats and make us pay for it too.

I end with a sentiment regarding these unfortunate representatives with this: they always scream- ‘the science is in and the debate is over- climate change is an existential threat to the earth.' They should avoid using the word ‘science' in a
sentence, because they lack any understanding of it. They really don't know how water boils. It took them one year to destroy our economy in California and they continue to double down with their confusion about about this subject matter.


Posted by Kevin, a resident of Castlewood,
on May 26, 2021 at 9:11 pm

Kevin is a registered user.

Have you you Tim and Jake, Michael or Rich ridden an Uber or Lyft ? If you have, you would know it is fine and fair to set a goal for these drivers to ride in electric vehicles in 9 years.

Technology moves forward, not in a straight line but zig zag and sometimes backward. We would still have coal train engines and oil heaters in our houses if there was no innovation.


Posted by Jake Waters, a resident of Birdland,
on May 26, 2021 at 10:20 pm

Jake Waters is a registered user.

Kevin

As always, you miss the point. Innovation is fine when accepted over time by the public, and assimilated based on consumer want, need, and desire. Just don't cloth it in a theory, and tell us it's is good for us.


Posted by DKHSK, a resident of Bridle Creek,
on May 27, 2021 at 4:52 pm

DKHSK is a registered user.

Our resident genius chimes in:

Have you...ridden an Uber or Lyft ? If you have, you would know it is fine and fair to set a goal for these drivers to ride in electric vehicles in 9 years."

Then you proceed to not explain why. (Removed)

Followed up by this gem of a comment:

"We would still have coal train engines and oil heaters in our houses if there was no innovation."

Innovation and government regulation are not the same thing dude! Regulation usually comes AFTER innovation.

Do you ever THINK before you post?

Dan


Posted by Kevin, a resident of Castlewood,
on May 28, 2021 at 11:37 pm

Kevin is a registered user.

There are companies right here in Bay Area researching new material for solid state batteries. These innovations can and hopefully will result in better more efficient environmentally friendly batteries. This is what innovation is about. Engines at first used wood and coal to heat water into steam to run. Now, they use highly efficient engines, fuels and natural gas. Should we have just stayed stagnant and continued to use wood and coal? No, we make incremental progress toward cleaner more efficient sources of energy including batteries.

You guys just like to criticize anything and everything on Democrats agenda. This guy Tim himself had articles on innovative battery companies in the Bay Area. Now he is getting political and criticizing the technology.

You Trumpists should move to Russia or China - countries that are solely dependent on their oil and mining industries to survive. Their only high-tech work is cyber attacks to steal our intellectual property and money.


Posted by DKHSK, a resident of Bridle Creek,
on May 31, 2021 at 6:56 am

DKHSK is a registered user.

"Should we have just stayed stagnant and continued to use wood and coal?"

Nobody made that argument. Can you read?

The board is not "innovating", its "regulating". They create nothing.

That you don't understand the distinction is not surprising in the least.

Dan


Posted by Nella Vasi, a resident of another community,
on Jun 2, 2021 at 1:49 am

Nella Vasi is a registered user.

I want to commend the California Air Resources Board for their recent decision to require Uber and Lyft drivers to use electric vehicles. I'm sure it wasn't an easy decision, but they made a strong statement with this move that benefits our environment and the people. (Removed due to promotion of a website)


Follow this blogger.
Sign up to be notified of new posts by this blogger.

Email:

SUBMIT

Post a comment

Sorry, but further commenting on this topic has been closed.

Stay informed.

Get the day's top headlines from PleasantonWeekly.com sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.

California must do a better job spending cap-and-trade revenue
By Sherry Listgarten | 4 comments | 2,445 views

Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance grew from chance meeting
By Tim Hunt | 0 comments | 2,190 views

Making wine for 140 years merits celebration
By Deborah Grossman | 0 comments | 599 views