California Very Important To the Development of CleanTech
Re: my post to the effect that companies like Google and Apple aren’t going to sit around and watch humankind fry the planet, reader “Frank” in Florida notes: Again we are so on the same page! The comparison I was trying to make was that so much in the way of renewable energy is going on in California and so little in Florida. There is still a disconnect in this country. It is so sad that people just can’t seem to reach past their own little world. Case in point, I watched a rerun of Howie Mandel’s “Deal or No Deal,” the contestant was from somewhere on the East Coast of the U.S. and she mentioned on air that she thought that she needed a passport to travel to California for the show. It’s sad; it really is.
Frank, you raise a very interesting and important point, one that many people–even Californians–somehow miss. Some people say that, because California is home to far less than 1% of the Earth’s population that those of us living out here have only a tiny effect on the world around us. What they’re forgetting is that a disproportionate amount of innovation starts here, and, while some of these concepts don’t pan out, those that work well soon become the template for life in the rest of the U.S., and that, in turn, is rolled out to the rest of the world.
Now, I’m sure there are people in France reading this sneering at these outrageous words of a typical arrogant American, and they have a point, but there is a great deal of truth in what I’ve written here as well. This is why we need to be very careful of what we do here, and very supportive in our nurturing new ideas.
Below is an example, from the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists, regarding a referendum on the 2010 ballot called “Prop 23” in which the entire renewable energy industry came under attack, and would have been essentially destroyed had the bad guys won. The bottom line: Californian voters saw through this and defeated it during the statewide election by a 23% margin, though this required a considerable outcry from your buddies at 2GreenEnergy, not to mention tens of thousands of irate organizations several orders of magnitude larger. Note the villains’ motive for coming after California: Because of the state’s innovative, forward thinking clean energy standards, the state has been a hotbed of investment and job creation in the clean tech, renewable energy, and energy efficiency industries.
Texas oil companies spent millions on a deceptive ballot campaign to pass Proposition 23, the dirty energy proposition that would effectively repeal California’s landmark clean energy and climate solutions law, AB 32. Prop 23 put at risk hundreds of thousands of clean technology and clean energy jobs in the state.
With continued lack of climate action at the national level, California’s program stands today as the best model in the country for how to transition to clean energy to fight global warming. That’s why the oil companies turned their attention—and their cash—to California as their next target.
Why did Texas Oil Companies try to Kill California’s Clean Energy and Climate Law?
Because of California’s innovative, forward thinking clean energy standards, the state has been a hotbed of investment and job creation in the clean tech, renewable energy, and energy efficiency industries. The oil companies who bankrolled Prop 23 do not want to be required to reduce their emissions, and they do not want to compete with California’s clean energy and clean technology industries.
How was the Dirty Energy Proposition Deceptive?
The oil companies claimed Prop. 23 would only “suspend” AB 32’s air pollution and health regulations until California’s economy gets better. In fact, the dirty energy proposition would have repealed the state’s clean energy regulations until unemployment reached 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters—a market condition that has only occurred three times in the last 30 years. Not only is this purposely deceptive, but it attempts to create a false and unsubstantiated choice between a healthy environment and a healthy economy.
Living in California is not without its issues, in particular, a ton of regulation aimed at protecting the environment, some of which give even the die-hard environmentalists pause; it can be absurd and even self-defeating, clearly inspired only by bizarre and arcane aspects of state politics. Yet I’m proud to live here, and to be a part of this hotbed of cleantech innovation.
What is not generally understood, even in California, is that to sufficiently stall and reverse global warming we need to clear our minds of misperceptions and pull out all the stops. Like the rest of the nation; Californians generally think solar and wind will eventually be sufficient to move societies far enough off of fossil fuels to save humanity, given enough time to turn things around.
Consider these instances of misperceptions through history.
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” ~ Henry Ford:
“The idea that cavalry will be replaced by these iron coaches is absurd. It is little short of treasonous.” — Comment of Aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Haig, at tank demonstration, 1916
“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer, British Post Office, 1878
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876
“Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look.” – United Artists executive after rejecting Reagan as lead in the 1964 film The Best Man
“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” – Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830
“The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at most.” — IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier had no market large enough to justify production, 1959
“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” – Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883
“The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad.” – -The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903
“When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor Erasmus Wilson
A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936
“No one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam in one hour when he can ride his horse there in one day for free.” – King William I of Prussia, on trains, 1864
“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” – Albert Einstein, 1932
“There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.” – -Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future Society meeting in Boston
“If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” – -W.C. Heuper, National Cancer Institute, 1954
“No, it will make war impossible.” – -Hiram Maxim, inventor of the machine gun, in response to the question “Will this gun not make war more terrible?” from Havelock Ellis, an English scientist, 1893
“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” – -Associates of David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the radio in 1921
“There will never be a bigger plane built.” – – A Boeing engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that holds ten people
“We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.” – Decca Recording Company on declining to sign the Beatles, 1962
“How, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense.” — Napoleon Bonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s
“Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” – -Darryl Zanuck, movie producer, 20th Century Fox, 1946
“I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea.” — HG Wells, British novelist, in 1901
“It’ll be gone by June.” – Variety Magazine on Rock n’ Roll, 1955
“And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all, safaris in Vietnam” – -Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the late 1960s.
“Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.” – -Henry Morton, president of the Stevens Institute of Technology, on Edison’s light bulb, 1880
Anyone who does not understand that biomass is the only cost effective means we have of powering entire societies on removal of CO2 from the atmosphere is carrying misperception around or is engaged in denialism.
Hi Mr. Graig Shields, I notice a recent Green Technology plant in Hobbs, New Mexico, maybe not too close to California but on the same continent anyway; I believe Joule Unlimited is onto a good thing in converting Bio- Fuel from sunlight, CO2 and living bacteria! I am excited about this Technology! Mr. Graig Shields are you able to give your valuable thoughts regarding this Green Technology that I am contemplating to use in my part of the world in Papua New Guinea? Thank you again. Luimack Johnson, Papua New Guinea.
Hi, Luimack. Good to hear from you again. You may recall we had a Skype chat a few years ago during wish I remarked how adorable your children are (I could see them playing and laughing in your room).
Can you please send me something that describes this in more detail? I’ll be happy to look at it.
I’m thinking of leaving Florida and moving to California. I think WindJammer Energy would have a much better chance of surviving and growing in a Democratic State. The Nazi Tea Party Governor Rick Scott is working very hard to stop all forms of Renewable Energy developments. Scott is a Koch Brothers Puppet. I have a new Video for a fundraiser to build a better prototype. It’s at Go Fund Me /Help Greg Build Better Prototype.
It’s funny; I’ve heard that about Rick Scott from a great number of Floridians. It’s a shame at so many levels.