-By Warner Todd Huston
Another in a long line of explosions and other catastrophic safety failures occurred at the end of September when a natural gas pipeline built and owned by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) ruptured in Roseville, California. This is just of a piece of the failure of PG&E to ensure public safety, a failure that the so-called government watchdog agency set up to watch the utility, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has seemingly done little to mitigate.
Now, not only has PG&E failed to safeguard the public, but the company is insisting that ratepayers foot the bill for repairs and new safety programs to the tune of some $2.2 billion. Government watchdog CPUC seems wholly content to stand aside while they do it.
Michael R. Peevey, President of the CPUC, has been at the helm of the regulatory commission during many of the worst failures of public safety. Yet, even as he’s claimed he intends to make major changes in the agency, Governor Jerry Brown has not sacked Peevey whose term ends in 2014. The question is, why?
Peevey has been a disaster. Peevey has reigned over some of the most disastrous failures which have caused the deaths of nearly a dozen Californians, his softened stance seems to have allowed PG&E to act with impunity and arrogance, all to no good effect for ratepayers pocketbooks and their very safety.
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PG&E’s Catastrophic Failure of Public Trust By Company and Government Both”
Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency is completely put of control. Now it wants to implement new regulations that would destroy 183,000 private sector jobs every year. Yes, even after Obama has destroyed the economy and jobs we do have he wants to destroy even more.
We have come to learn something about our president. He really loves green. But what we can’t quite decipher is if that green is green jobs and energies or just the good old fashioned green of tax money. Whatever the case, it sure is true that the green of U.S. tax dollars is far more prevalent with “O” than those mythical green jobs he’s trying to fund with it and this mess with failed green company Solyndra is revealing quite a lot.
Every time we turn around these days President Obama is touting the idea that the “future” of America lies in green energy and one of those greenie ideas is an Obama favorite: electric cars. Not to let him down, Government Motors has obliged by pushing the Chevy Volt as the car of the future. But thus far the future looks a lot like GM’s present; a whole lot of failure leaving a whole lot of questions.
The Obama administration has been touting new Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards to be imposed on America’s automobile manufacturers saying that it will save all Americans money at the pumps. Unfortunately, there are all sorts of hidden costs of which the administration isn’t noting, costs that will drive up the price of driving in multiple ways for all of us.
Back in September of 2010, a gas pipeline running underneath the city of San Bruno, California ruptured. The resulting explosion killed eight people. A recently finished investigation has revealed safety and engineering failures at many levels but, sadly, even the state agency charged with investigating seems to be hoping that the failures are hushed up. Why? Politics, of course.
In a small step in the right direction, the House of Representatives passed a provision to defund the 2012 Energy and Water Appropriations Act, denying the government the funds to enforce the new lightbulb standards that would have levied a defacto ban on incandescent bulbs.
If the House Republicans can’t even get rid of one of the most odious examples of nanny statism in the age of Obama, what exactly are they worth? On Tuesday, Rep. Joe Barton (R, Texas) failed in his effort to repeal the incandescent light bulb ban idiotically signed into law by Nanny G.W. Bush.
Only a few days ago I wrote about how 
Half of America’s energy comes from coal-fired power plants but Obama’s new EPA rules would about destroy the coal industry driving our energy costs through the roof. That’s not all they would do, either.
With the latest three votes, the Illinois GOP has shown itself to be little else but Democrat lite and has shown that even planks in its own platform are meaningless when it comes to voting time.
I guess that getting the correct information when arranging a smear campaign and protest is not necessary when you are the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Who needs to be in the right when you are an important, powerful, politically connected union, eh? The seriousness of the charge and the effort to “raise awareness” is far more important than targeting the right people to smear, right?