The latest example is the Bay Area air pollution board—the folks who shut down Bay Area bakeries for air emissions and throw a giant damper on the wood burning fire places during the holiday season.
The agency has succeeded in cleaning up the Bay Area air substantially over many years, but now plans to expand its mission to include jousting with global warming—it will expand its mission to work to reduce gases such as carbon dioxide. Of course, we all produce C02 when we exhale—plants rely on the gas as well---how a majority of the Supreme Court could manage to decide it is a pollutant remains a mystery.
The regional air board declared its intention to engage in the global warming wars and somehow do so in coordination with the state air board that has jurisdiction.
It is simply a bad idea. The amount of money that will be wasted statewide is staggering, but to engage in local efforts is to multiply the folly. Consider how much we already pay in higher costs for electricity (50 percent higher than in the South where jobs are growing rapidly) and gasoline (70-80 cents per gallon because of the special blend required by environmental laws).
The grand folly is for we humans, who cannot predict the weather accurately more than a few days out, to dream that actions we take will affect the global climate decades into the future.
The report out of the White House this week on the climate change topped the news outlets for a couple of days and tried to drive home the idea that science is settled. Since when is science ever settled? The theory is human-caused climate change is inherently loaded with assumptions that guide the computer modeling—change the assumptions and the results change.
If you want to comment, the local reps on the Bay Area board are Alameda County Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley (both of whom represent the valley), Dublin Mayor Tim Sbranti, San Ramon Councilman Dave Hudson and Contra Costa Supervisors Mary Piepho and John Gioia.
