California Breaks the Law

Beggars cannot be choosers but I suppose paying for a service entitles them to make demands.

I don't know the circumstances but smells rat. Could it not be that California is attempting getting out of a binding contract by changing the rules?

Virtual polluting (when pollution is done elsewhere) is the same pollution. CA should rather scale down their energy demands.

CA seems to be the origin of strange ideas. (Proposition 65 and now this).

I don't think they state is trying to get out of a binding contract, power is supplied through private companies now. It is more of an attempt to motivate environmental changes that the federal government is to corrupt to attempt themselves. Since the energy interest got California to deregulate, power has become much more expensive and many of the generating plants in the state have cut back or shut down (power is bought out of state from corporations like the former ENRON). The problem here is really some of the midwestern and appalachian states are more like 2nd world countries and still generate power in that manner, which leads to many of the worlds complaints anyways. I do not know if the state will be able to pull off a regulation that effects interstate trade in power, it would have made more sense just to propose regulating power again, when power was regulated plants in California didn't use coal anyways and most of the power was generated in the state. As far as strange propositions, keep in mind that many of the strange propositions take hold in other states, just lagging behind up to 30 years, e.g. prop 13. So, you may see something similar in the next decade.

All my friends would like to see California fall off in the ocean. California is such a beautiful state, couldn't we just squeegee all the scum off the surfaces?

I might have been too hard on CA, they may be the good guys but federal law should always prevail over state law.

As an outsider the American setup seems a bit strange to me.

The environment deserves strong federal law but nothing seems to be in place yet.

The lack of such law may be the reason why rivers like the Mississippi is in such a polluted state. Every state lawfully contributes pollution at will.

It is further strange why a country not looking after its own environment can travel to other countries and prescribe drastic measures to gullible people. America should lead by example.

I think American CR4's must demand proper federal law on the environment.

What can I Say, about California?

The major population centers dominate the perceptions of the rest of the world. Imagine if New York City was transplanted into the middle of Kansas.

This state is a mix of extremes, the very liberal SanFransisco is just over the costal range from the most productive farmland in the world! Farmers are by nature conservative.

Lots of the state is made up of virtually uninhabitable mountain ranges & arid deserts.

The energy industry was deregulated under the cloak of free enterprise & market forces & lower prices.........hey who could be against saving money.

supply & demand only works in a actual open market & can't be imposed overnight after 100 years of monopoly.

so the price of electricity basicaly doubled overnight.

Contrast that w/the push for renewable [green] energy, which was also supposed to be part of the deregulation [you were supposed to be able to pick your supplier]

What we're stuck w/is this hodgepodge badly regulated, free market, monopoly.

The legistator's are under the constant re-election money raising pressure, to hold on to positions that pay 1/3-1/2 of what a similar position in the private sector would pay. No suprise that these guy do what will get them & their's payed.

The corruption isn't overt & direct, but still driving public policy.

The proposition mechanisim should be a positive empowering force, the reality is no matter how good the idea is, big dollars are needed just for propositions to even get on the ballot.

"I'm calling for the formation of a new party, a third party, a wild party" Alice Cooper

This is why it is called the United States - States prevail where there is not a Federal precedence. In this case the Federal environmental laws do prevail - but also must make scientific sense. The Mississippi river is far from polluted - you have to look at China, and perhaps South Africa for the most polluted river environments - and the strongest central "federal" governments. It IS the American example that is the strongest export.

FAR FROM POLLUTED! Do you believe the cripe you just wrote?

It's like you are saying " yeah, he's a murderer. But not a mass murderer"

Get real.