Los Angeles is broke. Strapped for cash. In the middle of an “urgent financial crisis.” It needs a giant “Will work for food” sign next to every city limits sign. And it owes it all to the global warming scam.
The Wall Street Journal has the details:
What’s brought the famed city to this pass? Global warming, of course. Or more precisely, the crusade against global warming.
A couple of months ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed electricity rate hikes of 9% to 28% to wean the city off coal and pay for its aggressive renewable energy portfolio. Residents and businesses bristled at such a steep increase in their electric bills, especially during a recession. Facing irate constituents, the city council nixed the utility’s proposed 5.7% three-month rate hike, the first of four increases planned.
This in turn prompted the utility to withhold $73.5 million of the $220.5 million surplus revenue it was expected to transfer to the city. Without the rate hike, the utility’s interim manager S. David Freeman says it doesn’t have enough money to pay its own bills and hand the city the $73.5 million. The city council complains that the utility is holding the city hostage.
What’s really holding the city hostage is the state’s global warming law and the mayor’s green energy agenda, which includes boosting renewables to 40% of the city’s energy portfolio by 2020. The state’s renewable goal is 33%. The mayor says the city could face hundreds of millions of dollars in fines if it doesn’t comply with the state’s numerous renewable energy and carbon reduction mandates. But of course complying with these mandates means a sharp increase in energy prices, as Los Angeles residents are now discovering.
Global warming is real. The weather is warm. The actresses are hot. And the city’s finances have melted down.
How much more proof do you need, you filthy denier?
Source: Wall Street Journal
This post was last modified on April 12, 2010
View Comments (4)
The corruption in LA flies under the radar, but it is big league stuff. Antonio Villaraigosa is as crooked as they come, but you never hear/see/read much about him. He is a dirtbag who has been in bed with the media, LITTERALLY, when he was banging Mirthala Salinas, a political reporter, while she was a polital reporter for Telemudo's LA station. She was reporting on his divorce from his wife, but never told her viewers she was the woman he was cheating with, classy. He's now with another TV news gal, Lu Parker, who also cover the Mayor without telling her bosses or the viewers she too was going out with Villaraigosa. It's amazing the national media has'nt caught up with this guy & reported all the sleaze he's involved with or has been involved with.
L . A . broke ? , wouldnt happen to be because of the people they elected in city and state offices ? wouldnt happen to be because of the laws and taxes , they initiate ? wouldnt happen to be because of the labor unions , holding the city and its people hostage ? wouldnt happen to be because they spent the money like a drunk sailor ? wouldnt happen to be because of all the illiegal aliens collecting social services ? wouldnt happen to be because very few people in l.a , and in california , have any common sence ? or would it ? They get what they deserve
The main reason LA is bankrupt is the 100's of millions or billions I'm not sure of the no. that it spends on entitlements for illegals and law enforcement of illegals and jailing of illegals. All that without anything coming back from illegals. How would you lke to be an honest working tax payer there?
So, let me get this straight. In essence, the Department of Water and Power was offering a $73.5 million bribe to the city to allow them to raise rates? Why isn't S. David Freeman in jail? And since there was obvious collusion between the DWP and the mayor, why hasn't Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa been indicted as well?
Or is it that if the bribe is large enough and public enough, it's not really a bribe?