California Cruisin'

California is the land of dreams, and one of the government's dreams is to eliminate fossil fuels not too many years hence. I don't think the name "Moss" in the link above has anything to do with the following story from yesterday:

A lithium battery fire that erupted at a Moss Landing power plant continues to smolder and Monterey County residents are asking public officials and the facility's leaders what health risks they now face.

The fire erupted around 3 p.m. on Thursday at the Moss Landing Power Plant. The facility is a natural gas-powered electricity generation plant operated by Texas-based Vistra Energy. The facility also has two battery storage stations owned by PG&E and Vistra.

On Friday morning, Monterey County officials and Vistra Energy executives, who operate the power plant, gave an update on the fire at a press conference.

Supervisor Glenn Church said the incident could “best be described as a worse case scenario.” He went on to say that the “disaster” is more than just a fire.

“This is a wake-up call for this industry,” he said. “If we’re going to be moving ahead with sustainable energy, we need to have a safe battery system in place.”

Sounds really nasty. You would think that this idea would have occurred to someone earlier.

Also: And Suddenly, Gavin Newsom's Electric Car Mandate Looks Pretty Dumb to LA Fire Victims

Even now, the homeless LA gliteratti, who soon may be allowed to sift through the ashes of their homes in hopes of finding the gold coins that looters haven't dug up yet, wonder how they could have been so gullible. They bought Newsom's climate change diktats hook, line, and gas can, and now their electric car doesn't work. Their beloved Tesla and their neighbor's Nissan Leaf are charred carbon hulks considered by the environment police to be portable toxic waste dumps. I'm sorry, sir, and you can't move it until we've studied the environmental externalities of your charred car. Grab a number.

And no mocking these poor folks, America, because this Caltastrophe may have bought more time for the rest of the country to shout down the climate cultists in state houses across the country. California's proof of concept showed that climate nirvana doesn't protect the environment for humans.

Indeed, though less important, it's now dawning on Angelenos, more than a week after the fires started, that they're witnessing the incineration of all the "greenhouse emissions reductions" promised in Newsom's 2035 gas car ban.

Even without the fires, the ban looks pretty dumb to people suffering through normal power outages due to weather, road blockages and gridlock, etc.

Rebellion: The Beach Boys - Still Cruisin' (1989)

California Insurance

Insurance in general is a mess in the USA due largely to efforts to make it fulfill governmental dreams. But home and property insurance in California is special, if you can get it. This is one of several excellent links on the wildfires from J.J. Sefton's Morning Report yesterday. Steven Greenhut:

How Policy Helped Create California's Insurance Crisis
Governor Gavin Newsom and the state legislature have focused on less pressing but more politically useful topics.

. . . Floods and wildfire have defined this state since time immemorial. Climate change might be worsening these disasters, but the real “perfect storm” involves public policy.

Instead of creating a resilient system that handles whatever Mother Nature throws our way, California’s progressive leaders have insisted on pursuing multiple costly policies designed to change the trajectory of the Earth’s weather patterns—heedless of the fact that California’s CO2 emissions make up less than 1 percent of world emissions, or that 2020’s wildfires added nearly double the CO2 emissions that the state had eliminated over the previous 16 years, per University of Chicago research.

A substantial way to build resilience is to establish a functioning property-insurance market, which is vital for protecting property ownership and the economy. Instead, Governor Gavin Newsom has prioritized symbolic policymaking, like measures to battle so-called price-gouging and to “Trump-proof” the state, over fixing the insurance market. While state officials have finally introduced some modest but sensible insurance reforms, these won’t mean much in the face of a potential $150 billion in damages.

It’s not as if California’s leaders didn’t know what was coming. . .

They must "Trump-proof the state". They focused on this even after the fires began and Newsom started blathering about how Trump was going to help him create a new California dream for the Olympics.

Gavin Newsom: We’ve got a Marshall plan to rebuild Los Angeles 2.0

NBC: Tell us about that Marshall plan

Gavin Newsom: (puts up hands defensively) We’re just starting to lay it out. We are still fighting these firespic.twitter.com/ftM5AOteFQ

— Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) January 12, 2025

What do you want to bet that Gavin Newsom's ideas for California 2.0 don't include room for a lot of the dreams of ordinary people?

"Gavin Newsom is echoing the incoming Trump administration as he touts government efficiency. But the governor has expanded the size and scope of California's government to an all-time high."

One way California's mistakes get federalized:

Floods and wildfire have defined this state since time immemorial. Climate change might be worsening these disasters, but the real “perfect storm” involves public policy.

The 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act enshrines state regulatory authority over insurance. This system has worked relatively well over 80 years. But some states have done a better job of managing their markets than others. California and Florida provide an illustrative contrast.

Democratic insurance commissioners in the Golden State have for years suppressed rates. Until recently, California was the only state that prohibited carriers from using catastrophe models to project disaster risk and pricing reinsurance costs into their premiums.

Wildfires—exacerbated by the state’s poor land mismanagement—have swelled insurer claims and liabilities. Insurers are paying out $1.09 in expenses and claims for every $1 they collect in premiums. They’ve curbed their exposure in part by dropping policy holders in high-risk areas and leaving the market.

Unable to raise rates, many insurers have increased deductibles and capped maximum payments. That means insurers might not cover all of the fire damage, and some homeowners will face hefty rebuilding costs. Lucky for them the Federal Emergency Management Agency covers losses if homeowners are “under-insured.”

This means taxpayers in Houston and Little Rock may pay for rebuilding multi-million-dollar homes in California. If FAIR becomes insolvent, all insurers in California—meaning their customers—are on the hook for its claims. Homeowners could see rates rise by thousands of dollars a year.

It's all because of greedy insurance executives, you know.

A rebellious idea from Dr_N0

Though there may not be any more of them left in the wild. h/t NorCal Sierra Foothills Lurker

Weekend

All that's entertainment:

Steven Hayward: The Week in Pictures: Two Days to Go!

Only two more days until we put Joe Biden’s rear end in our rearview mirror. Nature is healing already (except in California): Daniel Penny is back riding New York subways; DEI and climate madness are in retreat; Greenland rather likes the idea of manifest destiny. Settle in with an extra-large coffee—this is a super-epic inauguration special TWiP.

Music

The Beach Boys - California Dreamin', 1986

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, January 11, When California starts looking a little redder

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:13 AM

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