Category: Politics

What’s to like:

1. No tax increases.
2. Some caps on spending
3. Rendell doesn’t get his smoking ban

What’s not to like:

1. I-80 tolls will be forthcoming
2. SEPTA once again blackmails more money from the state budget with threatened fare hikes and service cuts.

I don’t think I’d pay $4000 dollars for a cat. I don’t like cats that much. But like all new technology, the price will probably come down. When it does, maybe I’ll be able to get a cat that Bitter can live with.

I owe someone a hat tip here, but I opened this yesterday and can’t remember where I saw it.

Pennsylvania is not going to grow its way to energy independence, no matter what Keystone State Democrats, including Ed Rendell and my representative, Chris King, think. Let’s examine for a minute why. First, a few facts about corn ethanol:

1. It takes 271 gallons of gasoline just to grow a hectare of corn.
2. It takes much more energy to mash, ferment, and distill the alcohol out of the corn than it takes to grow it.
3. Corn ethanol yields slightly less than 900 gallons of ethanol per hectare. This is about half what you get from sugar based processes.
4. Estimates are that ethanol production from corn either produces slightly more energy than it consumes, or produces less energy than it consumes.
5. Ethanol contains only about 70% as much energy per gallon as gasoline.

Now, let’s look at Pennsylvania’s corn crop:

1. Pennsylvania has roughly 600,000 hectares of land dedicated to corn production.
2. If Pennsylvania took it’s entire corn crop, it would be able to produce 531 million gallons of ethanol, which is energy equivalent to 372 million gallons of gasoline.
3. The energy profile of other plants that grow in our climate looks about as abysmal as corn.

The Democrats say we can make 900 million gallons of biofuels and make ourselves energy independent:

Replace 900 million gallons of the state’s transportation fuels over the next decade with alternatives, such as ethanol, biodiesel, or fuels derived from coal liquefaction processes equipped with carbon offsets. The 900 million gallons represents the forecasted amount of fuels that will be imported to Pennsylvania from the Persian Gulf 10 years from now.

Ah… there’s the dirty little secret. Coal liquefaction. Yes. Pennsylvania has enough coal to make 900 million gallons of fuel from it, and we probably also have the natural gas you need to make the process work. But is this a green process? Hardly. It produces more CO₂ than digging the coal out of the ground and burning it, or pumping and refining oil. It’s a viable alternative fuel, but selling it as green is disingenuous when part of the alternative energy appeal is carbon neutrality.  It’s also not a cheap process.

I am not against developing alternative fuel resources, especially those that would be generated from industrial or agricultural waste, if it makes economic sense.  But that’s only going to be a small part of the energy puzzle.  If Pennsylvania Democrats wants to get serious about energy policy, we need to start talking about reviving nuclear power in the commonwealth.  Coal liquefaction is a serious proposal, but it’s not economical without subsidies, and it’s not green.  Politicians want to sell us simple solutions to monstrously complicated problems.  It’s important to remember that politicians are mostly full of crap.

Looks like a deal has been reached with Rendell.

“Did we get everything we wanted when we wanted it? No,” said Gov. Edward G. Rendell at an 11 p.m. news conference. “There has to be some give and take. That was the case in this budget process.”

Good to know he didn’t get everything he wanted. But what about the energy tax Rendell wanted?

The two sides agreed to hold off on the issue that had been the most difficult: whether to impose a surcharge on electric bills to pay for alternative energy initiatives. Lawmakers agreed to take that issue up in a special session in the fall, Mr. Rendell said.

A special session? I think that’s the end of that issue. There’s no sure way to kill something than to have a “special session”. It looks to me like Rendell backed down. I can’t imagine this is going to please my state rep, who has been e-mailing regularly to tell of his steadfastness to have alternative energy funding be part of the state budget.  The Republicans wanted to slash $300 million from Rendell’s proposed budget.  No word yet on how much of that they might have gotten.

More to come, but later.

Politicians need encouragment when they do the right thing, I think.  I sent this along to my state senator:

Senator Tomlinson,

I writing to thank you for standing up for fiscal responsibility in the state budget, and to encourage you to continue to stand up to the Governor and his allies in the General Assembly on this matter.

Thanks,

Sebastian
Langhorne, PA

Even when I really would have like to have written this:

Senator Tomlinson,

I’m writing to thank you for voting to not raise my taxes and to keep state spending under control.   I know it’s hard when we have a tax and spend weasel in the Governor’s Mansion, and a bunch of newly elected worms in the General Assembly who seem to seem to lay awake at night counting not sheep, but new ways they can spend my tax dollars.  Keep up the good work, and if you see Governor Rendell, please give him a swift kick in the nuts for me.

Thanks,

Sebastian
Langhorne, PA

But it’s always better to be nice, I suppose.

Pennsylvania’s government is shut down except for essential personnel. Here’s how my day went. I got up, the sky was still blue. It was a hot day, but the AC in my car still worked. I drove to work, did all I needed to do there, came home to find UPS had delivered my new Houge grip sleeve for my Mk.III.

I got that placed on the gun, packed up, and went to the range. The laws of physics still appear to be operating, even though my shooting wasn’t so hot. The Houge sleeve made the pistol grip nicely at least. Picked up some dinner on the way home. Internet still functioning? Yep, despite a cable going bad earlier. Gotta do a few posts while I finish up my laundry, and then go to bed.

So what’s so different about today than any other day? Well, nothing. Rendell can piss off. If this is supposed to cause my grief so I can pass it on to my legislators he’s gravely mistaken. The only people he’s hurting are state employees.