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4A – Daily News – Monday, September 6, 2010 Opinion Happy Labor Day D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Poor Labor Day. Gets no respect. It’s the Rodney Danger- field of celebrations. The runt of the holiday litter. Just hearing the name conjures up depressing images of a last plastic souvenir sports bottle of lemonade poured on the dying charcoal briquettes of summer. It’s the end of the bright light and the beginning of the darkness. Vaca- tion is over and the fun has expired. White shoes are put back in the closet and storm windows taken out. Watermelons are replaced on the floor next to pro- duce bins by pumpkins. Swim- ming pools get drained and ice cream trucks convoy back into their hibernatory garages. All the red, white and blue motifs give way to orange and black. The solstice is dead. Long live the autumnal equinox. As a kid, I was too busy run- ning from the shadow of school’s return and the end of my freedom to pay much atten- tion to the meaning of the holi- day. And when I did, it made no sense. Honor work? Who would do that? Might as well set aside a day to venerate broccoli. I thought of work as a thing to be avoided, not celebrated. Chores squared. But then I entered the real world and desired things, like food and shelter and clothing and gasoline, which forced me into gainful employment. And it was surprisingly enjoyable. Not the getting up at 4 a.m. part, but the fruit of accomplishment deal -- yeah. Got my Social Security number at the age of 12. Held more than 100 different jobs. Then in 1981, I was able to earn a living at my chosen craft. Making me an extremely lucky man. Without labor, we would still be nomads, boiling river water to wash down our nightly meal of beans and mush and roots and moss. Getting way too friendly with the livestock. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. From the people who brought you the weekend, not to mention the 40-hour work week and the lunch hour and the smoke break and the potty run and the punch-clock dash. Our society’s love affair with the genetically blessed can get tiresome. The rich and the beautiful and the fast and the strong. The lucky sperm club. Peo- ple who were in the right place at the right time, and most of those places were wombal. That’s why it’s impor- tant to have this one 24-hour period to honor ordinary Ameri- cans. Real folks who don’t think "work ethic" is a dirty word. Or a dirty two words. Or whatever. No, there’s no fire- Will works to watch or ugly birds to cook or choco- late-covered bunnies to steal marshmallows from. Just one Monday off for all those regular guys and gals trying to make ends meet; raising 2.3 kids while juggling a mortgage and trying to cover the monthly cable bill with at least one premium channel thrown in. One day to celebrate what it is that we do for a living by tak- ing the day off from work. Pay- Durst Raging Moderate ing tribute, not to some dead presidents or a reli- gious fertility ritual or the valiant who have fallen defending democracy, but to the living. To us. The true American heroes. The ones who keep democracy alive and shaking and moving and growing. You and me. All right. All right. Fine. Mostly you. Happy Labor Day, every- body. Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. E-mail Will at durst@caglecartoons.com. Check out willandwillie.com for the latest podcast. Will Durst’s book, "The All American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing," is available from Amazon and better bookstores all over this great land of ours. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 4164 P.O. Box 942849, Sacramento 94249; (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319- 2102 STATE SENATOR — Sam Aanestad (R), State Capitol Bldg., Room 2054, Sacramen- to, CA 95814. (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Make more money, by spending more Commentary Another installment in a series on the California "Global Warming Solutions Act," AB 32, and the issues involved in the attempt to limit its negative impacts by pass- ing Proposition 23 in November. When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 in 2007, the premise behind it was that, just as California set fuel economy standards more restric- tive than the national rules for cars, it would take the proverbial "great leap forward" and mandate reduc- tions in CO2 from all sources. First, the "great leap" terminology is an intentional homage to Chi- nese Communist rule that did what many American liberals (Tom Friedman, for example) admire: simply mandate what the ruling party thinks is best. Secondly, all sources will not be forced to reduce CO2 production since we humans exhale the trace gas with each breath. However, the CO2 is measured in tons and, on a personal level, returning to 1990 levels by 2020, will be a 30 percent reduction from projected levels – from 14 tons to 10 tons per person. You may recall that last week’s col- umn quantified the reduction in state and personal income, and employment, broken down by con- gressional district, and the increas- es in energy costs that we could expect if the federal "America’s Climate Security Act" (Lieber- man-Warner, S. 2191), were ever implemented. So, will AB 32 hurt Califor- nia’s economy as the critics say? Well, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) "issued a study reassuring Californians that they can make money hand over fist selling each other wind turbines and electric cars" (Ronald Bailey, Reason magazine’s science corre- spondent). Just type "Califormia’s economic climate change denial- ism" and use the link to reason.com. The CARB study said the implementation of the cap "cre- ates more jobs and saves individual households more money than if California stood by and pursued an unacceptable course of doing noth- ing at all to address our unbridled reliance on fossil fuels." Why, that sounds positively cheerful, and if your nonsense radar was going off you may recall that CARB was last mentioned in this column for the bogus science that it used to implement draconian diesel truck filtering systems. See a pattern yet? Do you really think that by 2020, the mandates will increase economic production "by $27 billion, boost personal incomes by $14 billion, raise per capita incomes by $200, and pro- duce an additional 100,000 jobs"? Don’t you see? We’ll all make more money because we’ll spend more money! If CARB’s predictions sound a little like the opposite of what may happen, you may be on the way to understanding how some very unpleasant regulatory medicine is being sold. These pie-in-the-sky scenarios are supposed to all occur because, while Californians will have higher electric and gasoline bills, we’ll be driving more fuel efficient cars, adjusting our ther- mostats to 68 in the winter and 78 in the summer, using energy effi- cient appliances and, of course, forget we ever heard of incandes- cent light bulbs. However, you bet- ter put a hazardous waste cleanup company on speed dial if you are going to fill every light socket with the curly fluorescent bulbs, because those things are seriously toxic if they break. Unlike the global warming peer review process, which was obstructed and under- mined by the scientists/advocates for the theory, CARB’s pre- dictions have been peer reviewed and have been found rather wanting. Ron Bailey writes: "For example, UCLA economist Matthew Kahn warned that the cap ‘is presented as a riskless free lunch for Californians.’ He noted that California’s electric- ity prices are projected to increase by 14 percent, yet manufacturing employment is also sup- posed to increase by 0.4 percent. ‘This is a surprising finding,’ writes Kahn. ‘The micro-econometrics literature has concluded that increased energy prices retards manufacturing employment growth.’ He cites studies showing that cities with high electricity prices lose manufacturing jobs. "Another peer reviewer, Har- Don Polson The way I see it electricity, they pay on average 2 cents more per kilowatt-hour more than states that do not have such standards." When you consider that California already ranks seventh highest in the nation for how much businesses spend on electricity, such an increase will drive many businesses, and their jobs, to other states. When I exam- ined my PG&E bills for the last five summers, I found that the lowest of the four rates increased a total of only 4 percent. However, the two next higher rates, that most folks pay when trying to stay cool in the summer, rose a total of about 33 percent. That is how utility companies must respond to mandates to use expen- sive so-called "renewable," "green" energy like wind and solar. vard University economist Robert Stavins, bluntly states that the study’s analysis is ‘systematically biased (and remarkably, internally inconsistent) in ways which lead to potentially severe underestimates of costs.’ (AB 32) requires that 33 percent of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by the 2020 deadline. Recent research finds that when states establish renewable portfolio standards for CARB predicts AB 32 regula- tions will improve the state’s eco- nomic outlook, but a 2007 study by the Electric Power Research Insti- tute found that "the cost of meeting the stated 2020 emission reduc- tions goal could range from $104 billion to $367 billion of reduced consumption." Next week, we’ll see what the California Small Business Round- table, the Wall Street Journal and the state auditor have to say. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.