by Howard Hayden

Country and Western songs get to the heart of the matter. The singer of a 1981 song [1] called 14-Karat Mind tells a woman the woes of trying “just to satisfy your 14-karat mind.”

The “14-karat mind” of interest in the song is that of a classic golddigger with an insatiable appetite for riches. Herein we are concerned with “14-karat minds” of people lovingly referred to as environmentalists by the news media.

The terms of endearment for their ideas keep changing. We hear Environmentally Sound, Eco-Friendly, Green, Sustainable, Earth-Friendly, Climate-Friendly, Climate-Neutral, Low-Carbon, Small-Footprint, and Clean, to name a few.

These manipulators and would-be manipulators try to force society into very expensive non-solutions to non-problems. We have no shortage of energy. We are not causing dangerous global warming. Wind turbines, photovoltaics, solar/thermal-electricity, bio-diesel, corn-ethanol, tidal energy, wave machines, and orbiting energy satellites are some of their 14-karat non-solutions to the non-shortage of energy and the non-disaster of climate.

Example: The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is seeking a 5-percent rate hike to pay for piddle-power from wind farms and solar collectors [2]. New York Times reports [2]

The commission that governs the utility, which is losing about $6 million a week or an estimated $500 million by the end of the 2011 fiscal year, is expected to vote next week to increase by seventenths of 1 cent the current user rate of 12 cents per kilowatt hour. [Emphasis added.]

With stunningly bad logic, the city fathers of Los Angeles regard the rate increase as “equivalent to a carbon tax because all consumers will see rates fall as the city becomes less reliant on coal-powered energy” (because of all that 14-karat energy from breezes). [Emphasis added]

The Los Angeles Times has a more detailed report [3]. We find that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is demanding rate increases [3].

Appearing with labor and environmental leaders, Villaraigosa said the proposed increases would ensure that the DWP meets his goal of securing 20% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by Dec. 31.

The increased revenue would help pay for new environmental initiatives, including more aggressive conservation programs and a solar initiative designed to create 16,000 jobs.

But it also would address the DWP’s failure to collect enough money to cover the cost of existing renewable energy initiatives and the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas, utility officials said. [Emphasis added]

Homeowners would see an 8.8-percent rate hike, and big users would see bigger hikes.

Tier 2 customers…would see an average increase of 16.8% to 18.9%. Tier 3 customers, who use the most power … would face hikes in their electric bills of 24.4% to 28.4%.

Meanwhile, we read in The Kansas City Star [4], “A wind-energy trade group is blasting a federal regulatory decision that will let Westar Energy impose additional charges on wind producers when the renewable energy is exported to other states.” The fee is being charged “to help Westar manage wind power on the electric grid.”

Maybe there’s some hope. Apparently the woman with the 14-karat mind has disappeared from the scene, and regulators are finally letting customers feel the sting of piddle-power costs. The customers will learn.

[1] Written by Dallas Frasier and Larry Lee, and performed by Gene Watson (I had to look those things up) [2] Jennifer Steinhauer, “Los Angeles Electric Rate Linked to Solar Power,” New York Times, March 10, 2010.

[3] David Zahniser and Phil Willon, “DWP rates may rise between 8% and 28% to pay for mayor’s green initiatives: The hike would pay for more aggressive conservation programs and a solar plan designed to create 16,000 jobs as well as cover the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas,” Los Angeles Times at latimes.com/news/local/la-medwp- rates16010mar16,0,7870063.story

[4] Steve Everly, “Approval of Westar fee angers trade group,” The Kansas City Star, Mar. 20, 2010 at http://www.kansascity. com/2010/03/19/1825330/approval-of-westar-fee-angers.html (Thanks to Wayne Wagner