If, as California goes, we all go, the nascent recovery will not survive long. From the California Manufacturers and Technology’s Mpowered blog, “Renewable power mandate’s best-case scenario: 7% rate increase:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger could get a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) bill on his desk after the state’s legislative session ends this week.  SB 14 by Sen. Joe Simitian would deny California utilities access to the most cost-effective energy and, according to the Public Utilities Commission, raise the state’s industrial electricity costs at least 7 percent.  The Energy Information Administration states that existing rates are already 45 percent more expensive than the nation and 80 percent higher than the western region.

California industry can barely compete with its neighboring states and energy costs play a major role in that imbalance.  The AB 32 greenhouse gas law that passed in 2006 already allows the California Air Resources Board to implement RPS in a cost-effective manner.   Gov. Schwarzenegger should veto this bill because it will impose huge new costs and threaten high wage manufacturing jobs in California.

Read Letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger

Brian Moran, a Democratic candidate for governor in Virginia, appeared this weekend on Clean Skies Sunday, a public affairs show produced by the Clean Skies Foundation, advocates of natural gas.

Moran sells himself as the most environmentally aware and sensitive and visionary candidate; he opposes offshore drilling for natural gas and oil, and he is highly critical of any new coal development.

Moran also wants to require that 25 percent of Virginia’s energy come from renewable sources by the year 2025. Quite a goal, unachievable without complete disruption of the economy, higher jobs-killing electricity rates, and even more government controls.

The candidate couches these arguments in terms of “investment,” that favorite word for describing spending of any kind.  Politicians have misused it as long as we can remember, as in “Invest in X, Y, and Z,” as opposed to “Spend on X, Y, and Z.” It used to be a mostly Democratic trope, but now it’s ubiquitous.

This was a new misusage from Moran: “We can strengthen and rebuild our economy by producing renewable energy, clean, investing in wind and solar and renewable portfolio standards.”

Investing in renewable porfolio standards?

One hopes that’s just a slip of the tongue. If that terminology ever takes off, we’ll have people saying things like, “We need to invest in these new product safety rules” or “We need to invest in banning smoking in cars if children are present.”

It’s nonsensical. And reminds us to reread this.

The interview is available at CleanSkiesTV.com, starting 8 minutes in the February 8 broadcast. It’s a very well done public policy and advocacy program.