A big part of CA’s problems are related to the greedy and criminal people making sub prime loans to people who can not afford to buy a home and greedy speculators buying houses (driving housing prices up overall) so they can flip them for big profit in a short time with no value add on their part.

the terminator sucks, hes been a bane to the state. My fathers on his team and says he wants to raise taxes but can’t cause his party wouldn’t let him. So he starves the state of funding making things even worst. 3 stikes laws and the Prison system has eaten up Cali Budget.

Can’t believe he got elected, i hope people realize what a mistake it was and don’t vote in that fool CEO from Google in his place.

Green Jobs, and Clean Energy will get mucked up by this governor.

I second BHA as well

How about the $1 Billion a year California spend for their permanent ILLEGAL ALIENS? Is this part of their Big Economy programs too?

How about the lousy Car and Health Care insurances that they offer in California.

Arnold should plant more trees to eradicate pollution and to have more fresher air.

Green won’t cut it until it is more profitable than old methods or we have no other choice.

When it does work the benefit will be as follows: Wealthiest 5% of Americans will enjoy 75% of benefit, as they will capitalize, develop, and profit from it. The remaining percentage will divide that final 25% in the form of the jobs it creates and the disposable income of the top 5%.

The vast majority of the small household solar lights, etc… that are manufactured in China are junk that fails in short order, more often than not. Can’t the US, California, be the providers of quality solar products. I really try to buy American and I think more people will if the quality is good.

Re your guests’s comment, China “way out in front” in green technology? Is he serious? China may be the world’s largest manufacturer of solar technology, but at what cost to their own land and people. The unregulated growth of China’s manufacturing sector has befouled the Chinese environment beyond belief! The situation is not improving. The US certainly lags behind in green power, green manufacturing, etc. That needs to be remedied. But let’s look at the big picture too.

Is it true that California is a hostile location for business? I’ve heard small and big business people are moving out.

What is the personal tax situation in California? What kind of rates are being paid, how many people pay nothing?

Subsidies for clean energy aren’t free. Just judging from the annual budget chaos, it seems like California has a lot of problems.

Where should California college graduates with strong engineering and knowledge of sustainable industries look for work?

I find it interesting that the discussion of electric car came right after talking about power plants. Whenever electric cars are discussed there seems to be an assumption that the electricity is free. How many new electric power need to be created to suppport the transfer from gasoline to electircity? Also when they speak of how inexpensive the electricity is to recharge your car it doesn’t take into consideration the power generation, transmission lines (neighborhoods love these)and other costs to make this HUGE energy transfer. why isn’t the total life cycle of electirc cars discussed?

You folks are preaching to the choir. How do you get the Fox News audience on board??

Great PROGRAM! long overdue!
The govoner of CAL is correct!
Why don’t “we” lead? Let’s do it Let’s GO to the MOON again with green!
if the oil industry does not want to participate, get out of the way! Move ON NOW!

How many people have gone to China and seen what our money has bought them?

Everything is new in the big cities. The roads, the buildings, the airports, the trains, the stores, the cars. Everything.

Buy MADE IN THE USA. If you don’t start demanding it America you are going to find this country in 3rd world status within a decade.

When I come back to America from Asia or Europe I can’t believe the condition of the infrastructure. 3rd world for sure.

Why would CA be any more competitive in solar power than they are in anything else? Until China rebalances its currency the jobs hemorrhaging will continue. Pretending that alternative energy is somehow different is just grasping at straws.

Cathy Pickett:

There are several US manufacturers which will provide more reliable LEDs, of which here are three:

Ilumisys Inc.(See:
http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20091108/FREE/311089978/1069# )

International Light Technologies:
http://www.intl-lighttech.com/products/light-source/led-modules/ledlighting

Cree LED Lighting (a leading manufacturer from North Carolina):
http://www.creells.com/lr6.htm

Then the newly announced (dimmable) 60w replacement from Philips is made in the US.

GE and Sylvania also have LEDs, but so far mostly for commercial applications.

Set up a Google search that will give you a daily or weekly list of LED Lighting announcements or blogs and you will find others.

Bruce Pershke:

In a typical gasoline engine, only 15 to 20% of the energy in the gasoline is converted into movement down the road. An electric motor can be 95 to 98% efficient, and even coal-fired and nuclear power generating plants are about 33% efficient, while gas turbines can approach or slightly exceed 40% efficiency. Cogeneration plants (heat and power, often used by hospitals, etc.) are 80 to 90% efficient in using the fuel/s energy. Transmission losses for even long runs are seldom over 10% and usually the losses are around 5%.

When the cars are charged at night, which is practical for the majority of commuters who travel less than 20 to 30 miles a day, output of electric power will not have to be increased, just not shut down. To make use of the wind in the midwest, new transmission lines will have to be built, but we already desperately need to do that to avoid another major blackout like those of a few years ago. By building higher voltage lines, these can be even more efficient.

Ellen…the Fox audience is already here…know thine enemy. On board? You wish…

bush’s fault = troll.

This mass delusion that green power will save and/or reinvigorate our nation’s economy is just another ruse cooked up by the media, pundits, and our politicians to distract the sheeple from identifying the nation’s real economic problems.

It might make economic sense to develop green power, but it will not address our nation’s fundamental economic problem–Global Labor Arbitrage. It won’t address our problems with foreign outsourcing, the use of H-1B and L-1 visas to displace Americans from often college-education-requiring knowledge-based jobs, and our problems with mass immigration (legal and illegal) and resultant population explosion (greater strain on the environment, fewer resources per capita, higher costs per capita for land and resources).

The other issue is, ignoring the environmental benefits, will green power actually improve the economy? Will it be more cost effective and efficient than the burning of fossil fuels (which provide a good energy-return-on-investment)? If it isn’t more cost effective then the “green jobs” are not really new jobs but rather will be created by a shifting of money (and jobs) from other areas of the economy and might constitute a new tax on the populace.

[...] California once more emerge as the global tech center? A recent NPR program explored the challenges and promises of greentech California style. Amid further state budget problems, California’s governor is counting on greentech to help [...]

The response by DonaldB to Bruce Pershke was on point (if you’ll pardon the expression). When I was in the investment business,we did some work that showed if all 240 million cars on the road were electric plug-ins and were plugged in at night or on the weekends, there would be no need for additional power plants except in a few areas where an imbalance existed. Utility plants are not shut down. They are always running. We would use more power, but odds are the net effect would be a lowering of utility rates since the added usage might take certain utilities above their regulated rates of return. You can see more on the climate change topic at http://blog.contracarbon.com.