Saturday, June 28, 2014

Car Companies Lose Money To Be Green



As part of their Goodwill hunting auto companies are trying to out green their competition.  The auto companies do not want to suffer the same fate as the tobacco companies hence they will use the “green” defense when the lawsuits come for damages caused by rising sea levels and severe weather.

Two example of the goodwill hunting are Toyota and Nissan.  With a lot of fanfare Toyota announced the launch of their Hydrogen Fuel Cell car in Japan and the US.


I wrote a university level text book on hydrogen and fuel cells and therefore know a little about this subject.


Toyota is probably losing $100,000 to $200,000 on each fuel cell vehicle they will sell.  But that is a small price to pay for the publicity and goodwill.  It is kind of like a super bowl ad. 

Nissan is greening up with their Leaf Plug In.  They announced the cost to consumers for the replacement set of batteries.


The  price is a another loss leader and probably they will lose $5,000 on each set of batteries.  But they are also clever in requiring the owner of the car to have to trade in the old battery that they will probably use for grid electricity storage.

The fools in the green press believe the pricing is based on cost.  It simply is based on what the market will bear and the losses are simply the costs associated with the development of green goodwill and for the legal defense if and when global warming lawsuits come against the auto companies.  The oil companies have already lost their billions on the greenwashing they all came up with supporting bio fool  (fuel) startups.    The cost of a lithium ion battery pack is still above $600 per kwh and the cost of a fuel cell with 80 kw of power is still over $200,000.  The Green Machine is not fooled by the pricing.

Talking about Bio Fools.  Vinod Khosla is about to put KIOR into bankruptcy.  Vinod has a zero batting average in the bio fuel space.  His failures in the fuel space include Cello, Range, Kior, Amyris, Gevo, and LS 9.  The problem for Vinod is he did not have as much money as Shell Oil to waste on Bio Fools.  Shell actually knew it was all BS and wanted the Green defense against future lawsuits but Vinod really thought he could defeat the the laws of thermodynamics by green talk.  Of late, Condi Rice has been amazingly quiet on both Iraq and KIOR.    The BBC reported that the Russians will supply fighter jets to the Iraqis, I guess Malaki got tired of waiting for bio jet fuel from the US.



The Russians won’t be losing a trillion dollars in Iraq.  Only the US and the global oil and auto companies can afford to lose money to win the hearts and minds of people.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Bloom Started WW III But William Whipple III Will End It



The beginning of the end of WW III has commenced in the First State.  Bloom Energy and their agent DELMARVA Power started the war by invading Delaware in early 2011.  These members of the Axis of Gangrene Electric Power had a blitzkrieg to get a corrupt government to declare the invading Boxes (Servers) as being generators of “renewable” power.  The plan was to make citizens of Delaware servants to the Servers and pay subsidies for twenty years.  The corrupt state government officials that allowed this to happen include Governor Markell and Colin O’Mara his Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.


Then the remaining thermodynamic neophytes in government in Delaware (House, Senate, and PSC) agreed to a special tariff for the Bloom fuel cells under the how green is my valley scenario.  Since startup of the Boxes two years ago in June 2012, DELMARVA Power as Bloom’s agent has collected $46,830,748 of excess electricity charges  above the real market value of power from the citizens of Delaware who are DELMARVA Power’s customers.  This “subsidy” is given to Bloom as a gift for the super wealthy like John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins who own Bloom.


On April 8th 2014 I blogged about the fraud in Delaware in that the tariff used for customer billings exceeded the maximum amount of natural gas that was permitted to be used by the Bloom Coffins (Coffins equals Servers and Boxes) and that DELMARVA Power was fraudulently overcharging its customers.  I blogged that the operations of the Coffins as a power source in the Coastal Zone of Delaware should be ended as the Boxes simply cannot produce power with less than or equal to the permitted amount of natural gas.



I told the Delaware DOJ the whole permit was a ruse and was fraudulently approved by Mr. O’Mara as Mr. Magic O’Mara made tons of hazardous solid waste with sulfur simply disappear.  Joe Biden’s son Beau heads the Delaware DOJ as the Attorney General, he was copied on the allegations I made to the Delaware DOJ.  The Deputy AG Mr. Ralph Durstein who was copied in the allegations I faxed has been combative in a series of emails to me.  He probably was involved in the proceedings of the permit application and its approval.  His role in the granting of the permit needs to be investigated.


Now the Allies are finally fighting back against the Axis.  Mr. William Whipple III, a Delaware resident and a DELMARVA power customer, filed a class action suit against DELMARVA Power and its parent Pepco Holdings based on the fraud allegations that were enumerated in my blog.  Note William Whipple III can be shortened to WW III and he certainly is on the good side of this fight. 



I can’t wait to ask Mr. Whipple why he did not like customers squeezing the Charmin but really gets a kick out of squeezing the corrupt utility in Deal Away.  We all know Mr. Whipple vicariously did like squeezing the Charmin himself and got some good practice in performing a tight squeeze before going after the BLOOMDOGGLERs in Delaware.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

The Electric Harley



Harley Davidson motorcycles announced they will produce an electric motor bike.  It will not be for sale but will be given to folks to test.


The Harley bike is beautiful and I had always thought that lithium ion batteries are well suited for electric bicycles and motor bikes.  However, the electric motor bike business in the US has been horrible.  Vectrix a startup electric scooter firm went bust and had their assets auctioned.


That Americans like big cars not little E bikes may be the reason the battery powered two wheeler market has not developed in the USA.  Elsewhere in the world and in particular in Asia E Bikes are very popular.  Also The US and Canada have pretty detailed and restrictive rules about E bikes.


I was kind of thinking of the CODA car and what ever happened to the company Hank Paulson festered upon us?  They went bankrupt a year ago and gave up on cars but now are a grid energy storage company called Coda Energy.


Yeah Coda went from mobile to stationary.  Our friends at KIOR where Condi Rice greenwashed and fibbed about their diesel from pine had layoffs this week at their alchemic facility in Columbus Mississippi.  Kior is about to go coda blue soon.


The country is littered with failed green energy companies and Harley is probably right to produce only a few demo E Bikes and not overhype the potential of the alternative non gasoline powered motor bike.  They will let Elon Musk do all the hyping he wants. 


Saturday, June 14, 2014

The US is Using More Fuel Despite Elon Musk



Despite all the chatter that we are greening up the US is using more fuel and emitting more carbon than it did last year.  Per the US EIA for the first five months of 2014 versus the same period in 2013 gasoline usage is up 1.7%, jet fuel usage is up 2.4% and diesel fuel usage is up 4.8%.    The good news on the flip side of this is that economic activity seems to be picking up.


Dr. Moniz the Secretary of Energy who I like to joke looks like he is from Mad Magazine, has been posting on Facebook how he and the administration are leading us to a greener more carbon neutral future.  Of course one year of data is not a trend but petroleum usage in 2013 was up over 2012 and 2014 is pointing to be up over 2013.

The utter chaos in Iraq together with increased global demand for oil is causing prices to rise.  The world loves liquid fuels and is burning it like there is no tomorrow.  Had the US not started producing shale oil and gas the price of oil would have reached $200 a barrel and natural gas would be selling for three times as much as it does now.  We are so bloody lucky that shale oil and gas came to our rescue.  The socialist nincompoops that still argue we should not be fracking are thermodynamic and economic idiots.  Even Dr. Moniz called the fracking of shale a boon to the US.  I say fracking saved our ass.


I had written a few months back about a Green Gringo in Seattle who has over 100,000 miles on his Nissan Leaf.  That guy did his part by tapping into the grid that has pretty low carbon emissions due to the large amount of hydroelectric power in the Northwest.    Elon Musk claims he will open up his patents on his gangrene Tesla which hogs lithium and really is not a green vehicle.  I think this is a marketing ploy by Tesla as their sales have already declined in the USA year over year and smaller EVs such as the Leaf are gaining market share.  Inside EVs dot com reports Tesla US sales  have dropped like a stone from 8,700 last year for the first five months to only 5,600 this year.


The Leaf has picked up sales with 10,389 vehicles sold year to date versus 7,614 last year.  Elon may think he should share his patents but Nissan does not really need his help.  The Model S has been one of the fastest flops in terms of model sales in the US.   The Mitsubishi I MiEV is another flop.   Elon has buoyed his stock price by hyping the Giga Battery factory that I call the giggle battery factory as it is a joke.  Don’t get me wrong the Model S is an engineering marvel and is the electric Aston Martin but there is only a limited market for that type of car and Tesla will not be the VW of EVs and the giggle factory is a joke.

The PV project I worked on in Chile is up and running and has taken the equivalent of over 40,000 cars off the roads in carbon emissions savings.    Since its introduction in 2012, the total sales of the Tesla Model S has only been 25,900 vehicles in the US.  We also know that an EV does not replace a  full ICE car by reducing CO2 emissions as the grid has CO2 emissions.  Perhaps a half a car is replaced by the Tesla Model S, meaning all Elon has done to date in the US is replace one third of the cars the Green Machine did with part time consulting gig to a Chilean mining company for the PV project in the Atacama.  The Green Machine wins hands down with one hand tied behind his back.  Actually my arm is out of the sling and my broken collar bone is healed and I am now fighting fit to take on the BLOOMDOGGLERs




Monday, June 9, 2014

Huffman Has CLECA in the Closet



My one sided debate with Congressman Huffman continues.  We all know he used the CLECA defense for his failed AB 864.  CLECA is a group of perhaps the most gangrene manufacturers on the planet but Mr. Huffman claims he was in bed with them for the passage of his AB 864 that the CPUC squashed like a bug. 

This weekend I communicated the following to Mr. Huffman and the editor of the Marin Independent Journal who is his ardent backer and mouthpiece.


Lindsay Leveen 
12:17 PM (21 hours ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
to Robert, Rick, Kevin, jenny.callaway, Paul, Andrew, Christopher, Naomi.padron, Gregory
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
I know that Mr. Huffman has no more comments but let's look at CLECA the organization he claims he was helping with AB 864

Lets first look at the Bill in the CA Senate in March 2011 for the California Renewable Portfolio Standard



At the end of the link it lists the companies that opposed the bill.


 Opposition
           
          Air Liquide Industrial U.S. LP
          Air Products and Chemicals, Inc.
          Alliance for Retail Energy Markets (AReM)
          Anheuser Busch
          California Alliance for Choice in Energy Solutions
          California Business Properties Association
          California Grocers Association
          California Large Energy Consumers Association (CLECA)
          California League of Food Processors
          California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA)
          California Retailers Association
          California Steel Industries, Inc.
          CalPortland Company
          CEMEX California Cement
          Chemical Industry Council of California
          Direct Energy Services, LLC
          Kinder Morgan Energy Partners
          Lehigh Hanson
          Linde
          Mitsubishi Cement Corporation
          National Cement Corporation
          Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) (unless amended)
          Praxair, Inc.
          Schnitzer Steel Industries
          School Project for Utility Rate Reduction
          Specialty Minerals, Inc.
          TXI Riverside Cement
          Western States Petroleum Association


Now who are CLECA members.  Industrial gas companies, steel companies, cement companies and other large industrial companies that have enjoyed lower cost power (interruptible tariff) compared with other rate payers.

From the list of those who opposed the Renewable Portfolio Standard it is apparent that most if not all of the CLECA click opposed the standard and CLECA itself opposed the standard.

Mr. Huffman you and your spokesman Paul Arden had the audacity to pretend that AB 864 was all about helping CLECA members.  You claim to be a guardian of the environment yet you helped those that opposed the Renewable Portfolio Standard.  Shame on you.  Shame on the IJ for being your mouth piece and Bravo to the CPUC for squashing your bill in August 2011 as they saw right through your hypocrisy Mr. Huffman.


Mr. Huffman I will decide when we end the conversation.  Remember you are my public servant.  Not much of a public servant that is, but you have taken pay for over a decade from the public.  Shame on you!!!  Your record is gangrene not green!!


I then followed with this email

Lindsay Leveen 
9:41 PM (11 hours ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
to Gregory, jenny.callaway, Rick, Andrew, Naomi.padron, Kevin, Christopher, Paul, Robert
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
I was watching TV and a commentator said the first law of politics is that when you are in a hole do not dig deeper,  looks like Mr. Huffman and Mr. Arden should drop the shovels.  Mr. Huffman I am giving you the opportunity to simply say that Bloom and At&t misled you as they have misled all of us with their greenwashing.  This will explain why a man who once protected the environment as a lawyer got hoodwinked into sponsoring nonsensical legislation.  We know how Al Gore John Doerr and Colin Powell are big time folks and they hoodwinked Leslie Stahl and 60 Minutes so it is very plausible they hoodwinked an Assemblyman who never studied thermodynamics they were 60% or higher efficient to generate electrons from natural gas in their magic box.  I am fortunate my grad studies were in thermo and that I wrote a text book on fuel cells that I did not fall for Mr. Gore's convenient untruths.    Mr, Huffman this hole will get deeper and deeper if you persist in the CLECA defense.  You played volleyball and know sometimes spikes are impossible to reach.  The CLECA group is gangrene as heck.  Note I spent 12 years in Industrial Gases and was responsible for purchasing hundreds of millions of dollars of electric power.   Also note it took me years not four hours to master thermodynamics.
I take no glee in this matter as the air we all breathe was made worse by the Bloom coffins and the toxic solid waste with sulfur is buried somewhere.    Mr. Sterling I read the Sunday edition of your paper and I think the format is fine but the content stinks.


It should be noted Mr. Sterling changed the format of his newspaper and wrote a front page article in the Sunday IJ to that effect.  Mr. Sterling the front page news should be how Mr. Huffman was working with the enemy of the environment in promoting AB 864 on behalf of CLECA.    We will see if Mr. Huffman drops the CLECA defense which make as much sense as the Twinkie Defense.

If I were in Mr. Huffman’s position I would simply say hey look Leslie Stahl and 60 Minutes were hoodwinked, I got hoodwinked by Bloom and their sponsors.  It is going to be hard for Mr. Huffman to claim he is green if his bed fellow CLECA was busily trying to undo the most critical green legislation in the first half of 2011 when Mr. Huffman was doubling down on the SGIP. 

The wonderful thing about this investigation is that the biggest fish in the green ocean - John Doerr, Colin Powel, and Al Gore are going to get their CLECA – Caught Like Every Crony Aholehole.  I am not making this up the Aholelhole is a flagtail fish in the Hawaiian language. There photo above shows a whole school of Crony Aholholies.


Sunday, June 8, 2014

Chile Goes Green





The President of Chile opened the 100 MW PV power farm in the Atacama Desert this week.  I advised CAP SA of Santiago Chile in the planning of this project and visited the country twice during the planning stages of the project.  I love Chile and they are smart to have adopted smart policies with regard to solar power in the Atacama region which is an area of the world that gets perhaps the highest solar incidence on land in the entire planet.  270 gigawatt hours of power from 100 megawatts of DC panels is a capacity factor of over 30.8%

Here is the link to press release on the CAP SA PV project.


For comparison the UK has finally woken up to the fact that placing solar cells in Suffolk where the sun hardly shines but is very productive agricultural land is a dumb idea for energy policy.  The US still has politicians in Minnesota through Maine who believe the dreariest parts of our country are fit for solar farms.  Hopefully these politicians will learn from their British counterparts that PV cells are best placed where there is a lot of sunlight.  I kind of like the name of the British politician who is Mr. Eric Pickles.


My congressman Mr. Huffman who is in a bit of a pickle over AB 864 thinks solar farms are best placed on the industrial sites of CLECA (California Large Electricity Consumers Association) members.  Mr. Huffman I think you should visit Chile and go see what one of your constituents actually did to help the generation of green power without massive government subsidy.  Back in 2011 the CLECA members already enjoy reduced power costs relative to other ratepayers yet Mr. Huffman was going to help them with his failed AB 864 that got squashed like a scorpion by the CPUC.  Note parts of the Atacama are so dry there are even no insects.  Certainly no politicians like Mr. Huffman can thrive there as AT&T has limited service.  Hold on AT&T does operate in Chile and Mr. Huffman may soon visit the offices of the Chilean Large Electricity Consumers Association to assist them with their power costs.


Friday, June 6, 2014

Telephone Call Between Congressman Jared Huffman and Lindsay Leveen On June 2, 2014

UPDATE 11:04 am June 6 2014
Email Received from Paul Arden of Mr. Huffman's Staff


Arden, Paul

10:52 AM (12 minutes ago)
to me
Mr. Leveen,

Below please find Congressman Huffman’s clarification on your email:

Neither AT&T nor Bloom had anything to do with AB 864, nor was it one cement manufacturer. Then-Asm. Huffman worked on the bill with CLECA – California Large Energy Consumers Association – which is an association of manufacturing companies who use lots of electricity and have large facilities.

Congressman Huffman has asked that we terminate communications on this matter.

Best,
Paul

My Reply to Mr. Arden - Thanks.

End of Update  Original Blog Post Follows





Yes Congressman Huffman finally did call me!!  The call lasted 13 minutes and 56 seconds and it may be the call that finally shows us all what Mr. Huffman is all about.

This is a long blog but worth reading.

In order to correctly and accurately memorialize my notes of the call Mr. Huffman made to my home in the late afternoon of June 2nd 2014, I sent two emails to his staff as well as posted on Congressman Huffman’s public Facebook page

Here is my first email to Mr. Huffman’s staff to memorialize the conversation copied from my gmail sent mail.


Lindsay Leveen 
Jun 2 (2 days ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
to paul.arden, jenny.callaway, Kevin, Robert, Rick
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
This email is to memorialize the call Mr. Huffman made to me today

The call was made by Mr. Huffman from 707 981 8967   to the Leveen residence at 415 xxx  xxxx

The call lasted 13 minutes 56 seconds


Mr Huffman told me three times he would regret having called me but that he wanted to set the record straight on AB 864 and that it had nothing to do with AT&T and Bloom Energy

Mr. Huffman said he was doubling down in AB 864 on the size of the projects under the SGIP so that California manufacturers such as a cement manufacturers with large land could put in solar or wind turbines and lower their electricity cost and remain in state and not leave California.   He added the state did not want to lose these type of manufacturers.

When I pressed him if AT&T was a manufacturer who could benefit from the legislation he said that he could not recollect meeting with AT&T on the subject legislation of AB 864. 

When I asked him about the CPUC squashing AB 864  he said yes indeed the CPUC did squash AB 864.

He added he was not responsible for the original legislation of the SGIP and the SGIP from the beginning was not the greatest legislation and he did not invent the SGIP and thought it had flaws.  

I then asked him if indeed his staff while he was  an assemblyman did take my request to the CA AG to  investigate Bloom and he said they did and that the AG told his staff that there is no case against Bloom.  

He then said I had never convinced anyone else other than myself that Bloom has done anything wrong.  I reminded him that Senator Feinstein found the case against Bloom to have enough merit to have contacted the US FTC on my behalf.

He then said he dislikes natural gas and any other fossil fuel.  I then said I knew he had a passion for the environment when he started out as a lawyer and I also have a passion for the environment I and have worked on the largest solar PV farm in Latin America and that I wrote a text book on energy, fuel cells, and sustainability.

I then said that I know that the Bloom claims are false and the DE public information of the permits show their claims to be false.  He said well if you can convince any one other than yourself of this, that will be interesting.


I then said Mr. Huffman it is interesting that it took you 18 months to contact me 

He said his staff has spent more time with me than any other constituent of his.  I told him maybe Lawrence Cooper spent some time in Sacramento but since he became a Congressman I have simply been ignored.


I thanked him for calling me but reminded him he certainly had not acted as my representative and that I was not giving up on the Bloom story but would note and report that he said AB 864 had absolutely nothing to do with Bloom and AT&T and that the reason he introduced the legislation was to keep a cement manufacturer in California that had a large open space for wind turbines or solar plants.  I said I would report the call.


End of notes


Mr. Huffman should review my notes and let me know if I have recorded the conversation correctly or incorrectly and that the theme of his call was to inform me why he introduced AB 864 to increase the SGIP from 3 megawatts to 6 megawatts so that larger solar or wind projects could be funded under the legislation for large manufacturers such as the cement manufacturer to keep them operating in the State.  If I do not hear by Friday June 6 2014 that Mr. Huffman has revisions to the notes I have memorialized herein I will report these notes as accurately reflecting the conversation.

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen

Note Paul Arden and Jenny Callaway are Congressman Huffman’s staffers.  Mr. Robert Sterling is the Editor of the Marin Independent Journal (IJ) and Mr. Rick Halstead is a reporter for the Marin IJ.  Mr. Kevin Hessel is my Executive Editor at the Tiburon Ark, the newspaper that I write the Green Machine column for each month.  The Marin IJ has been a mouthpiece of Mr. Huffman’s “green” agenda and after first agreeing to let the Green Machine write an Op Ed, they retracted that offer and have ignored the Green Machine and continued their ardent support of Mr. Huffman.


Here is my second email sent on June 3, 2014 to further memorialize the phone conversation

Lindsay Leveen 
3:07 PM (19 hours ago)
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
to paul.arden, jenny.callaway, Kevin, Robert, Rick
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
Dear all I have one addition to my notes of the call

Mr. Huffman explained to me that he did not have four hours to spend on the phone and learn thermodynamics from me.  I told him we would pass on the thermodynamics lessons.

Ms. Callaway and Mr. Arden please get Mr. Huffman's revisions of the notes I have sent you all to me by 9 am Friday June 6 California time.  

Again if there are no comments given to me I will use the notes as an accurate record of the call.

Thanks

Lindsay Leveen Tiburon, CA


I also posted the following on Congressman Jared Huffman’s Face Book on 6/4/14 in the morning.

o    Lindsay Leveen Mr. Huffman Congratulations. Please make sure to answer the email regarding the accuracy of the notes I took during the call you made to my home. Again thanks for calling me. I need your revisions by Friday 9 am else I will use the notes as given to you.
The above was retrieved from Face Book on 6/4/2014 at 11:17 am

Given the lack of response by Mr. Huffman or his staff by the set date and time, the notes are considered complete and accurate in the memorialization of the conversation.

Now I will give my analysis of the conversation.

Mr. Huffman sounded a little nervous and not very excited to be talking to me although he initiated the call to my home phone.  He made sure to tell me three times that he probably would regret having made the call.  My analysis:  Is that he would have preferred to never speak to me just as he and his staff have done for 18 months, but that he and or his staff had convinced him that it would be best for him to call me in the mid to late afternoon one day prior to the primary elections set for June 3, 2014 and get the conversation behind him.

In the call Mr. Huffman said he sponsored AB 864 to help California manufacturers such as the cement plant that were large users of electricity as an enticement to remain operating in California and that the legislation would allow companies such as the cement plant to install large wind or solar power generation on their sites and get affordable power.  -  My Analysis:  The bill he sponsored (AB 864) was introduced to the Assembly by Mr. Huffman on Feb 17, 2011 and below is a link to the text of the bill.


The Bill had passed the Assembly unopposed in its third hearing on May 19, 2011.  All present in the Assembly voting aye and all very excited by the prospect of doubling the SGIP giveaway.  I have to say Mr. Huffman had the company of all Republicans and Democrats in the Assembly for the expanded giveaway of ratepayer money.  Mr. Huffman was correct in telling me in the call that the large users of power like the cement manufacturer in California who are members of CLECA (California Large Electricity Consumers Association) supported the bill.  The whole assembly had been bought by the left and the right and Mr. Huffman’s AB 864 sailed through.




The link below gives a good outline on CLECA and what they do for their members to get subsidized power at the expense of other ratepayers.


Yet by August 15, 2011, the unopposed bill was dead after having been “squashed” by the CPUC.  We know from the May 22, 2014 email to me from Mr. Scott Murtishaw the SGIP subject matter expert at the CPUC that the bill was killed by the CPUC because they were worried Bloom Energy had taken so much of the SGIP funds in 2010.  Here is the direct quote from Mr. Murtishaw’s email to me.

“3) As for AB 864, the CPUC's leg position speaks for itself. We were in the thick of the proceeding to implant the SGIP overhaul per SB 412 and we didn't want any more legislative micromanagement of the program design during that session. In the end, we kept the steeply declining incentives for capacity over 1 MW and we imposed a cap on the total amount of funds any one company could receive per year, basically to prevent a repeat of 2010 when Bloom was dominating the applications submitted.”

The CPUC knew that over 90% of the power generated under the SGIP was created using methane gas as the energy source and that the large manufacturers would use the expanded SGIP to install gas fuelled devices like Bloom Fuel Cells and not deploy wind turbines.  The large manufacturers like the cement plant who are members of CLECA typically purchase their electricity under interruptible contracts.  The SGIP also has the purpose to meet highest demand loads in mid-summer and given that the CLECA members would interrupt their operations and curtail their power demand when needed the CLECA members were already benefiting from reduced costs under their interruptible tariff.    I believe the CPUC saw right through the CLECA story and put an end to the boondoggle of AB 864.


We also know that the CPUC had separated out solar funding from the SGIP into the Solar Initiative in 2006 effective January 1, 2007, yet Mr. Huffman told me in the phone call that under his bill the cement manufacturer would have intended to install wind or solar on their site and would have been enticed to remain manufacturing in California.   My concern with Huffman’s statement in the call to me is that If solar was not eligible under the SGIP how would doubling the size of the projects under the SGIP as proposed in AB 864 have given the cement manufacturer any incentive to install solar cells? 

Remember that in February 2011 when Assemblyman Huffman sponsored the bill, solar was already moved out of the SGIP into the California Solar Initiative (CSI).   For the sake of clarity I am repeating that AB 864 was introduced on Feb 17 2011 and passed the Assembly in its third reading on May 19 2011



The CSI was started in 2007.  The PUC issued 06-01-047 on Jan 12 2006 to move all solar out of the SGIP by Jan 1 2007 and into the CSI..


Note the following is taken directly from the bill that Assemblyman Huffman sponsored  in Section 1 (2) of AB 864

(2) The commission shall administer solar technologies separately,
pursuant to the California Solar Initiative adopted by the
commission in Decision 06-01-024.

I have to think Mr. Huffman is either not very intelligent, is suffering from dementia, or tried to mislead me in the call he made to me in saying the cement plant could use a large solar power station under his job saving bill, when he wrote in his own language in his bill that he knew full well that solar technologies were administered separately from the bill.

Yes either Mr. Huffman had forgotten by the late afternoon of June 2, 2014 that Solar had been removed from the SGIP program, or he intentionally misled me in the call he made to me about his motivations for sponsoring the bill.  I do not believe he had forgotten.  If he intentionally misled me during the phone call, his claims that AT&T and Bloom had nothing to do with his legislation that included fuel cells is also a possible untruth that should be investigated. 

If indeed Mr. Huffman misled me on purpose then I believe he is not fit for the office of my US Representative.    Hopefully the investigation should be thorough and take longer than the four hours Mr. Huffman did not want to spend learning Thermodynamics from me.  In this investigation we will learn the truth about Mr. Huffman’s real motivations for sponsoring AB 864.

Returning to the timing of AB 864 it is interesting that in July 2011 AT&T announced they had partnered with Bloom Energy.  In August 2011 the bill was dead.

According to Mr. Huffman his largest individual contributor, AT&T, did not speak to him about the SGIP and AB 864 while it was in passage, yet at the very same time AT&T and Bloom announced their “partnership”.    This is disturbing.

Mr. Huffman I did not just fall off of a turnip truck.  I believe you misled me about the cement manufacturer’s desire to install a massive solar plant and how AB 864 was going to keep that manufacturer in the Golden State.  Mr. Huffman you had to know your language in your bill stated that solar was administered under a separate program. 

The BLOOMDOGGLE should be the major part of the debate between you and the other candidate seeking the office of Congressman for the Second District of California.   As for me I am now more convinced than ever that Mr. Huffman played a pivotal role in the BLOOMDOGGLE under the SGIP and that Mr. Huffman has to answer all the citizens in the Second Congressional District of California how he sold us down the “green river” that has cost us over a quarter billion dollars just to fund Bloom Boxes his friends at AT&T have benefitted from. 

Yes Mr. Huffman you were correct about the main point in your phone call, you are probably going to regret having made the call.