George Rebane

This was to be my bi-weekly KVMR commentary to be aired last night.  After recording it, I have asked Paul Emery to pull it because its inclusion of Steve Frisch by name could launch another round of ‘equal time’ broadcasts that threaten to subsume the important Prop23 issue into a seeming personal matter between Steve and me.  While I still intend to address Steve’s support of AB32 and opposition to Prop23 in detail (starting here), I consider the better venue for that is within the pages of RR and other blogs that care to participate in this debate.  I also consider Steve Frisch to be an erudite exemplar of the left’s efforts to remake California into a well-regulated socialist template, that by example can be replicated across this land.  And therefore addressing his arguments is important not only for setting the record straight, but also for understanding the progressive mind which may soon come to rule us all.

In the greater context, this piece is another appeal to the Nevada County Supervisors to take a public stand on Prop23, and in the process explain to us all what they perceive the impact of AB32 on our local economy.  They are charged with understanding such measures to a greater degree than the rank and file voter who look to their political leadership for counsel on deciding how to vote on imporant matters such as Prop23.  The least we all deserve from our Supervisors is to know their sense of this issue – good or bad for us? or to admit that even they can’t figure what the hell is going on.  Whatever it is, we deserve more than the answer we would get from asking faces drawn on five two-by-fours.

This morning John Spencer, Supervisor District #3, wrote a piece for The Union (here) laying out a pretty vanilla characterization of the AB32P23 situation.  It was so ‘balanced’ that it made no mention of the big government railroad that CARB has put AB32 implementation on by basing its regulations on the reports of a discredited ‘scholar’, ignoring California’s own Legislative Analyst's Office output, and then seeking concurrence from  the prestigious Charles River Associates.  When CRA also disagreed with CARB’s internal propaganda that would guarantee its growth and power, CARB simply ignored CRA and swept its damning conclusions under the rug.

I count John Spencer among my friends and am an unabashed supporter of his.  But friends can disagree, and I do disagree with John’s uninspired position on this entire issue.  I continue to urge him and his colleagues on the Board to seriously reconsider the impact of their impending silence on Proposition 23.

The transcript of this un-aired commentary follows –

Last Wednesday evening KVMR’s news director Paul Emery moderated a discussion of the controversial California global warming law AB32, and Proposition 23, the initiative on November’s ballot that would suspend the part of AB32 not yet implemented until unemployment again returned to 5.5%.  Discussing the issues surrounding these measures with me was Steven Frisch, president and CEO of the Sierra Business Council, an environmentally oriented non-governmental organization or NGO.

On that program I pointed out that his non-profit NGO receives the overwhelming portion of its funding through government and institutional grant monies.  Moreover, that the full implementation of AB32 would be of direct financial benefit to SBC, and to Mr Frisch as its salaried director.  In short, Mr Frisch was there promoting not only what he presumably believed, but was also there, in every sense of the word, as a professional lobbyist for that legislation.  

This allowed the listener to differentiate him from me as a retired private citizen with nothing more to gain from the passage of Prop23, than the general wellbeing of California’s economy.  Mr Frisch, of course, argued the diametrically opposite position which gave purpose, if not meaning, to the discussion.  Through the lens of some special ethic, I have been taken to task by the left, including Mr Frisch, for daring to make that revelation on the air.  Their point being that Mr Frisch should have been allowed to pass off to the listener as just another private citizen with deeply held opposing views and gains similar to mine.

During the course of the program, it was clear that Mr Frisch’s and my views concerning the impact of AB32 on California were wide afield from each other.  I believe that almost every claim Mr Frisch made concerning the issue was in error, and I will be addressing these in future commentaries and on my blog between now and November.  But one point that we both seemed to agree on was that AB32 implementation would have a significant impact on every corner of California including Nevada County.

It is for this reason that many of us, mostly of the conservative bent, have been urging the county’s Board of Supervisors to take a public stance on Prop23.  And in this stance let us know how they see AB32 impacting our local economy, and how that impact will advise and inform their future actions in our behalf.  In short, assume and exercise the leadership positions into which they all were elected.

For reasons too time consuming to cover here, the left wants the Board of Supervisors to remain silent on Prop23, in short, to duck this important issue.  Mr Frisch even attempted to give them cover by citing a resolution the Board had supposedly taken some years back to not comment on pending legislation, and that now the Board was just hewing to its previously declared position.  Here again Mr Frisch was in error – the Board has taken no such position and there exists no resolution to that effect.

What the Board has done is to avoid public discussion and positions on issues they consider irrelevant to their jurisdiction here in Nevada County – issues like, say, gay marriage or the building of a mosque at Ground Zero.  I applaud that stance.  But what I strongly disagree with is the notion that Prop23, and by extension AB32, is somehow “irrelevant to Nevada County”.  That is patently absurd, and I urge the Board of Supervisors to make known to us our county government’s assessment of the most important state law since Prop13, the property tax initiative.  It would boggle the mind to hear them pronounce this issue irrelevant to our community.  But in any event, we deserve to know where our county government stands on Proposition 23.

I am George Rebane and I also expand on these and other issues in my Union columns, on NCTV, and on georgerebane.com where this transcript appears.  These opinions are not necessarily shared by KVMR.  Thank you for listening.