Posted on 02/03/2011 12:31:05 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Reporting from Sacramento — California electricity users have paid $700 million in surcharges for research on clean and efficient energy production, but not all of the money may have been well spent and the program should be overhauled or killed, state officials say in a new report.
Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor has concluded .. about 10% of the money collected by the California Energy Commission was spent on research not directly related to the purpose of the surcharges.
Questionable grants .. research on deforestation, salmon habitat restoration and "the potential impact of climate change on bird distribution," ..
...
The evaluation was requested by state Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who as chairman of the Senate Energy Committee is considering whether to support an extension of the fee when it expires next year.
...
"The Energy Commission has a lot of explaining to do before we can go to the public in good faith and say we should continue this surcharge," Padilla said.
An Energy Commission spokeswoman declined to comment, saying her office had not yet seen the report.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Bird distribution *-?
Misappropriation of funds or what?
In other words it was nothing but a $700M piñata for the usual California enviro-wackos to feast on. I would imagine quite a lot of it made its way into the coffers of the California Democrat party, but we’ll never know.
once the camel gets its nose in the tent,, you can kiss your candy and grapes goodbye..
1/3 of the budgets at state and federal levels are eaten up by waste, fraud and corruption.. or it used to be, probably more now..
and then ya got a group of folk just looking for ways to blow some more.. a good wad of spit is in the path of their wastrel ways.
“overhauled or killed.”
Killed sounds good.
Useless, government subsidized make-work for lying leftists.
Whoever could have predicted that this would be what was funded by a “green energy” surcharge?
Killed sounds good.
Here's another vote for killed.
Delenda Est
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.