AP: Gov. Jerry Brown used state officials to research oil access on family property

Hotair ^ | 11/06/2015 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

California is at the beginning of a $100 billion project to run a medium-speed electrical train along and over the the San Andreas Fault in large part to give travelers an option to get from LA to Frisco without feeling guilty about global warming. Airplanes, which make the trip more quickly and with far less government subsidies, use fossil fuels — and Governor Jerry Brown and the state of California don’t like fossil fuels. That is, they don’t like them unless Jerry Brown can find some under his family’s property … and the Associated Press reports that Brown used state resources to do some prospecting on the ol’ homestead:

Gov. Jerry Brown last year directed state oil and gas regulators to research, map and report back on any mining and oil drilling potential and history at the Brown family’s private land in Northern California.

After a phone call from the governor and follow-up requests from his aides, senior staffers in the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency over at least two days produced a 51-page historical report and geological assessment, plus a personalized satellite-imaged geological and oil and gas drilling map for the area around Brown’s family ranchland near the town of Williams. …

Brown spokesman Evan Westrup declined to discuss the work for the governor, referring the AP to California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. That agency said the work was a legal and proper use of public resources — and no more than the general public would get. But oil industry experts said they could not recall a similar example of anyone getting that kind of state work done for private property.

As the AP reports, California has legal prohibitions against officials using state resources for private interests. Unless Brown intended to turn his family property over to the state, how exactly does this not constitute a violation of those restrictions? The agency says this is a normal function of its operations, but others in the industry say OGGR went way beyond their usual customer service for Brown:

Assessing a private property’s oil and gas and mineral potential is not something that state regulators typically do, one oil industry executive said. “There’s no evaluation. That’s not a service they provide at all,” said Rick Peace, president of a Bakersfield, California, company that helps manage oil exploration and production.

Roland Bain, a petroleum geologist based in Northern California, said he was struck by the report’s “beautiful map.” It was labeled “Oil and Gas Potential In West Colusa County,” and the PDF said “JB_Ranch.”

“Anyone calling in for help is not going to get that,” Bain said. “The division of oil and gas has never been in a position to give you detailed geological mapping.”

Doug Powers at the Boss Emeritus’ site calls Brown an eco-hyopcrite, and not without justification. Brown has actually tried to boost California’s oil business too, as the AP’s story notes, but often lectures on climate change and the need to fight it like World War II. Last month, Brown signed a law that will require half of California’s electricity to come from renewables by 2030, which prompts the question of what Brown wanted to do with any oil he might have found on his property anyway. Maybe he was hoping to sell it off before the end of 2029, which is only fourteen years away. The extra cash would have been nice, since the law is widely expected to double electricity rates as 61.2% of the state’s 2014 production came from natural gas, and another 8% from two nuclear-power plants, one of which (San Onofre) has been shut down.

Regardless, other private citizens would have to pay significant costs for the kind of geological analysis Brown got as a perk. Brown should fully reimburse the state for his conversion of public resources for private benefit, and should apologize for his actions — and maybe consider getting out of public service altogether. I hear there’s a nice ranch in West Colusa County where few people will bother an old politico who’s lived off the public long enough.

[eyeamok]

PENAL CODE
SECTION 503-515

ARREST AND PROSECUTE

503. Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a
person to whom it has been intrusted.

504. Every officer of this state, or of any county, city, city and
county, or other municipal corporation or subdivision thereof, and
every deputy, clerk, or servant of that officer, and every officer,
director, trustee, clerk, servant, or agent of any association,
society, or corporation (public or private), who fraudulently
appropriates to any use or purpose not in the due and lawful
execution of that person’s trust, any property in his or her
possession or under his or her control by virtue of that trust, or
secretes it with a fraudulent intent to appropriate it to that use or
purpose, is guilty of embezzlement.

508. Every clerk, agent, or servant of any person who fraudulently
appropriates to his own use, or secretes with a fraudulent intent to
appropriate to his own use, any property of another which has come
into his control or care by virtue of his employment as such clerk,
agent, or servant, is guilty of embezzlement.

514. Every person guilty of embezzlement is punishable in the
manner prescribed for theft of property of the value or kind
embezzled; and where the property embezzled is an evidence of debt or
right of action, the sum due upon it or secured to be paid by it
must be taken as its value; if the embezzlement or defalcation is of
the public funds of the United States, or of this state, or of any
county or municipality within this state, the offense is a felony,
and is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison; and the person
so convicted is ineligible thereafter to any office of honor, trust,
or profit in this state.

[doug from upland]

You beat me with the post. This is absolutely theft of public resources by a government official.

[eyeamok]

Maybe you could come up with a cute limerick, reminding us of the George Putnam days

[Duke of Milan]

This is just like Hillary and the documented felonies she has committed against the NDA revealed in the Beacon today. These people consider the ‘government’ to be their personal kingdom and their ‘personal’ resources. Brown/Hillary don’t care one wit what people think, they don’t try to hide, they flaunt it — and that’s because it’s fine with half the people in this country since they’re just like them.

[doug from upland]

Guv Moonbeam should make your blood boil
For free he made state workers toil
What he’s hoping to hear
Is exceeding clear
Eureka! Sir, we have found oil

I think George would have liked this. I had the opportunity to be in studio with him three times. He allowed me to give ordering instructions for my two Clinton limerick books.

[TBP]

This is perfectly OK. He’s a Dhimmicrap.

[paratrooper82]

Socialist never tire of spending other peoples money - Margaret Thatcher

[NormsRevenge]

McMoonbeam’s ranch. E I E I O

And on that ranch he had some oil

E I E I O

So he asked state employees to tell him how much

E I E I O

[eyeamok]

Very Good, now let’s make it a FELONY for ANY Public Servant to “profit” on ANY and ALL “Carbon” based “Energy” in perpetuity.