Posted on 05/03/2009 6:34:39 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
My son and I went to AT&T Park today to watch the Giants play the Colorado Rockies. It was pretty rainy driving up and I thought the game might be cancelled which would a pretty rare event for San Francisco in May. As we entered the park, we received free ball caps to commemorate "Solar Day," sponsored by PG&E. Before the game started, PG&E ran a commercial on huge TV screen extolling the virtues of solar and how wonderful the PG&E company is because of their efforts to build a solar-powered baseball park, a solar powered utility and a solar powered city. They even did an interview with a man who retrofitted solar panels to his 110 year old Victorian home near the ballpark and who naturally gushed about the wonders of this clean and cheap power source.
I expected the 35,000 people at the park to erupt in cheers and screams of delight during this solar pageant. But I was shocked to observe that nobody was paying attention. No cheers, no clapping, no derision of fossil fuels -- nothing. Nobody cared. Not one whit! In the middle of the most liberal utopia in the country -- nothing! No reverence, no awe, no respect, no worship and no praise.
I was dumfounded and shocked.
I can't wait to see their faces when Cap And Tax gets passed.
Sounds like folks were there to watch the game and didn’t want any green preachin.
This is what gets me, PG&E has been bragging about their solar exploits since the early ‘80s, with some solar farm out in the Mojave.
But where are the results? Most of the dudes who were promoting that stuff then are long gone.
It looks like someone decided to dig into the old PR books and recycle the material.
Oh, and lest I forget that retrofit idea is sure to cost multiple thousands of dollars even with the tax credits.
I seriously looked at it for my office, which generates bills of 600-700 per month in the summer and over 300 in the winter, and the numbers simply weren’t there.
I am offended that “Lunar Day” is not part of the Giants liberal itinerary.
So how was the game?
I have noticed in recent years at sporting events, that the scoreboard and PA system seem to be blasting ads and other announcements every spare second when the game isn’t in progress. I wonder if people start to tune it all out, sort of like a lot of us tune out TV commercials when we’re watching TV. I’m sure the good liberals of SF are all in favor of solar energy and expanding it. But maybe they just are oblivious because the scoreboard and PA system are always shouting and blinking at us nowadays.
The Merc this week had an article about some local guy in Silicon Valley who put in a $100,000 solar system at his house. The article gushed about the $40,000 tax credit from our totally bankrupt federal government and the $30,000 tax credit from our totally bankrupt state government and how he only had to pay $30,000. The illiterate “journalist” obviously thought the true cost of the system was only the $30,000 that the homeowner had to pay, not the horrendous misallocation of capital the other $70,000 represents and how it would have been used for much more productive and beneficial uses if the governments had not decided to throw it away on solar. Even after all the tax credits, I think it is still going to take Joe Homeowner only 15 or 20 years to payback the system. What a joke! The economics of these systems are horrendous. And no amount of liberal dreamy argument that it will become economic when it reaches high production volumes will ever overcome the true economic laws at work here — it just plain costs too much and no amount of R&D is going to solve that.
I forgot to mention in my post that there was virtually no “solar” on Solar Day! We were socked in and drizzly for most of the game. I thought that was really sweet!
And PG&E conveniently forgets to mention all the horrendous pollution resulting from the production of solar cells in other countries.
Game was great! Giants won in the bottom of the 10th with a single by Rich Aurelia, breaking a 0 - 0 tie. Zito pitched about a 3 hitter through the seventh when he was yanked, but poor guy didn’t get the win because it was still 0 - 0 at that point. Saw some great defensive plays, but very little offense today.
Glad to see Zito earning his keep on his $126 MILLION contract with the Giants.
A friend gave me Field Club seats right behind home plate in row 16! What great seats!.
I tend to agree about tuning out all the non-stop audio and visual blitz and barrage. But get this...
A beautiful little 3 year old girl (yes, 3!) sang Take Me Out to the Ball Game during 7th inning stretch while in her Dad’s arms. They showed her singing the entire song on the big TV in center field. The crowd gave her an incredible round of applause! It was so sweet to see.
So the crowds respond to the right things on the TV and audio systems. I guess the preachy solar message was a stinker, even in San Fran. There may be hope, even here.
The staggeringly stupid “Make Some Noise” and “Get on Your Feet” demands to the crowd are usually ignored.
PG&E in on carbon trading scam? Are the with GE in the hope of Obamacontracts?
Tigers played a good game today with Justin Verlander settling in with 11 strikeouts against the Indians. Verlander also pitched out of a no outs bases loaded jam.
The AL Central is tied up in knots as usual with all teams within a half dozen games of the lead.
Unfortunately so. They’ve totally caved to the California Energy COmmission and have pledged to make something like 1/3 of their power from renewables in 20 years. We can’t import coal power from other states, either.
And they really play to their lib Bay Area Base. Latest —> www.wecandothis.com
Previously, http://letsgreenthiscity.com/ which now seems to be broken. Both right up there with Chevron’s incredibly stupid www.willyoujoinus.com/ where you get to pledge you will stop buying their products.
I wish companies would return to the basics — producing and delivering to consumers a reliable, low-cost product. I hate it when they align with the devil and tell us how evil they are and spend our money on ad campaigns convincing us to stop buying their products. That whole schtick so perverts capitalism that it makes my blood boil.
Wow, 11 Ks! That’s impressive. I think Zito only had 4.
I also learned a new baseball term today.
“Adam’s disease”: Everytime he makes contact with the ball it goes right at em.
It was being used to explain the low batting average for Carlos Guillén. He’s making contact as much as ever but not getting on base.
Besides that, I think the Merc may have had some of their numbers wrong...from my experience, the 30 grand net figure seems low. My office is 1800 square feet, and I was looking at more like 60 Grand net.
Don’t make no sense, no how.
Not to mention the “misallocation” thingy.
Don’t know about that, but I’m sure PG&E figures to get theirs somehow, someway.
So sorry to hear this. I corporations they get out of politics soon, too. Fascism is not all it’s cracked up to be.
No comment on the irony of “Solar Day” threatening to be rained-out?
What IS the insolation when the sky is completely overcast, btw?
OK, there it was, in reply no. 8.
My bad.
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