Free Republic

The 1,400-page cap-and-trade legislation pushed through by House Democrats contains a new federal policy that residential, commercial, and government buildings be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency, leaving it up to the states to figure out exactly how to do that. This means that homeowners, for example, could be required to retrofit their homes to meet federal “green” guidelines in order to sell their homes, if the cap-and-trade bill becomes law. The bill, which now goes to the Senate, directs the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop and implement a national policy for residential and commercial buildings. The...

SACRAMENTO – Gil Moore has been steadily selling off his gas stations across the state, unwilling to risk hefty fines or shutdown orders for not replacing old nozzles that release unhealthy toxins with every gallon pumped. “What a nightmare,” said Moore, who has sold about two dozen stations in the San Diego area and may shed another three amid the additional costs in a tough economy. Moore is one of many gas station owners in California dreading Wednesday – a long-standing state deadline for retrofitting pumps with technology that's cleaner, but more expensive.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Monday he would appoint an auditor to look into why the cost of the seven-bridge Toll Bridge Seismic Retrofit Program has grown from $2.6 billion to $7.4 billion. The program was created to fix the state's toll bridges that were most vulnerable to earthquakes. The Bay Bridge, which links San Francisco and Oakland, is the main part of the program, which includes five bridges in northern California and two in the south. The Bay Bridge was damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, but has yet to be fully repaired. Its costs have...