What the Oroville Dam Spillway Fail Says About California's Priorities

About 200,000 people near the Oroville Dam were evacuated as the nation watched to see if hundreds of homes and businesses would be destroyed in a full breach of the dam's emergency spillway.   In the meantime, we find out that there were past warnings that it was unsafe.  According to a story in the Washington Post, the fix to keep the spillway safe would have cost about $100 million 11 years ago.  But, the State of California had other priorities.

Instead of taking care of its huge infrastructure problems, the state opted to build a high-speed bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco.   The original cost projection for that was $98.5 billion. Already, the easiest part of the "build" -- the Central Valley -- is seeing a 50% cost overrun (as being reported by the LA Times).  To put the original cost of the bullet train into perspective; it is more than 1000 times the money needed to fix the spillway.  By one estimate, California will have to spend $500 billion dollars over the next 2 decades to fix, expand, and maintain the State's infrastructure.

Instead, the priority was to build a bullet train to save the world from climate change, by getting cars off the roads and planes out of the air; even though some studies have concluded that the impact on climate change will be negligible. In the meantime, thousands of people are left at risk in Oroville. How many more are at risk from unfunded infrastructure hazards in California because of "climate change" projects like a bullet train?

References:

The government was warned that the Oroville Dam emergency spillway was unsafe. It didn’t listen: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2017/02/13/officials-were-warned-the-oroville-dam-emergency-spillway-wasnt-safe-they-didnt-listen/?utm_term=.2812180ddd0c

Taking California's bullet train to a greener future - LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kelly-california-high-speed-rail-20140129-story.html

High Speed Rail Won't Impact Climate Change - California Policy Center: http://californiapolicycenter.org/high-speed-rail-wont-impact-climate-change/

California's Bullet Train to Cost $98.5 Billion: What Else That Can Buy: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Californias-Bullet-Train-to-Cost-985-Billion-What-Else-That-Can-Buy-133041823.html

California's bullet train is hurtling toward a multibillion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-bullet-cost-overruns-20170106-story.html

California’s Crumbling Infrastructure: An Urgent Priority: http://www.westerncity.com/Western-City/February-2014/PresMsg-CA-Crumbling-Infrastructure/

Shocking rain damage is wakeup call to fix ailing roads, infrastructure, experts say: http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20170218/shocking-rain-damage-is-wakeup-call-to-fix-ailing-roads-infrastructure-experts-say 

Except For U.S., Global Warming Compliance Is Cooling Down

President Obama, Al Gore, and many others such as billionaire Democrat Tom Steyer, would have us believe that we need to do more to fight global warming.  They like to claim that 97% of scientists "agree" that climate change is man-caused and needs to be controlled.  However, that theory is based on only 79 scientists who responded to an online poll in 2009.  But, when it comes to priorities Americans wants our government to tackle, climate change finds itself just one-up from the bottom:

With none of the doomsday predictions coming true, it is becoming increasing difficult for Americans and others around the world to believe that fighting global warming is worthwhile.

Just last week, Australia became the first industrialized country to dump its emission tax; and, South Korea seems poised to delay its 2015 implementation of their carbon taxation system.  Both of these countries may just be the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to cooling attitudes on global warming.  For example, earlier this year, the European Union signaled that it may relax its compliance with its own carbon reducing mandates.

So this begs the question.  Why is President Obama so hell-bent on controlling carbon when the rest of the world seems to be going in the opposite direction?  Controlling carbon is not a go-it-alone option.  Even if we reduced all of our emissions, the rest of the world would easily make up for it with their increased activity.  This is especially true when you look at the massively increasing carbon output of countries such as India and China as they attempt to become more affluent.

The simple fact is that many are no longer buying into the climate change hysteria and wildly predicted disasters that just aren't happening.  Apparently, the alarmists have never heard about "Chicken Little".  And, in this country, we have a President who is now siding with a minority by still treating climate change as a national priority.

References:

The Myth of the Climate Change '97%' - Wall Street Journal: https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Myth+of+the+Climate+Change+%2797%25%27&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=sb

Australia abolishes tax on carbon emissions: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d852822a-0d67-11e4-bcb2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz37vNhvKsL

S.Korean finmin says planned carbon market flawed, wants delay -paper: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL6N0PT3CZ20140718

Europe, Facing Economic Pain, May Ease Climate Rules: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/business/international/european-union-lowers-ambitions-on-renewable-energy.html?_r=0

Obama and the Democrat's Priorities Are Out Of Step With America's

Every year, Pew Research conducts a poll to determine what America thinks the nation's priorities should be. The result of this year's poll are as follows:

At the very top, the economy, jobs, terrorism, education, and social security are what American's are most concerned about.  Yet, we have a President who seems to think he's done a good job on the economy, jobs, and terrorism; and, at the same time, completely ignores any meaningful programs to fix our broken education system.  It is interesting to see that there really hasn't been any significant drops in either the economy or jobs as priorities since the President took office in 2009.  I guess that's why, in other polls, many Americans still think we are in a recession.

But, what's more disturbing, is that many of Obama's  priorities -- global warming, infrastructure,  immigration, and income inequality (dealing with the poor) -- are either at the bottom or, in the case of income inequality, are in the bottom half of this year's list.

All too often Obama and the Democrats claim they are more in sync with what Americans need or want.  If that was really true, the Pew poll would be just the inverse of what it really is.