The Last Laugh: CFL Bulbs don't last as long as predicted

Compact Florescent Light bulbs (CFL) don't last as long as originally expected. When they first came out they were supposed to last 9.4 years and now studies have shown that is closer to 6.3 years...more than a 33% difference, nice.

Well at least CA didn't jump the gun and force people to use something that isn't as good as we first believed it to be;

California's utilities are spending $548 million over seven years to subsidize consumer purchases of compact fluorescent lamps. But the benefits are turning out to be less than expected.

One reason is that bulbs have gotten so cheap that Californians buy more than they need and sock them away for future use. Another reason is that the bulbs are burning out faster than expected.

hmmm...that sounds like my dad. He has so many freakin CFL bulbs it's actually quiet funny. And he looks for them when they are on sale for $1 and buys about $20 worth.

Well at least we are saving money...

As a result of these and other adjustments, energy savings attributed to PG&E were pegged at 451.6 million kilowatt hours by regulators, or 73% less than the 1.7 billion kilowatt hours projected by PG&E for the 2006-2008 program.

For the 2006-2008 program, utilities said they achieved energy savings from all their energy efficiency programs that were 151% of the goal set by regulators. But the commission's staff, armed with exhaustive studies, said utilities saved only 62% of the goal amount, hurt by the bulbs.

Nevertheless, anxious to move on to the current 2010-2012 program, the commission last month gave the utilities $68 million of rewards, on top of $143.7 million of incentive pay previously awarded. PG&E pocketed $104 million total.

So let me get this straight, even though PG&E hit only 62% of its goal, they still received $104 million? No wonder CA is broke.

Venting the Anger: California's Taxes

So I was reading an article on the Sacramento Bee's website today about California's tax increases from last year. Turns out that nearly half of the Union (24 states) raised taxes last year. This in itself is counter-intuitive because in a recession people are trying to save money, not give more of it away to the states or federal governments.

The NCSL report, which may be purchased here, found that in the 24 states that did boost their taxes by more than 1 percent, the average was 3.7 percent of the previous year's tax collections. California's boost was more than 10 percent.

If you didn't catch that, CA took in 10% more taxes this year compared to last year and we still face a $20 billion deficit. How does that make sense? Where is this money going to? When our outgoing speaker gives raises to her staff, no one in the local media said a word. When our current speaker gave his staff raises, including a $65,000 raise to one staffer, no one said anything. Maybe it's because the local media spends a whole 22 seconds during a 30 minute broadcast talking about local government.

It's pathetic that no one calls these people out for what they are doing. How about the wasted money in death row? Richard Ramirez (the night stalker) was convicted in 1989 for 13 murders. He was sentenced to death. Why is it that his first appeal didn't reach the CA supreme court until 2002?

The rest of the prison system? Illegals? From the L.A. Times

In fiscal year 2009-10, California expects to spend about $834 million to incarcerate 19,000 illegal immigrants in the state's prisons. In Los Angeles County, illegal immigrants add between $370 million and $550 million annually to criminal justice costs, including prosecution, defense, probation and jails, according to Supervisor Mike Antonovich.

Almost a billion dollars for people that don't even belong here.

How much per prisoner do we spend? $47,000!!!!

I don't get it. How bad is our state? And why do these people keep getting re-elected?

Why am I so mad? I did my state taxes and saw a swing of $1500 this year. How does it swing that much in one year?