Be good on most things but make sure you "kick the hippie" on something to draw in the people who aren't going to vote for you anyway.

Gov. Moonbeam seems to have lost his shine...

Wait... they don't walk to all these protests??? They ride in fossil fueled vehicles, post on the internet on fossil fueled computers, etc., etc.???

California is probably one of the toughest places in the world to drill for fossil fuels, environmental regulation wise.

I confess, I'm a hypocrite. I still use fossil fuels. My wife and I have managed to avoid commuting since the mid-'eighties, we live in a very mild climate so our heating bills are low, and we don't need air conditioning. But we still use electricity, gasoline, and natural gas.

I'd rather get fossil fuel products locally than from someplace where environmental regulations are lax or non-existent, from someplace the local people suffer all the destructive consequences and enjoy none of the benefits.

I express my loathing of automobiles quite frequently. Even so, even though my wife and I have managed to avoid commuting, we haven't been able to do without automobiles. A culture without automobiles would look very different than the society we have now.

Until we achieve that culture in California it's better we live with the consequences of our own fracking than dump the environmental problems on someone else and simply import the fossil fuels.

They might use internal combustion vehicles in 2013 California, therefore they are wrong, wrong, unless they want to frack, frack 'til it's all a poisoned wasteland (which will take less than 20 years, to deplete this most idiotic of all energy sources, which has basically been set up as a bubble for quick hyperprofits).

This argument is the same one right-wingers use to justify wars of aggression in the Middle East. Basically, it's good for anything. If you're even breathing, you're probably living off capitalism and its energy system in some fashion. Hence: Shut up!

By the way, just for the lulz, illustrate to me how fracking makes gas for your car.

there are more oil derricks doing their best in the central valley westside, more oil industry on the south end around Bakersfield's polluted skies, and oil wells RIGHT in the middle of grape vineyards near small towns near Fresno.
Wells that overflow into the vineyards when things go wrong. Ive seen it.
Environmental what?
Charade, thats what.
Always good to hear the conservative side though.
Especially when it is transparent and patently false.
thats a good thing to see and point out.

My wife's parents live in the Sierra foothills, and my parents used to live there, before they fled civilization for a place in the rain forest I've never seen because I can't afford to get there. We live on the other side of the valley.

It's crazy. And it's hard to imagine that in spite of all this activity, California still imports oil and natural gas.

Most gasoline and diesel fuel used in California hasn't been distilled from sweet crude for many decades.

Modern fuels are essentially synthetic products. The "refineries" that produce these fuels are chemical manufacturing plants that require large inputs of electricity and natural gas.

The entire MTBE fiasco was an early effort to add natural gas products to gasoline.

Gasoline and diesel fuel are already manufactured in some parts of the world using natural gas as the only feedstock. The tar sand mines in Alberta are fueled by natural gas, and the tar is converted to gasoline and diesel fuel using natural gas and electricity.

"Peak" oil has happened, we just got really good at replacing it with natural gas and tar.

I agree the surge of natural gas production is a bubble. The people who are making the big money now will be long gone when the natural gas stops flowing and it's time to deal with the mess.