Politics dim solar panel initiatives

The Democratic Legislature just couldn't help itself and decided it would rather embarass Governor Schwarzenegger than do anything for the environment or the State's energy supplies:

Senate Bill 1, the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, began as a top priority for Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including an Irvine state senator.

It passed the Senate on a 30-5 vote in June, and a poll found 76 percent of Californians supported the plan in July. But in August, something went wrong.

Shortly before midnight Thursday, as the 2005 session of the Legislature was coming to a close, Levine and del Chiaro met one last time in the hall outside the Assembly chambers. They began shouting. Levine's aide pulled him back. Del Chiaro left in tears.

Lawmakers passed hundreds of bills before adjourning for 2005 last week. They passed a $118 billion budget close to deadline for the first time in five years. They passed a "car buyers bill of rights." They toughened sex-offender laws.

But they couldn't make the solar-roofs initiative happen.

BoiFromTroy makes some interesting observations about this bill talking on New York radio about, of all things, gay marriage.