For you non-compass adventurers and challenged map readers, a 360 degree format is used for navigation, setting North as ZERO/0 degrees. Quick references are 90 degrees at EAST, 180 degrees is SOUTH, 270 degrees is WEST.
First map above references Ensenada sunrise(117 degrees) and sunset(243 degrees) on shortest day of the year, 21 December. Note that December Ens set is just south of Islas de Todos Santos from Ens centro.
Second map above shows June 21 Ensenada sun positions. June Ens set is north of Salsipuedes/km 84 Mirador
This third shot shows the combination map of length of days in winter vs summer. There is a 55 degree difference in both sunrises and sunsets on those longest and shortest days.
That huge difference shows why some(me for example) are a bit cranky about winter time change making for early darkness!
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan 5 (Reuters) – A massive Pacific storm unleashed high winds, torrential rains and heavy snow across California for a second day on Thursday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes and disrupting road travel with flash floods, rock slides and toppled trees.
From the National Integrated Drought Information System (I bet you didn’t know that your federal tax dollars went to something like this, did you?)
37.1 million people in California are affected by drought
58 counties with USDA disaster designations
59th driest November was in 2022, over the past 128 years
2nd driest year to date was in 2022, over the past 128 years
We also have 100% electric vehicles in 12 years:
SACRAMENTO – The California Air Resources Board today approved the trailblazing Advanced Clean Cars II rule that sets California on a path to rapidly growing the zero-emission car, pickup truck and SUV market and deliver cleaner air and massive reductions in climate-warming pollution.
The rule establishes a year-by-year roadmap so that by 2035 100% of new cars and light trucks sold in California will be zero-emission vehicles, including plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
The heatwave continues. For eight successive days, California’s independent grid operator (Cal ISO), the body that manages the transmission grid, has issued “Flex Alerts” asking households to voluntarily reduce power use, including not charging EVs between 4:00-9:00 pm.
Top 20 Largest California Wildfires: out of the top twenty, all but two have come in the 21st century. Turning the Whig Theory of history on its head.
So, let’s summarize this: a state with no water cannot handle the rain when it does come; a state with no electricity mandates all cars are to run on electricity; a drought-stricken state that is abysmal when it comes to managing and containing wildfires. Yet, it has plenty of money for this:
On the cost side of the project, if the $100 billion estimate for cost of the Los Angeles to San Francisco phase of the project is taken seriously, that means the remaining portions – Merced to Sacramento and LA to San Diego – will cost an additional $60 billion and require an upping of the power needs discussed above by about 60%.
That $60 billion figure does not take into account the fact that the portion of the line slated to run down the I-15 corridor from Temecula to San Diego will be one of the most expensive.
Which, as everyone already knows, will never be completed and will cost at least double of any number currently advertised.
Yes, I know. We all laugh at states like California, Illinois, and New York. But we are all swimming in the same mud. We are all getting dirty. It just shows a little sooner in some places than in others.
Bajadock: Don’t know how strong these wifi signals are for pulling up your car to catch internet and save your data bank. More than 75% of these in TJ and Ensenada are schools, which is excellent for education. Though my map above does not display these cities, Mexicali, Tecate, Rosarito and San Quintin also have some coverage from CFE system.
Great news is that wifi is readily available in most cafes and restaurants in Northern Baja.
ENSENADA.- “Internet for Everyone” is an open telecommunications project, in charge of the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), which has so far installed the service in 158 places in the municipality.
The purpose of this program is to provide free access to web information for the entire population, especially those living in areas far from the urban sprawl, highlighted the regional director of Development Programs, Ezequiel Gutiérrez Heredia.
In this sense, the official revealed that most of the CFE modems are located in educational centers and federal buildings, in areas of Emiliano Zapata, Francisco Zarco, El Porvenir, Villa de Juárez (San Antonio de las Minas), and Santo Tomás. , in addition to colonies of the port of Ensenada, such as Villas del Prado I and II, Villas del Sol, Lomas de la Presa, Popular 1989, Ruiz Cortines, Las Lomitas, Arcoíris, Gómez Morín, to name a few.
“The Commission has also made available to citizens an interactive map with the locations with free internet coverage, in the link mapa.internetparatodos.cfe.mx , so that they can enjoy this welfare action; Without a doubt, the program will give more opportunities for growth, especially to girls and boys, who will be able to take advantage of it to carry out their tasks and enrich their knowledge”, she expressed.
They have advanced a lot in the entity, and not to mention Ensenada; The CFE will soon give more news, as a result of the efforts that its staff carries out in the environment, “we will be very attentive and will gladly inform you of what arises, because it is clear that such tasks are of interest and add to the well-being of our families”, concluded Gutiérrez Heredia.
1965: On August 30, a moderate tropical storm developed. It slowing intensified, becoming the first hurricane of this season at 1200 UTC August 31. Emily began to weaken while moving northward in the Eastern Pacific. On 0000 UTC time September 3, Emily weakened into a tropical depression. It hit Baja California at the same intensity on September 6. [1] According to one source, Emily was the first potentially hazardous storm in many years to approach Southern California.[4] It approached Southern California while the SEALAB II Project was underway at La Jolla, California. There was concern that waves from Emily would move the Berkone, a support ship for SEALAB, away from the SEALAB site as the project would have to be halted.[4] Rainfall totals reach 1 in (25 mm) in isolated areas.
Forbes.com Hurricanes generally aren’t concerns of Californians. However, there have been some rumblings about whether Hurricane Kay, which recently formed off the western coast of Mexico, could make a run at a California landfall. I have even seen some “social media-rologists” suggesting that it will.
Here’s why it probably will not (but pay attention anyhow).
Predicted track of Hurricane Kay as of Wednesday September 7th, 2022NOAA NHC
The answer involves several meteorological and oceanographic factors.
First off, Hurricane Kay will get close enough to the Baja California peninsula to impact the region. By the way, a quick geography lesson is in order. Baja California is a Mexican state that borders California. NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center has issued alerts noting that rain bands from Kay could cause flash flooding in some parts of Southern California and Arizona into the weekend. Dangerous water conditions (swells, rip currents, and life-threatening surf) are also expected. At the time of writing, hurricane warnings are up for parts of the central Baja California peninsula. The current forecast from the National Hurricane Center suggests that the hurricane will strengthen some on Wednesday before a weakening trend begins on Thursday.
Flash flooding risks from Hurricane KayNOAA WPC
So while the focus for many has been on the relative novelty of Kay potentially approaching the California coastline, my focus has been on potential impacts articulated above. Let’s dig a bit deeper into two aspects of the discussion – Why the hurricane likely will NOT make landfall in California and the novelty aspect.
I spoke with University of South Carolina Geography Professor Cary Mock who is an expert on hurricane climatology. Mock wrote on his social media pages, “Model forecasts right now suggest a upper-level ridge centered over the interior Western USA, which would keep Kay from getting to California and push it westward. S California may get some rain though.”
Atmospheric conditions at 500 mb (roughly the middle of the atmosphere)NOAA VIA COLLEGE OF DUPAGE NEXLAB WEBSITE
Ironically, the area of high pressure Mock is referring to (map above) is also responsible for “off-the-chart” heat in the western U.S. Heat records are being shattered by more the 3 to 5 degrees in many cases (and its September). Relative to the hurricane, the clockwise flow (those circular contours) around the high pressure center is likely a significant player in the “hard left” that Kay is expected to take this weekend. Professor Mock also told me by direct message, “Some rare occasions of California tropical systems, need some help from a trough in the NE Pacific to steer it there. That is missing right now.”
Tropical cyclone tracks. In the Pacific, the data is presented from 1949. In the Atlantic, the data … [+]NOAA
Though very uncommon in the region, Mock noted that tropical systems creeping into the area (map above) are not unprecedented. In 1997, powerful Hurricane Linda was briefly expected to make a beeline for California but turned out to sea. The Los Angeles Times recently documented four storms that came close to Southern California area in 1939, one of which actually made landfall as a Tropical Storm. In his outstanding and thorough piece, Paul Duginski writes, “Storms such as this have been given the name el Cordonazo de San Francisco by fishermen in the villages along the Pacific Coast of Mexico….means “the Lash of St. Francis,” because they occur in the fall, close to the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi.”
Ocean currentsNOAA
Another reasons tropical systems do not thrive off the coast of California is that the waters are typically too cold. If you’ve ever been to the beach on the West Coast and East Coast respectively, you may have noticed that waters are colder out west. The California Current flows equator-ward flowing and transports colder water. By contrast, the Gulf Stream is a poleward flowing current off the East Coast of the U.S. that transports warmer water. These currents are a part of the process of redistribution of excess heat in the Tropics to the heat-starved Polar regions.
UpwellingNOAA FISHERIES
There is also a process called upwelling. NOAA’s Ocean Explorer website explains, “Along a coastline oriented North-South, like much of the west coast of the U.S., winds that blow from the north tend to drive ocean surface currents to the right of the wind direction, thus pushing surface waters offshore.” When the water is pushed offshore, colder, deeper water from below replaces it. While still much cooler than the 80 deg F threshold we often look for in hurricane-breeding grounds, the sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (differences from “normal”) near Southern California (map below) are currently on the warm side of the ledger. The “triple-dip” La Nina is also apparent as cooler than normal temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean.
It is bizarre that I am writing about a hurricane approaching Baja California and 110+ deg F temperatures in the state of California in the same week. Yikes.
Saturday, 14 May, saw a protest march from CEARTE along Blvd Costero to Playa Hermosa municipal beach. The beach has been closed for 2021 and 2022 due to sewage pollution.
Here are the signs that they posted at the beach today:
For 7 days, from May 3 to 9, 66 neighborhoods in the southeast area of the port of Ensenada will be left without water, reported Jaime Alcocer Tello, director of the State Public Services Commission of Ensenada (Cespe).
This, he said, due to the fact that the Aguas de Ensenada company, which operates the water desalination plant, will begin the second stage of the interconnection works of its rejection intake.
He indicated that the works to be carried out are the interconnection of 42-inch high-density polyethylene pipe from the pumping station 200 meters away in the beach area at a depth of eight meters under water.
He added that Cespe has an eventual plan for the supply of water in pipes for the neighborhoods that will be affected, a total of 12 units with a capacity of 10,000 liters, which will work in a distribution schedule from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. :00 hours.
In addition, there will be six transfer tank units with a capacity of 30,000 liters at strategic recharging points.
Inter-agency coordination
He assured that there is coordination and supervision in the works by the Aguas de Ensenada company, the State Water Commission (CEA) and Cespe itself.
A similar suspension was carried out from March 8 to 17 of this year and the affectation in the 66 colonies occurred partially and totally.
Some of the neighborhoods affected with partial lack of water will be: Bahía Ensenada, Buenaventura, Independencia, Aviación, Nuevo Ensenada, Playa Ensenada, Hidalgo, Costa Bella, Costa Azul, Cuauhtémoc, Industrial, Villa Bonita, Ampliación Hidalgo.
Among some of those that will have a total suspension are: May 17, Esperanza, Arcoíris, Villas del Roble, Victoria, Mar I, Lomas del Pedregal, Morelos I and II, Popular 89, San Rafael, Puerto Azul, Gómez Morín and others. plus.
La Niña has been with us all year, and it’s not showing any sign of leaving soon.
The climate pattern is favored to continue through the summer, according to an updated outlook released this week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There’s a 59% chance will stick around through August, and the odds are about even that it will continue past August into the fall (NOAA is giving it a 50-55% chance right now).
La Niña – and its opposite, El Niño – are characterized by the temperature of the Pacific Ocean. But they have major impacts on the weather we experience on land.
La Niña typically brings drier conditions to the southern half of the country and more precipitation to pockets of the northern half. Drought conditions often worsen, and that looks to be the case for most of the West this summer. The only exception is southern Arizona, which may see an active monsoon season.When will La Niña end?
This summer, NOAA is also forecasting above-average rainfall for Florida and for the area surrounding the Ohio Valley, including Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and more (see maps below).
La Niña winters are usually warmer in the South and cooler in the Northern states. When it comes to the summer, NOAA is predicting a hot one for just about everyone. The three-month outlook shows warm weather for all states except the Great Lakes region.
The hottest temperatures are predicted out West, in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.
NOAA’s three-month outlook shows expected conditions for summer 2022 under La Niña. (NOAA)
La Niña also has an impact on hurricane season. It typically weakens storms originating in the Pacific, but leads to stronger hurricanes in the Atlantic.La Niña forecast: NOAA gives update for spring
Hurricane season doesn’t usually peak until late summer, but meteorologists are already predicting a busier-than-average year for 2022. Colorado State University’s hurricane outlook calls for 19 named storms, nine of which they expect to be “major hurricanes.”
Hurricane season in the Atlantic starts June 1 and ends Nov. 30.
Today is Earth Day 2020 and marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, so it’s time for my annual Earth Day post on the spectacularly wrong predictions that were made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970…..
In the May 2000 issue of Reason Magazine, award-winning science correspondent Ronald Bailey wrote an excellent article titled “Earth Day, Then and Now: The planet’s future has never looked better. Here’s why” to provide some historical perspective on the 30th anniversary of Earth Day. In that article, Bailey noted that around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970, and in the years following, there was a “torrent of apocalyptic predictions” and many of those predictions were featured in his Reason article. Well, it’s now the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and a good time to ask the question again that Bailey asked 19 years ago: How accurate were the predictions made around the time of the first Earth Day in 1970? The answer: “The prophets of doom were not simply wrong, but spectacularly wrong,” according to Bailey. Here are 18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around 1970 when the “green holy day” (aka Earth Day) started:
1. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
2. “We are in an environmental crisis that threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment.
3. The day after the first Earth Day, the New York Times editorial page warned, “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
4. “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle. “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
5. “Most of the people who are going to die in the greatest cataclysm in the history of man have already been born,” wrote Paul Ehrlich in a 1969 essay titled “Eco-Catastrophe! “By…[1975] some experts feel that food shortages will have escalated the present level of world hunger and starvation into famines of unbelievable proportions. Other experts, more optimistic, think the ultimate food-population collision will not occur until the decade of the 1980s.”
6. Ehrlich sketched out his most alarmist scenario for the 1970 Earth Day issue of The Progressive, assuring readers that between 1980 and 1989, some 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, would perish in the “Great Die-Off.”
7. “It is already too late to avoid mass starvation,” declared Denis Hayes, the chief organizer for Earth Day, in the Spring 1970 issue of The Living Wilderness.
8. Peter Gunter, a North Texas State University professor, wrote in 1970, “Demographers agree almost unanimously on the following grim timetable: by 1975 widespread famines will begin in India; these will spread by 1990 to include all of India, Pakistan, China, and the Near East, Africa. By the year 2000, or conceivably sooner, South and Central America will exist under famine conditions….By the year 2000, thirty years from now, the entire world, with the exception of Western Europe, North America, and Australia, will be in famine.”
9. In January 1970, Life reported, “Scientists have solid experimental and theoretical evidence to support…the following predictions: In a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution…by 1985 air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half….”
10. Ecologist Kenneth Watt told Time that, “At the present rate of nitrogen buildup, it’s only a matter of time before light will be filtered out of the atmosphere and none of our land will be usable.”
11. Barry Commoner predicted that decaying organic pollutants would use up all of the oxygen in America’s rivers, causing freshwater fish to suffocate.
12. Paul Ehrlich chimed in, predicting in 1970 that “air pollution…is certainly going to take hundreds of thousands of lives in the next few years alone.” Ehrlich sketched a scenario in which 200,000 Americans would die in 1973 during “smog disasters” in New York and Los Angeles.
13. Paul Ehrlich warned in the May 1970 issue of Audubon that DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons “may have substantially reduced the life expectancy of people born since 1945.” Ehrlich warned that Americans born since 1946…now had a life expectancy of only 49 years, and he predicted that if current patterns continued this expectancy would reach 42 years by 1980 when it might level out. (Note: According to the most recent CDC report, life expectancy in the US is 78.6 years).
14. Ecologist Kenneth Watt declared, “By the year 2000 if present trends continue, we will be using up crude oil at such a rate…that there won’t be any more crude oil. You’ll drive up to the pump and say, `Fill ‘er up, buddy,’ and he’ll say, `I am very sorry, there isn’t any.’” (Note: Global production of crude oil last year at 82.275M barrels per day (bpd) was just slightly below the record output in 2018 of 82.9M bpd, and about 50% higher than the global output of 55.7M bpd around the time of the first Earth Day).
15. Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, published a chart in Scientific American that looked at metal reserves and estimated the humanity would totally run out of copper shortly after 2000. Lead, zinc, tin, gold, and silver would be gone before 1990.
16. Sen. Gaylord Nelson wrote in Look that, “Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institute, believes that in 25 years, somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.”
17. In 1975, Paul Ehrlich predicted that “since more than nine-tenths of the original tropical rainforests will be removed in most areas within the next 30 years or so, it is expected that half of the organisms in these areas will vanish with it.”
18. Kenneth Watt warned about a pending Ice Age in a speech. “The world has been chilling sharply for about twenty years,” he declared. “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age.”
MP: Let’s keep those spectacularly wrong predictions from the first Earth Day 1970 in mind when we’re bombarded today with media hype and claims like this from the Earth Day website:
Countless news and opinion writers have connected the coronavirus to our climate crisis (so have we: just look here, here, here and here). And understandably so. Both crises require international cooperation. Both crises require urgent action. And both crises require a drastic departure from business as usual. One of the most striking similarities between climate change and coronavirus, however, is the role of science — and what happens when we ignore it.
The parallels between our response to coronavirus and climate change here are notable. For decades, we’ve known — and at least 97 percent of scientists have agreed — that human-caused climate change is heating the planet. Yet many politicians have either actively ignored or attacked the science backing that knowledge.
This anti-science mindset does not bode well for our current pandemic. The skeptical, wait-and-see attitude that is all too familiar in climate discourse is catastrophic in a pandemic.
Finally, think about this question, posed by Ronald Bailey in 2000: What will Earth look like when Earth Day 60 rolls around in 2030? Bailey predicts a much cleaner, and much richer future world, with less hunger and malnutrition, less poverty, and longer life expectancy, and with lower mineral and metal prices. But he makes one final prediction about Earth Day 2030: “There will be a disproportionately influential group of doomsters predicting that the future–and the present–never looked so bleak.” In other words, the hype, hysteria, and spectacularly wrong apocalyptic predictions will continue, promoted by virtue signaling “environmental grievance hustlers” like AOC, who says we have “only 12 years left to stop the worst impacts of climate change.”
Ensenada, March 4.- During two periods of this same month, the first of nine and the second of seven days, the State Commission of Public Services of Ensenada (Cespe) will suspend the water supply in 66 neighborhoods of Ensenada, with affectation to 25 thousand users or accounts.
The service will be cut for connection and interconnection works of the Aguas de Ensenada company with the desalination plant that would have to supply 250 liters per second and that about 10 months ago delivered almost half, reported the director of Cespe, Jaime Alcocer Tello .
The first cut will be from March 8 to 16 and the next from March 22 to 28, when the plant must be fully operational; During the suspensions, Cespe will deliver water through trucks, the official explained.
At a press conference, the official urged the affected population to prevent themselves by storing water for basic needs and to make responsible use of the resource, as he said that even when they provide the population with pipes, it is not the same as receiving it by pipe.
In the period of nine days the service will be cut completely in 32 colonies:
Morelos I, Morelos II, Esperanza, San Sebastián, May 17 and extension, Márquez de León Extension, Emiliano Zapata, Aguajito, Aguajito Extension, Libertad, Francisco Villa I and II, Montemar, Rosas Magallón, San Rafael, Lomas del Pedregal, Mar I, Villas del Roble, Gómez Morin and Ampliación, Chulavista, Ramos, Loma Bonita, San Luis, Arcoíris, Victoria, Popular 89, Fidue Section, Puesta del Sol I and II and Puerto Azul.
The colonies of the second period, which will have intermittent service, are:
Bahía, Buenaventura, Independencia, Aviation, Ulbrich, Nuevo Ensenada, Playa Ensenada, Ninos Héroes, Hidalgo, Granados, Maestros, Lomitas, Costa Bella, Costa Azul, Cuauhtémoc, California, Hidalgo and extension, Jalisco, Industrial, Villa Bonita, El Terrazas Gallo, Granjas el Gallo, Márquez de León, Reform and expansion, Pro Hogar, Bonifaz, Munguía, Careaga, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, Revolución, Álamo, Popular Housing and Gali Residencial.
They pay him 20 million monthly, without working
Alcocer Tello admitted that Aguas de Ensenada receives a monthly payment of 20 million pesos, although for about 10 months it has not delivered the 250 liters per second that it promised by contract.
The Ensenada Desalination Plant, in whose construction more than 760 million pesos were invested. Photo Edgar Lima / file
It is being paid what corresponds to investment and infrastructure because the contract obliges the parastatal to comply; In parallel, the State Water Commission and the Water Secretariat are analyzing strategies to impose sanctions for non-compliance with the delivery of the service, he explained.
The Ensenada Desalination Plant, in whose construction more than 760 million pesos were invested – 24 percent from the federal government and 76 percent private – was delivered on June 11, 2018 by then President Enrique Peña Nieto and received by the former Governor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid.
Failed from the first days
The company promised that “no later than” the following July 15 it would work in its entirety, but the optimal operation only lasted a few days when it reduced the supply and recently Cespe reported that the delivery was 110 liters per second, so the rest of the supply is carried out through wells.
According to the project initially presented, the desalination plant would start with 250 liters per second, with the option to increase another 250 liters. With the delivery of the first stage, added to other sources of supply, Ensenada would have up to 980 liters per second, which would respond to the demand of Buenos Aires.
The desalination of seawater was chosen due to the overexploitation of the aquifers and that the liquid that was received through the Colorado River-Tijuana-Ensenada aqueduct was insufficient to supply the demand. (with information from Edgar Lima)
The former president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto and the former governor Francisco Vega de Lamadrid, at the delivery of the Ensenada Desalination Plant on June 11, 2018. Photo Edgar Lima / archive
Bajadock: Spent 11 days in Long Beach this month(Oct) and the container ship clog was a hot topic in the breakfast shops and taverns that I visited. Have let this blog sit for a few months. Fixin’ to post a bit.
wattsupwiththat.com
Are California’s Strict Emission Laws Causing US Supply Chain Chaos?
Governor Gavin Newsom just signed an executive order suspending weight limits on trucks servicing Californian ports. But does this order address the real cause of the problem?
Governor Newsom Signs Executive Order to Help Tackle Supply Chain Issues
Published: Oct 20, 2021
Formalizes state agencies’ partnership with the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to address state, national and global supply chain challenges
Directs state agencies to develop longer-term proposals that support port operations and goods movement for consideration in the January 10 Governor’s Budget
SACRAMENTO – Amid global disruptions to the goods movement supply chain, Governor Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order directing state agencies to identify additional ways to alleviate congestion at California ports. The executive order builds on earlier efforts this year by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) to ease supply chain issues by engaging the diverse network of stakeholders along the supply chain to discuss key challenges and identify short-term and long-term solutions. Record demand for imported goods combined with capacity issues across the entire supply chain have slowed distribution at ports on the California coast.
“California’s ports are critical to our local, state and national economies and the state is taking action to support goods movement in the face of global disruptions,” said Governor Newsom. “My administration will continue to work with federal, state, labor and industry partners on innovative solutions to tackle immediate challenges while also bringing our distribution processes into the 21st century.”
Today’s executive order directs state agencies to continue coordinating with the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force to address state, national and global supply chain challenges. The executive order also directs the Department of Finance to work with state agencies to develop longer-term solutions that support port operations and goods movement for consideration in the January 10 Governor’s Budget, which may include port and transportation infrastructure improvements, electrification of the goods movement system from port to delivery, and workforce development.
Additionally, today’s executive order directs state agencies to identify state-owned properties and other locations that could be available to address short-term storage needs once goods are unloaded from ships; to identify priority freight routes to be considered for a temporary exemption to current gross vehicle limits to allow for trucks to carry additional goods; and to create workforce training and education programs. AB 639’s (Cervantes, 2020) implementation is also expedited through this executive order.
Earlier this year, GO-Biz launched the California Supply Chain Success Initiative, a partnership with the California State Transportation Agency, the Port of Long Beach, and the CSU Long Beach Center for International Trade and Transportation to engage the diverse network of stakeholders along the supply chain to discuss key challenges and identify creative solutions. This effort, which brought together federal, state and local leaders, is focused on both short-term and long-term steps to address port congestion, including implementing a new 24/7 environment across the supply chain, a move the state worked with the Biden-Harris Administration on, improving collaboration, and exploring policies to remove obstacles and improve the movement of goods.
A copy of the executive order signed today can be found here.
A week ago, a Facebook post by Don Helms, who owns North Idaho RV Rentals, triggered a social media storm when he blamed changes to labor laws and California’s strict environment laws for causing supply chain chaos.
So ships are piling up at Long Beach waiting to get unloaded. The port is jammed full of containers with no place to stack more. The liberal media is blaming it on the trucking industry while the nation’s store shelves are becoming bare… Well there’s more to the story. Could Gavin Newsom and California’s liberal trucking laws be the blame ?
The NEWS says the California port situation is caused by a driver shortage.
Not so fast: It is in part caused by a California Truck Ban which says all trucks must be 2011 or newer and a law called AB 5 which prohibits Owner Operators.
Traditionally the ports have been served by Owner Operators (non union). California has now banned Owner Operators.
Long term, truckers in California are not investing in new trucks because California has a law that makes them illegal in 2035. The requirement is to purchase electric trucks which do not exist.
And in the words of Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story”
BUSINESS CARB to begin blocking certain trucks’ DMV registrations in 2020
Carriers domiciled in California with trucks older than 2011 model, or using engines manufactured before 2010, will need to meet the Board’s new Truck and Bus Regulation beginning in 2020 or their vehicles will be blocked from registration with the state’s DMV, the state has said.
The new “health-based requirements” will need to be met before a driver is allowed to register his or her truck through the Department of Motor Vehicles, CARB says. A new enforcement tool used by the DMV beginning in 2020 will automatically block 2010 and older trucks from registration
Establishment media sources like USA Today were quick to pour scorn on the idea that emissions laws could be the cause of the USA’s widespread supply chain chaos, and insist that most of the trucks servicing California are already compliant with the new laws.
But Gavin Newsom’s latest executive order in my opinion to an extent undermines that denial. Liberating trucks to carry more freight will have a very similar effect to allowing a few more trucks to service Californian ports.
I don’t know whether Don Helms’ claims are correct, but you have to admit it would be very interesting to see whether the freight backlog could be cleared, if California Governor Gavin Newsom permanently cancelled all California specific restrictions and workplace rules which might affect trucks servicing major Californian ports.
Even if some of the rules have not been applied yet, the prospect of more red tape and higher costs would be enough to drive large numbers of truck drivers out of the Californian market. Why would any truck owner operator want to work in California, when the Newsom administration has repeatedly promised to shut their business down?
Of course I’m not expecting any genuine outbreak of common sense. A sensible environmental decision from California’s radical green administration, even in the face of a national emergency, seems as likely as the prospect of witnessing a flock of winged pigs take flight into the glorious setting sun.
EXPAT in BAJA Mexico 