Here's what's working in Sacramento: A partnership that helps our environment, creates jobs and attracts new investment, all in one amazing concept.
The program is called Ygrene, or "energy" spelled backwards. Last year, Sacramento was chosen by President Obama as one of just five cities in the nation to benefit from investment in our local construction industry, where the unemployment rate has topped 30 percent. Since then, dozens of cities have followed us and joined the program.
The Ygrene investment is part of the "Carbon War Room" program originated and nurtured by Sir Richard Branson, the global visionary who founded Virgin airlines.
Thanks to President Obama's strategy and the investment of Sir Richard and other partners, hundreds of workers from the Sacramento region will soon arrive at job sites to make commercial buildings more energy efficient by retrofitting the properties with modern materials. Eventually, schools and other public buildings will benefit from upgrades and energy retrofits.
The work isn't being done at taxpayer expense. Upfront costs are paid by private companies, who will benefit from lower energy bills that result from the improvements.
In Sacramento, the retrofit commitment is 12 million feet of commercial property. And that's just the beginning.
This commitment is part of the Greenwise Joint Venture, my larger vision to transform Sacramento into the Emerald Valley: the greenest region in the country and a hub for clean technology.
Thanks to Greenwise's efforts, There's $100 million available to property owners within the city, thanks to our partnership with Ygrene Energy Fund.
The Ygrene program translates to 1,500 jobs -- and that's before we add schools and universities to the program. Sacramento will achieve a 20 percent energy-use reduction by 2020.
Bottom line: it's a game changer for Sacramento. As California's State Capital, we are home to the most progressive environmental policies in the country. And now, with this partnership, we will see yet another example that good environmental policy is good economic policy.
Ultimately, the Ygrene partnership is just one more example of how Sacramento is thinking big, acting big and generating jobs and investment in a big way.
Why don't THEY qualify for this largesse?
Of course, the answer is POLITICS.
Sac is the Capital of a Democrat power-politics state.
Stockton is merely a backwater.
So, the mayor gets to enjoy more government cheese, while the good people of Stockton cower in their homes, surrounded by an unprecedented wave of violence and poverty.
Typical.
Why is he doing this? Because Kevin Johnson knows that his "bread is buttered" by his wife, Michelle Rhee, who made over one million last year alone, shilling on behalf of so-called "education reform".
And, like Cory Booker on the east coast, Johnson knows that the Big Payday will come when he leaves public office and is rewarded for his efforts to privatize schools with a nice fat, "consulting contract" and lots of private parties with fancy rich people.
Shame on him.
California already has an Emerald Triangle and it doesn't need irrigation plus the residents don't really need to waste a huge pile of energy on air conditioning.
We needed all of hemp, switchgrass, and algae, yesterday, with ultrasound processing, to make ethanol. Any idea why we can't divert a fraction of the funding, from nuclear power, to fund CO2-neutral biomass? Nukes are all over-budget and dangerous. Why can't somebody jump through a hoop, or whatever it takes, to get biomass, going?
I also recommend somebody cut the drug war, to fund the US Army Corps of Engineers, get 'em to Sacto, and shore up some levees, before the next La Nina souses everybody and everything, in the flood plain, including KJ and his office.
Hemp prohibition makes no sense, but the petrochemical based plastics industry is too powerful to reverse.
I wonder whether you honestly believe the exaggerated projected revenues for the new stadium? There was never any data to support them and if they weren't true the city would have gone bankrupt over the deal. My respect for the Maloof brothers went up when they backed out - they may have consciences.