Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – March 24, 2024

A Press Release came out from California Center for Rural Policy (1st acronym – CCRP) that could have very positive ramifications for Del Norte County.

Millions of dollars are going to be used to create jobs.

Gov. Newsom announced the $182 million Catalyst Funds awards to jumpstart the Regional Investment Initiative (2nd acronym – RII) FORMERLY KNOWN AS COMMUNITY ECONOMIC RESILIENCE FUND (3rd acronym – CERF) focused on streamlining the state’s economic and workforce development programs “to create more quality jobs, faster”.

 From that $182 million comes $14 million in Catalyst pre-development funding. As one of the 13 “California Jobs First” regions – and especially as a rural region comprising Tribal Lands and Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties – the Catalyst funding will help us bridge the gap between planning and implementing our economic development projects. That $14 million has been awarded to Redwood Region Resilient Inclusive Sustainable Economy (4th acronym – RISE).

How much do you want to bet that $14 million will not go very far? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. They’re looking at a 10 year plan. New jobs, new growth; sounds good. “California Jobs First” is a $600 million state-wide initiative designed to promote a sustainable and equitable recovery from the economic distress of COVID-19. 

Still sounds relatively good.

From the RII Website:

“The Regional Investment Initiative is a new approach to economic development that seeks to center
disadvantaged communities as part of California’s transition to a clean energy, carbon neutral economy,
creating good-paying jobs and prosperous communities for all.”

Get that? Clean energy, carbon neutral economy. Does this sound like an endorsement for wind turbines in the ocean? Electric vehicles? Adding solar panels to your home? What exactly is a carbon neutral economy?

You can’t begin to understand a carbon neutral economy until you understand that CO2 = carbon dioxide = BAD. Climate changers want to see no new CO2 float into our atmosphere.

Here’s just one of the problems (of which there are many). You buy an electric vehicle. Electric cars are technically carbon neutral because they produce no localized CO2 in the form of exhaust emissions. Having said that, the electricity they use could have been produced at a power station that does produce CO2. All electric vehicles use lithium-ion batteries. When the life of those batteries is over, some go into landfills. Some are recycled for the raw materials. However, it’s more expensive to recycle than to mine new materials.

I really don’t see manufacturing plants springing up in Del Norte County producing electric vehicles, or solar panels or wind turbines. I hope to see some type of factories spring up and jobs created. I hope to see some type of meat and potatoes plan that lists out exactly what they have in mind instead of these broad concepts. Sorta like the “shovel ready” projects that were going to transform our infrastructure under former Pres. Obama. Whatever became of that?