American Thinker: State and local governments in California have made housing there far more expensive than it needs to be. Developers rightly complain of regulations at both state and local levels that make housing construction unreasonably difficult and expensive. California’s cities are filling up with homeless people living on the streets or in encampments whose nonexistent sanitary facilities and rampant drug abuse make them public health dangers.
As of last week, a new and burdensome regulation has made constructing a new housing unit even more expensive, by at least $10,000, the lowball estimate of the bureaucrats administering the new regulation, or up to $30,000, the estimate of a mortgage lender. Natasha Bach enthuses in Fortune:
California has taken the final step to be the first state in the nation to require solar panels on new homes.
The California Building Standards Commission on Wednesday unanimously upheld a May 9 decision to require solar panels on homes up to three stories. The requirement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
Currently, just 9% of single-family detached homes in California have solar panels. But as the state pushes toward decreasing greenhouse gas emissions – and with a 2045 goal to transition to a fully renewable energy grid devoid of fossil fuels – this rule will help accelerate that progress. Aside from energy efficiency, solar panels reduce ozone-damaging household emissions, most of which come from natural gas-generated electricity.
Advocates claim that energy savings would more than pay for the extra cost of the panels, yet they are unwilling to allow private homeowners to make those calculations themselves. Norman Rogers has demonstrated on these pages
that the cost calculations are skewed:
The Contractors/Builders will end up eating the initial costs. They’re already in a bidding war. You poke holes in your roof and no matter how you seal it, sooner or later it leaks.
I posted this earlier on another thread…
The nastly little secret about solar that nobody wants to talk about…
https://canadafreepress.com/article/solar-panel-waste-a-disposal-problem
If you think this is significant watch the prohibitions on refrigerants in 2020 and the transition to Carbon Dioxide (R744, commonly known as CO2).
Inconvenient truth
Called realtor to sell house. Was told they were not interested in selling homes with solar systems. Refused to get involved with purchase of new home with solar.
California is a mess.
Hahaha!
Insanity: When you lose sight of your objective, you re-double your efforts.
This is a financial sop (solar or “green” scams always are) to someone. Somebody (connected to politicians) is gonna get rich.
izlamo delenda est …
This is just one small step towards eventually housing everyone – except the politicians and elites- in high rise hovels in high density cities. The goal is maximum control of individuals, dressed up as government beneficence and equality.
I looked at solar 4 or 5 years ago. Economically it didn’t pencil out. At then current electricity rates (which are higher than most of the country), solar was still more expensive in the long term – in fact, the salesman’s biggest “selling point” was that electricity rates would continue to skyrocket so the big savings would be in a few years.
California Democrats are into solar and wind, while ignoring and actually opposing nuclear and hydro-electric, so one needs to take their concern for the environment with a grain of salt. These people are all for green power if it puts an extra buck in their pocket; otherwise, not so much.
It’s such a great idea, so cheap, so efficient they had to pass a law so you HAVE to use it. Just like 0bamacare.