While this recent spate of wildfires have been put relatively under control today, the devastation is pretty severe.  The number of houses destroyed in Yorba Linda shot up yesterday, the fire in Montecito claimed several dozen more homes, and the mobile home park in Sylmar is a near-total loss.

Even without getting back to his home, Mr. Grieb is fairly certain that all is lost.

He and his neighbors have seen aerial photos of the devastated development and, in stark black and white, a chalkboard at an evacuation center lists the homes, by lot numbers, that were spared. About 124 out of 600 homes are on the list, and Mr. Grieb’s home is not among them.

For the park’s residents, it was as if an entire village had vanished in the flames.

“I used to refer to it as our little Mayberry,” said Tracey Burns, 47. She and her partner, Wendy Dannenberg, 46, lived in Oakridge for 15 years. Ms. Burns’s parents lived nearby in a part of the complex that was spared by the fire.

“It was just a very nice community,” Ms. Burns said. “Someplace safe with a lot to offer from the pool to the tennis courts to bingo on Tuesday nights. It was a very nice way of living. People waved not because they had to but because they wanted to. We always took offense to people calling it a trailer park because you had a yard, a porch, a garage, a garden. It was a home, not a trailer.”

While some scientists are dismissing the idea that climate change has something to do with the increasing frequency of fires in the region, clearly the reduction of the snowpack in the Sierras, combined with the extended drought conditions, have extended the fire season to the point where it is year-round and unsustainable.  And that is expecteed to only worsen in the future.

The current drought in the Southwest may simply be part of the normal cycle of wet and dry spells. But looking over the next century, Cayan said, regions with a Mediterranean climate such as Southern California are expected to get drier.

“I have to believe that is going to make us more vulnerable to some of these more intense fire episodes.”

While the relief efforts of the local communities are admirable, it’s simply not sustainable to have major parts of the region go up in smoke at regular intervals.  We have barely enough money in the kitty to provide basic services, let alone a year-round fire season.

Through global warming, we have now fire season all year round. We used to have fire seasons only in the fall, but now the fire seasons start in February already, so this means that we have to really upgrade, have more resources, more fire engines, more manpower and all of this, which does cost extra money.

The scientists may want to be circumspect, but this is global boiling, a consequence of rising temperatures and a drier climate.  And while myopic conservatives like Dan Walters don’t realize it, a massive shift to green technologies is essential for financial reasons as well as environmental ones.  Fighting massive fires costs lots and lots of money that can be avoided if we reduce emissions and protect the planet.  Backwards-looking folks like Walters always examine the up-front costs while paying no attention to the externalities.  Burning the earth has severe monetary consequences, and on the flip side, creating greener ways to power our lives and transport our people is exportable technology that can make California a global economic leader.

Of course, it’s going to take more than one state, and fortunately we have a new President-elect who understands the need for immediate action.  Not only is he raising money for relief organizations helping with the current wildfires, but today he made a surprise appearance at the Bi-Partisan Governors Global Climate Summit in Los Angeles, calling for “a new chapter of American leadership on climate change.”  I’ve put the video and transcript below.  We finally have leadership to heal the planet, which is as beneficial for California as it is for anywhere in the country.

Let me begin by thanking the bipartisan group of U.S. governors who convened this meeting.

Few challenges facing America – and the world – are more urgent than combating climate change. The science is beyond dispute and the facts are clear. Sea levels are rising. Coastlines are shrinking. We’ve seen record drought, spreading famine, and storms that are growing stronger with each passing hurricane season.

Climate change and our dependence on foreign oil, if left unaddressed, will continue to weaken our economy and threaten our national security.

I know many of you are working to confront this challenge. In particular, I want to commend Governor Sebelius, Governor Doyle, Governor Crist, Governor Blagojevich and your host, Governor Schwarzenegger -all of you have shown true leadership in the fight to combat global warming. And we’ve also seen a number of businesses doing their part by investing in clean energy technologies.

But too often, Washington has failed to show the same kind of leadership. That will change when I take office. My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process.

That will start with a federal cap and trade system. We will establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020 and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050.

Further, we will invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private sector efforts to build a clean energy future. We will invest in solar power, wind power, and next generation biofuels. We will tap nuclear power, while making sure it’s safe. And we will develop clean coal technologies.

This investment will not only help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil, making the United States more secure. And it will not only help us bring about a clean energy future, saving our planet. It will also help us transform our industries and steer our country out of this economic crisis by generating five million new green jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.

But the truth is, the United States cannot meet this challenge alone. Solving this problem will require all of us working together. I understand that your meeting is being attended by government officials from over a dozen countries, including the UK, Canada and Mexico, Brazil and Chile, Poland and Australia, India and Indonesia. And I look forward to working with all nations to meet this challenge in the coming years.

Let me also say a special word to the delegates from around the world who will gather at Poland next month: your work is vital to the planet. While I won’t be President at the time of your meeting and while the United States has only one President at a time, I’ve asked Members of Congress who are attending the conference as observers to report back to me on what they learn there.

And once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.

Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all. Delay is no longer an option. Denial is no longer an acceptable response. The stakes are too high. The consequences, too serious.

Stopping climate change won’t be easy. It won’t happen overnight. But I promise you this: When I am President, any governor who’s willing to promote clean energy will have a partner in the White House. Any company that’s willing to invest in clean energy will have an ally in Washington. And any nation that’s willing to join the cause of combating climate change will have an ally in the United States of America. Thank you.

For a while now, the federal government has been handing out money to private business. Mostly banks, but a few insurance companies and the possibility of the Big 3 Automakers.  It’s raining cash if you happen to be “too big to fail.”

Meanwhile, the state of California is bleeding red ink, laying off workers and cutting the services Californians count on in poor economic times. So, hat in hand, off we go to the feds:

Led by California with a $28 billion hole in its budget, 41 states are in financial trouble, and many of their leaders are looking to Congress to bail them out. State officials are hoping to join the ranks of the financial industry and auto manufacturers, who’ve found a sympathetic ear on Capitol Hill. They’ve found some key supporters: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats are promoting aid to states as part of a broad stimulus package that could inject more than $300 billion into the ailing economy.

* * *

Speaking Wednesday before a Chamber of Commerce group in Fresno, Calif., Schwarzenegger said that “government is really at fault” and that Washington was obligated to “get us out of this mess.” (McClatchy 11/14/08)

The economy sucks, that much we all know.  Sure, we’re tossing everything up at the wall hoping it sticks. But, here is one simple statement of fact: money that comes in to the state goes out almost immediately in the form of services to those who most need it.  It gets recycled as state employees that would have otherwise been on the chopping block retain their jobs. And of course there is the fact that by spending a little money now to retain a decent level of services, we can save ourselves a lot of money on the back end on prison and other corrective, and expensive, services.

Yet there are those who simply see the states as profligate dens of the mythical “waste, fraud, and abuse.”  Unsurprisingly, one such opinion, by the Manhattan City Institute’s Steve Malanga, appears at Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:

Thus, when practically every day the federal government is defining downward the very notion of what constitutes fiscal responsibility, the states know they are hardly the most reckless supplicants in Washington. Unfortunately, more federal aid all but guarantees they won’t use the current crisis as an opportunity to put their fiscal houses in order — setting the stage for worse problems to come.

While it is true that California’s 2/3 system of governance has built a budgetary house of cards, simply letting that house of cards collapse is no better than letting GM and Ford simply disappear.  Apparently Mr. Malanga would like to see the states get taught a lesson just like some would have beaten into the banking system’s hide. But while conservatives are lining up to give money to AIG, perhaps they should take some of that time to consider just who they are teaching a lesson.

Are they teaching a lesson to the 6 year old who now has a first grade class of 45 kids and doesn’t have any actual contact with his teacher. I’m sure his not being able to read will really teach the Mike Villines of this world a huge lesson.

Are they teaching a lesson to the state’s seniors? To the disabled?  I’m sure Dave Cogdill will repent once he sees a few thousand more homeless mentally ill across our state.

Or perhaps not, but the lesson’s worth a shot, right Mr. Malanga?

UPDATE: Over the flip find the letter that the Democratic Leaders sent to Pelosi, Boxer & Feinstein. (h/t SacBee)

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer:

We write to strongly encourage the prompt adoption of a federal economic stimulus plan that will provide direct assistance to the states. During this historically challenging economic time, the states–especially California–need the federal government’s help.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), twenty-seven states will begin the 2009 Fiscal Year with deficits well exceeding $100 billion collectively. A recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concludes that states are facing “a great fiscal crisis,” with 41 of 50 states projected to be facing budget shortfalls over the next two fiscal years. In the midst of this crisis, states are forced to drastically cut essential services (services that more citizens rely on when economic times are tough), raise taxes, or do both.

The fiscal challenges for the state of California are great. According to our non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO), California is facing a 20-month deficit of $28 billion. The Governor has called a Special Session in which lawmakers are contemplating a plan that would close the deficit by imposing tax increases on all Californians and slashing more than $10 billion in essential services in education, healthcare, aid to seniors, the blind and the elderly, public safety, and transportation. The impacts of such a plan are particularly harsh in an economic climate in which each month more than 13,000 Californians are suffering job loss.

California needs its federal partner to help its citizens weather this economic storm. A “States Economic Stimulus and Fiscal Relief Act,” akin to that recently passed to assist the nation’s banking system, is what California needs now. While federal aid will not solve California’s fiscal problems, an infusion of flexible federal funds would provide necessary relief to millions of Californians, by limiting the magnitude of tax increases and cuts to essential services otherwise required to balance our budget.

In addition to the infusion of federal funds, many provisions of the $60.8 billion economic stimulus bill, H.R. 7110, passed by the House of Representatives in September, 2008, are helpful to California. For example:

1. An increase in the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) match with the trigger points for state eligibility like those contained in the bill (i.e., home foreclosures, food stamp caseload level and unemployment level) means nearly $2 billion for California;

2. The extension of federal Unemployment Insurance benefits provides needed assistance to Californians suffering job loss. California’s unemployment rate now stands at 7.7% and is projected to rise well above 9% in 2009.

3. The investment of federal funds to improve public infrastructure is meaningful to California. In 2006, Californians passed a $42.3 billion bond package to invest state funds to improve our roads and bridges, expand public transit, strengthen levees and improve water quality, provide affordable housing, and build or modernize school facilities. Many of the projects and programs funded by the state bond package require federal matching funds to become fully funded.

While H.R. 7110 represents a good start, we agree with Speaker Pelosi’s assessment that as the nation’s economic crisis has worsened since September, so has the need for a greater magnitude of economic stimulus. Clearly, more is better.

As we continue our work to develop a comprehensive plan to close this state’s staggering budget deficit, we hope we can count on our federal partners to provide needed relief to millions of Californians suffering through an economic crisis of historic magnitude. Working together, federal and state policymakers can help the country and the state get through this difficult period.

Your prompt attention to this request is certainly appreciated.

Respectfully,

Don Perata

President Pro Tem

California State Senate

Karen Bass

Speaker

California State Assembly

Darrell Steinberg

President Pro Tempore-elect

California State Senate