Blaming political heat, the California Engergy Commission suddenly dropped its plan to seek emergency powers to control thermostats and electrical power in newly constructed homes and buildings.
Another reason was the outcry from the public that their power grab was just another example of California's penchant for nannyism.
State Assembly Lloyd "Light Bulb" Levine, the nanny law writing king, said he doesn't like the terms "nanny state" or "nanny government" when asked his reaction to the withdrawal of the plan.
If Levine didn't like having gas pains, he'd stop eating brocolli. If he doesn't like the "nanny state" then he should stop proposing feel-good, butt-into-our-lives nanny state laws.
Although Levine gets Brownie points for wanting to keep California green, he loses points for how he goes about it.
To his credit, he opposed the collosal meddling into our private lives and homes by the California Energy Commission, when they wanted the authority to control our thermostats with remote control radio devices.
That august body that has set our energy-efficiency standards for home appliances was seeking emergency power to control individual thermostats until the political heat soared higher than the hottest San Fernando Valley day, and they turned off the thermostat on their own emergency power grab.
Anyone with half a brain saw that it was the ultimate invasion of privacy, and that use of the word "emergency" was code for we can do whatever we want, whenever we want.
Instead their energy should be focused on building new powerplants and rewiring the state's antiquated power grids. But, no. For them it was far easier to tinker with our thermostats.
Railing against words
For a man who rails at the terms "nanny state" and "nanny government" the Van Nuys assemblyman could easily be the nanny-in-chief.
His proposed law to force all pet owners to spay and neuter their animals went to the doghouse, because of public complaints and lobbying by breeders.
It's obvious how he quickly earned the nickname, Light Bulb Lloyd when he wrote legislation outlawing incandescent light bulbs by 2012 in favor of the energy-savers.
While the light bulb furor was a mild form of nannyism, writing legislation was the wrong way to go about it. Education about the energy-savers, even if they have their own built-in problems, and market forces should have been relied on instead of legislation.
The unintended consequenses of baby step nanny stateism soon mushroom into the entire nursery being overwhelmed with too many nannies passing too many bottles filled with feel-good laws pap.
So, smoke bothers Levine's asthma. I'll buy that he's happy with banning smoking in public places. But...it started in restaurants...all restaurants, even though owners asked for a compromise with smoking sections and ventilation systems. That worked for a while, until the anti-smoking crazies said, no.
