More Green Fail: Fisker Karma Bursts in Flame in Garage

Russ Steele

Autoweek has the story:

Last week, a fire badly damaged the home of a new Fisker Karma owner, and authorities are saying that the electric car was the source of the blaze.

According to Fort Bend County, Texas, chief fire investigator Robert Baker, the Fisker Karma started the fire that spread to the house.

“Yes, the Karma was the origin of the fire, but what exactly caused that we don’t know at this time,” he said. The car was a complete loss.

According to Baker, the driver arrived home in the Fisker, pulled into the garage, and less than three minutes later the car was in flames. It reportedly was not plugged in at the time of the fire and the Karma’s battery remains intact.

Right before the fire, the owner reported a smell of burning rubber.

“The car was brand-new,” said Baker. “He still had paper tags on it, so it was 60 days old at [most].”

You can read the rest of the story HERE.  Electric vehicle seem to be a fire looking for a place to ignite. Interesting part of the story is that in Houston they have about 50 golf cart fires a year.  The Fisker Karma is nothing more than $100,000 electric golf cart, apparently looking for a places to ignite just like your standard golf cart!

Prop 23 Update: Let the AB-32 Exemptions Begin.

Russ Steele

It did not take long,  now that CARB has tossed Cap and Trade hook on the table and will start collecting money for their environmental slush fund, for organizations to line up for AB-32 Cap and Trade exemptions.

The North County Times has some details on one of the first in the slush fund exemption cue:

Southern California’s biggest water wholesaler says it faces an extra $10 million to $50 million in annual expenses to comply with California’s global warming law.

Those costs will flow down to ratepayers already stressed by steeply rising bills, said the giant Metropolitan Water District, importer of most of the water used in Southern California.

To forestall this increase, Metropolitan is asking for an exemption from the “cap-and-trade” greenhouse emissions requirements of Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, said Jeff Kightlinger, Metropolitan’s general manager.

CARB is not a in a mood to grant any exemptions,  explaining that $10 to $50 million was not enough impact on the MWD rate payers to bother with the paper work.

“CARB has taken a look at us and said the dollars aren’t that big —- $10 million to $50 million a year —- and therefore not worthy of cushioning our customers with free allowances,” Kightlinger said.

What arrogance!  CARB demands those rate payers toady up for the slush fund. After all CARB needs the cash to pay the salary of their bloated staff of environmental harassers.  Remember that AB-32 Cap and Trade revenue can only be used to administer the program, but just think of how many environmental enforcers CARB can hire with a few billion dollars a year.

You can read the rest of the article HERE.

Military bases and the UC University systems are next in the cue for exemptions.  I can imagine the list will grow over time. Once one exemption is made, all the others will be lining up to get off the hook as one of CARB’s Cap and Trade Slush Fund contributors.