Need to Conserve is Still On

I never thought I would be so happy to see gas priced at $3.99 a gallon. After paying $4.49 a gallon just a few weeks ago, it feels like a good buy. It is amazing what a little market pressure can do to bring down consumption, increase supply and lower prices.

Market forces cannot only balance supply and demand against price; it can also make our environment greener. Just like in the ’70s when we had the first oil shock, business and industry learned very quickly how to be more efficient and use much less energy to save money. The byproduct was cleaner air.

Government mandates did not make us more energy efficient. Individuals and business on their own made rational decisions to save money by using less energy. People did not buy smaller cars because of government CAFE standards. They bought smaller, fuel-efficient cars because they saved money; and if companies in Detroit did not want to build them, they would buy them from someone else in the world who would.

This latest oil shock, which is now subsiding, also made us look at becoming more energy efficient. It did not take a government mandate for airlines to mothball their older, less fuel-efficient planes; it was the $5-a-gallon jet fuel that did it. It wasn’t a governmental mandate that made us consolidate auto trips, take the metro or get rid of the sport utility vehicle; $4.50 a gallon did it.

Now I know what some of you are thinking: Now that prices are dropping, the pressure is off to conserve. Wrong. Even at $3 a gallon, the average hard-working American will want to save money and conserve. High energy prices also helped tip us into a recession.

Ask any small-business owner who serves the public. Not many people can afford to go out to dinner after they just put $100 in their tank. People will adjust and consume less fuel so they can have money for discretionary spending.

I am not the first to say we need a new paradigm on environmentalism in this country. The old paradigm was to use government red tape and litigation to stop any new power-generating facilities, highway construction or new housing. The old paradigm wanted a centralized bureaucracy that thwarted personal liberty, destroyed good-paying jobs and worked to keep us gridlocked until we all agreed to take a bus.

Most Americans consider themselves “green,” but at $4 per gallon they want us to drill, drill, drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, offshore, anywhere. Most Americans want to protect the environment, but would be appalled to know almost every major solar energy project in the country is being stopped by litigation from the old-paradigm environmental groups saying they are bad for the environment. Solar energy bad? Please.

Billionaire businessman T. Boone Pickens is touting a plan for wind energy, yet windmill projects were killed off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard because it might affect sailing. Even discussing the cleanest of all energy sources, nuclear power, makes old paradigm environmentalists go apoplectic.

The new paradigm for being green has to be growing the economy while keeping the environment healthy at the same time. The left would have you believe that any increase in the standard of living is a detriment to the environment, when in fact the opposite is true.

Travel around the world, and it is easy to see. Democratically controlled countries with strong economies have cleaner air, cleaner water and are more environmentally friendly. It takes a strong economy to promote a strong environment.

It is true we need some government regulation with regards to polluting the air and water. It would not be fair if one manufacturer dumped untreated water in our rivers to get a cost advantage over a competitor that cleaned the water it used. These external costs need to be paid by the ones polluting; not everyone else.

The American public has now been awakened to the whole energy equation. No longer are they going to let the old-paradigm environmentalists scare them. People want answers to problems, not scare tactics to stop progress.

This will be my last column for at least a few months. I have decided to run for City Council in Costa Mesa, and the Daily Pilot editors and I agree it would not be fair to continue writing during the campaign.

However, no matter how the race turns out in November, I hope to be back writing again.

Thank you all for your comments and critiques of this column. It has been a privilege to write it.

Football Has its Home

Football and cheerleading practice kicked off last night in Costa Mesa at Parson’s Field behind Estancia High School’s Jim Scott Stadium.

The new and hopefully permanent (I will talk about that later) home of the Costa Mesa Pop Warner league fielded more than 275 kids for football and cheerleading.

The league has grown more than 50% in one year, so I decided to ask new league President Steve Mensinger how he did it. His response was direct and to the point.

“We re-created the program to exceed the expectations of the community with great coaches, a professionally structured administration and excellent facilities.”

Steve and I have been close friends and business associates for more than 15 years. My girls call him Uncle Steve, and to his sons I am Uncle Jim. I asked him this week to remind me why he got so involved.

It started three years ago when one of his sons was practicing in what Steve called the unlit drainage basin fields at the Farm Sports Complex just next to the soccer teams who were playing on the bright green fields under bright lights with a permanent concession stand.

When Steve asked another parent why they had the unlit fields in the drainage area, the response was that they were lucky to have a field at all.

Since its inception, the league has never had a home of its own. Year after year, it has been moved from one field to another. One year the league was moved to three different fields in a season. Soccer dominates the city politically, and that was the way it had always been.

Mensinger, a volunteer assistant coach at the time, immediately got on the phone with then-Mayor Allan Mansoor and asked what it would take for the team to get a permanent home.

Mansoor connected him with Recreation Manager Jana Ransom, and they started by looking at aerial views of the city. When they came upon a sorry-looking but underused field next to what is now the Waldorf School, Mensinger knew he had a diamond in the rough. Right next door and still under construction was Estancia High School’s new stadium with its year-round synthetic field.

The big question remained whether or not Pop Warner could use the stadium for their home games. Councilwoman Katrina Foley then set up a meeting with Mensinger and Estancia High School Principal Phil D’Agostino. Steve made his pitch, and Phil welcomed the league with open arms.

The Newport-Mesa School district and the city approved the arrangement as part of the joint-use program the city and district have in place. To show their appreciation, league officials changed their mascot from the Mustangs to the Eagles to mirror their host school.

Volunteers worked hundreds of hours to get the field in shape. They repaired fences and built ramps for the two cargo containers that doubled as storage facility and concession stand.

I called Ed Baum, the director of football, who started with the league in 1967 when his now 53-year-old son was in seventh grade. He told me this was the most participants Costa Mesa ever had, and it reminded him of the league’s hey-day in the late ’60s and early ’70s when “we won all the conference titles and trophies.”

Ed told me the most important function of the league was not to see how many kids went on to play football or cheerlead later in high school or college.

“What we are doing here is teaching life’s lessons of hard work, discipline and character,” he said. “We are more concerned about the type of people they become when they are 35 than how many touchdowns they make in high school.”

I couldn’t agree more.

Pop Warner football started in Costa Mesa in 1963. It is the oldest youth sports organization in the city. The program, which has had its ups and downs, is enjoying a rebirth after 45 years.

If anyone one is interested, there are still some spots open on the 10 teams that are categorized by age and weight, including a flag football team for 5- and 6-year-olds. The cheerleaders also have a squad that starts at 5. Come to Parsons Field to sign up or get information at http://www.costamesapopwarnerfootball.com/.

Opening day for the newly christened Costa Mesa Eagles is Aug. 16 at Jim Scott Stadium. Hope to see you there.