Company representatives will be on hand to promote water wise practices and conservation programs
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- California American Water will participate in the 2012 Coronado Promenade Summer Concert Series on Sunday, June 10, 2012 at Spreckels Park, Coronado, CA. The Coronado summer concert series offers a fun and stress-free way to enjoy a summer evening in the company of family and friends. The 2012 concert sponsored by California American Water will feature entertainment by Wild Child, a Doors Tribute Band that recreates the madness and magic of a live Doors concert.
California American Water will host a water conservation booth during the concert. Concert-goers are encouraged to stop by California American Water’s booth to speak with company representatives, ask questions regarding their water service, discuss water conservation tips, and pick up information regarding the company’s rebate and home water survey programs.
WHO: | California American Water | |||||
WHAT: | 2012 Coronado Promenade Summer Concert Series | |||||
WHERE: | Spreckels Park | |||||
601 Orange Avenue, Coronado, CA 92178 | ||||||
WHEN: | Sunday, June 10, 2012 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:45 p.m. | |||||
California American Water, a wholly owned subsidiary of American Water (NYSE: AWK), provides high-quality and reliable water and/or wastewater services to approximately 600,000 people. California American Water’s San Diego County service district includes approximately 21,000 households and businesses and serves a population of about 95,000 people in the cities of Coronado, Imperial Beach, south Chula Vista, and parts of south San Diego.
Founded in 1886, American Water is the largest publicly traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company. With headquarters in Voorhees, N.J., the company employs approximately 7,000 dedicated professionals who provide drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in more than 30 states and parts of Canada. More information can be found by visiting www.amwater.com.
California American WaterBrian A. BarretoOffice: 626-614-2542Mobile: 626-388-7484Brian.Barreto@amwater.comwww.californiaamwater.com
Source: California American Water
Source: www.streetinsider.com
California Voters U-turn on Bullet Train - Car Rentals
According to a new poll, California voters are doing a u-turn on the $68.4 billion high speed rail project they had initially approved funding for. Ambitious plans for a fast track link between Los Angeles and San Francisco at speeds of up to 220mph, making journeys just over two-and-a-half hours, were favoured by 53% of voters in a 2008 ballot. The voters approved the state to raise $10 million in bonds, while the state was also able to get $3.5 billion in stimulus money from the federal government.
The California high speed rail project calls for about 300 miles of track to be added south from the middle of Central Valley over the next ten years and laid to reach the northern outskirts of Los Angeles. Construction on this part of the plan is due to start later in the year. Then a northern link from the Central Valley to San Francicso won’t be finished until 2028. With the funds the state has raised for the project, it’s still short $54.9 billion of what it needs to complete this construction. This has raised fears that the state won’t be able to get the funds needed to finish the later parts of the network, thus it would only be left with a rail line that links minor cities and farming communities.
With these concerns and how the project has been handled, a new poll shows that California voters have turned against the project. Three-fifths of voters polled oppose the bullet train and would stop public borrowing if they were given the chance to vote on it again. Nearly seven out of ten said that they would never or rarely every use the train if it eventually runs between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Out of those polled, not one voter said they would use the high speed rail more than once a week, while just 33% said they would prefer the train over a one-hour aircraft journey or seven-hour road journey. The $123 each way ticket, which is an estimate, is said to deter many as well. Politicians in the state have until August 31 to give final approval to an initial 130-mile portion of track in the Central Valley at a cost of $6 billion, and they are expected to do just that.
California governor Jerry Brown has praised the project as a way to create jobs, and the unions are supporting him. He has personally committed to getting a high speed rail link built since the 1970s. However, he is trying to persuade voters to spend billions on a train while proposing tax increases and austere cuts to public spending at the same time. This includes a 5% paycut for state staff to deal with a deficit in the budget that has grown to $16 billion.
Other supporters say the state’s economy will recover in the long run and the money left over will be from private investors, fees from its own cap-and-trade scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the federal government. They believe the high speed rail link will be vital to the economic future of the airline. However, critics say the funding will dry up and California will be left with an orphan track. Assembly Budget Committee vice chairman Jim Nielsen opposes the project, calling it an idea that worsens the more details are released about it. On top of this, the Legislative Analyst’s Office described the funding plan as speculative and vague.
Source: news.carrentals.co.uk
California Chefs Mount a Repeal of Foie Gras Ban Set for July 1 - New York Times
THE countdown to foie-mageddon has begun.
With less than a month until California’s first-in-the nation ban on foie gras takes effect, fans of the fattened duck and goose liver are buying out stocks of the delicacy, searching for legal loopholes and sating themselves at a series of foie-heavy goodbyes.
“We want to get our fill before it’s gone,” said Terrance L. Stinnett, a lawyer from Alamo, Calif., who attended a farewell lunch here recently. “This is a wake.”
July 1 is the start date of the hotly debated and divisive ban, which prohibits the sale of any product derived from the force-feeding of birds to enlarge their livers — the most common way to mass-produce foie gras. . (The law was passed in 2004, but included a seven-and-a-half-year grace period.)
As the deadline approaches, some of the best-known chefs in California — including Thomas Keller, Gary Danko and Michael Mina — have been mounting a repeal effort and promising new ethical standards. But they are also making practical preparations for the likelihood that they won’t be able to overturn the law before it takes effect. Even opponents of the ban say going to bat for high-priced foie gras, after all, isn’t exactly an easy political stance in an age of animal rights and fiscal austerity.
So how will chefs replace foie gras, with its butter-soft texture and rich, subtle taste? The short answer, they say, is that they can’t, and the sense of loss is palpable.
“It’s unlike any other animal product that I know of,” said Jon Shook, an owner of Animal, a meat lovers’ paradise in Los Angeles where foie gras regularly appears in sauces, as a torchon and in other forms. “We’re working on dishes to replace it, but you can never really replace foie gras.”
That sentiment was echoed by Michael Ginor, an owner of Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, N.Y., who likened it to delicious Play-Doh.
“You can shape it into anything you want,” he said. “You can sauté it, you can serve it cold, you can serve it hot, you can cook it at high heat.”
You get the idea. The menu at an April lunch at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine festival was indicative of the product’s versatility across land and sea, entree and dessert. Prepared by several opponents of the ban, the meal featured oysters and raw foie gras; lobster and foie gras noodles (created by squeezing liquid foie gras into a broth); beef tenderloin with seared foie gras and a foie gras emulsion, and vanilla and foie gras crème brûlée.
As that suggests, foie gras is not for the weak of heart or the high of cholesterol. Mr. Ginor said that ducks are much more commonly used today because geese are more labor intensive, more susceptible to disease and temperamental, all factors that make the ducks “more economically sensible” to use, though some believe the taste of goose foie gras is more delicate.
Casey Lane, the chef at the Tasting Kitchen in Los Angeles, said his restaurant almost never serves a portion of foie gras smaller than six to seven ounces, making the dish “a genuine indulgence.” He might counter the dish’s richness with the sweetness and acidity of a peak-of-the-season apple.
“It’s like having the trump card year round,” he said.
He, too, bemoaned its loss. “The people that build Porsches, you don’t want your gasoline taken away from you,” he said. “You’re trying to work at the top of your field.”
Beyond the kitchen, there are other responses in the works, including whispers of culinary civil disobedience, in which restaurateurs would continue to serve the dish — and risk fines of up to $1,000 per violation. Others have suggested that they could skirt the law by offering the foie gras free (with $20 glasses of wine).
The end result, however, will likely be very little, if any, foie anywhere in California. And that disheartens people like Greg Daniels, who runs the Haven Gastropub in Pasadena, Calif., and worries about the state’s culinary reputation. “How seriously can you take our culinary efforts when we can’t even use this product that’s being used everywhere?” he said.
Mr. Daniels warned that the foie gras ban could also limit access to other duck-based dishes, including duck confit and duck-fat French fries. “Even if you can get duck fat, it’s probably going to be too expensive for you to fill up a fryer with it,” he said.
But such concerns have done little to sway the law’s supporters, who see the ban as a victory for humane treatment of animals.
John Burton, the former California legislator who drafted the law, has shot back at the chefs, likening the tradition of foie gras (which dates back centuries) to waterboarding and female genital mutilation.
“Why don’t you tell those chefs to have a duck cram a lot of food down their gullets and see how they like it?” he asked.
Such passions are not so surprising. Food fights have become increasingly common in statehouses and at kitchen counters alike, as new generations of chefs and their customers drift toward more animal-friendly products and methods of production. Indeed, opponents of the ban argue that factory farming — not foie gras, which has just two producers in the United States — is a much more serious issue in terms of public health and humane treatment of animals.
That view was shared by Michael Pollan, the author of “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” whose examinations of the modern food chain have placed him on the front lines of many battles over what is on the menu. Even though he is not much of a foie gras eater, he does not see the point of the ban.
“I think it’s really a way for people to feel like they’ve done something without doing anything,” he said. “There’s so many more serious problems we’re not dealing with.”
But as the Humane Society of the United States points out, many states are moving toward more protections for farm animals, including veal cows, hens and feedlot cattle and pigs. At least two other states, New York and Hawaii, have considered bans on foie gras.
“California is leading,” said Wayne Pacelle, the society’s president and chief executive. “But it’s not alone.”
Mr. Pacelle rejected the idea that animal rights activists were singling out a small industry rather than taking on bigger fish. “The notion that we’re picking on foie gras is soft,” he said. “There’s nobody that takes on big agriculture businesses like we do. And foie gras is just cruelty for a table treat.”
It remains unclear exactly how painful force feeding (known as gavage) is. The Humane Society says that the process can cause bruises, lacerations and sores, and that the ducks’ livers may grow to 10 times their normal size.
The American Veterinary Medical Association says that that is true, though ducks’ livers also naturally fluctuate seasonally, but not to such extremes as those of force-fed birds. The association says it is difficult to say how much pain the animals are in when tubes are in place, though it also says that “force feeding overrides animal preference.”
David Kinch, the acclaimed chef at Manresa in Los Gatos, Calif., who opposes the ban, said part of the problem with the ban’s logic was that its supporters had mistakenly anthropomorphized the ducks’ experience of being force fed. “They imagine a tube being shoved down their human throat,” he said. Rather, he said, ducks have no gag reflex, nor are geese as cuddly as they appear.
“They are the nastiest animals on the planet,” Mr. Kinch said. “They are guard dogs in France.”
The group fighting the ban, the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards (or CHEFS), has suggested a variety of measures that might make gavage more appetizing, including hand feeding, cage-free birds and regular inspections by animal welfare officers.
None of those seemed to sway animal rights supporters like Bryan Pease, of the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego, who called the chefs’ efforts “false and disingenuous.”
“All the ducks are already hand fed,” he said. “They’re hand fed because that’s the only way to force a tube down their throat.”
Nor was that sort of image likely to sway foie gras aficionados like Mr. Stinnett and his wife, Annette, who spent $200 each to eat seven courses of foie gras in Pebble Beach. They said the ban had already foiled their plans for Mr. Stinnett’s birthday in July: Ms. Stinnett said she had tried to bribe a local chef to set some foie gras aside, but no luck.
“I said, ‘Will $500 find me some foie gras?’ ” Ms. Stinnett said. “They said no. He doesn’t want to take a chance.”
Source: www.nytimes.com
California’s voters are turning against the bullet train - Examiner
In Los Angeles a new poll finds California voters are experiencing voters’ remorse over a proposed $68 billion bullet train project, as the number of lawsuits against the rail system continues to grow.
According to the USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times survey (lat.ms/N9tTcm) published Saturday 55% of voters want to see the high-speed rail bond issue that was approved in 2008 back on the ballot, and 59% say they will now vote against it,.
According to The Times, since the $9 billion borrowing plan was passed, the projected cost of the bullet train between Los Angeles and San Francisco has doubled. Also, in some areas it will now share tracks with slower commuter and freight trains.
As a result, a majority of voters has now turned against the ambitious undertaking. Meanwhile, Governor Jerry Brown is pushing lawmakers to approve the start of construction in the Central Valley later this year.
However, powerful agriculture groups and freight railroads maintain that proposed routes will damage their interests and compromise safety. Also, schools, churches, businesses and homeowners are now opposed to the project.
On Friday, Central Valley farm groups filed a major environmental lawsuit in Sacramento County Superior Court, asking for a preliminary injunction to block rail construction. Plaintiffs include the Madera and Merced county farm bureaus and Madera County. The suit is one of several already on the books, and still more agricultural interests in the Central Valley are threatening to sue.
Anja Raudabaugh, executive director of the Madera County Farm Bureau, told The Times. "We think a preliminary injunction against construction will occur because there were so many violations in the authority's environmental impact report. The plaintiffs say the rail project will affect approximately 1,500 acres of prime farm land and 150 agribusinesses in their region.
The poll found that concerns about the project extend across regions, ethnic groups, income brackets and even political affiliations, according to the Times. Among Democrats, initially the strongest supporters of the plan, only 43% will support the bond in a new vote, while 47% will oppose it. Seventy-six percent of Republicans would vote against it.
Voters have reconsidered their support for high-speed rail as lawmakers slash public programs to cope with a widening budget gap, said Dan Schnur, director of the poll and head of the Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.
Unruh said, "the growing budget deficit has caused Californians to be hesitant about spending so much money on a project like this one when they're seeing cuts to public education and law enforcement. Also, they seem to be wary as to whether state government can run a big speed rail system effectively."
Predicated on information received, in Southern California, 67% of voters said if given another opportunity they will reject issuing high-speed rail bonds and vote against it.
Additionally, if the bullet train system is built, 69% said they will never or hardly ever ride it. No respondents zero percent said they will use it more than once a week. Nonetheless, at times voters tend to become very emotional or irrational about issues that are not going as proposed. There are those who believe that if the system is built eventually rider ship will extremely good.
Written By;
Ishton W. Morton
Source: www.examiner.com
California's Prop 8 heads for supreme court after pass by appeals court - The Guardian
California's gay marriage ban, Proposition 8, is heading for the supreme court after an appeals court declined to revisit the case.
Supporters of the 2008 ban have lost two rounds in federal courts but have made clear they will appeal to the US supreme court and hope for a favorable response from the conservative-leaning justices.
The top US court could agree to hear the matter in the session beginning in October, putting it on track to decide the case within a year. It could also decline to review Prop 8.
President Barack Obama last month said he believed same-sex couples should be able to marry. His Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, disagrees.
Most US states limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, and popular votes have consistently approved bans on widening those rights.
But polls show growing acceptance of same-sex marriages, which have been legalized in eight states and the District of Columbia, thanks to votes by legislators and court decisions.
The first circuit court of appeals in Boston last week ruled that the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally denied benefits to same-sex couples in a state where gay marriage was legal.
The US supreme court would set national precedent if it decided to take the California case. Appeals courts have so far declined to rule broadly on whether marriage is a fundamental human right for same-sex couples as well as heterosexuals.
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
California primary vote set to kick off political scramble - YAHOO!
SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California voters head to the polls on Tuesday in a primary contest set to launch the biggest political scramble in the state in at least a decade following the redrawing of U.S. Congressional boundaries and election rule changes.
The changes could set the stage for head-to-head face-offs between longtime incumbents, potentially from the same party, in November after a decade of remarkable stability in the state's majority Democratic delegation in the House of Representatives.
That stability was a result of the deliberate creation of electoral districts to favor incumbents, a process known as gerrymandering. In 263 elections from 2002 to 2010, only one congressional seat changed political party.
"California was totally locked in on this gerrymandered map," said Kyle Kondik, political analyst at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
This time the state put a non-partisan citizens commission in charge of most of the redrawing of congressional districts. The number of districts did not change, but the boundaries were adjusted to reflect population shifts since the previous national census in 2000.
California will also see the two candidates who get the most votes advance to the general election in November, regardless of party. This means that two Democrats or two Republicans could be competing for the same congressional seat on November 6.
"With nonpartisan redistricting and this new 'top two' primary system, California suddenly becomes very interesting and one of the more competitive states in the entire country," Kondik said.
A dozen districts that had once been predictable are now in play, according to California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro, resulting in heavy spending as candidates, some of whom had to move into their new districts, introduce themselves to new constituents.
"This is going to be a record year for campaign spending in California," Del Beccaro said. "There's going to be a dramatic rise in spending, not only for this primary but also this fall."
For first time since 1920, slowing population growth meant California did not add any seats to its 53-member congressional delegation, adding even more uncertainty by matching incumbents against one another in some redrawn districts.
"Short term, this is off the rails; this is crazy," said Paul Mitchell, a Democratic consultant in California.
INCUMBENT VS. INCUMBENT
Redistricting has created a "huge leap" in the number of districts with more than 50 percent minority voters, Mitchell said. Majority-Hispanic legislative districts have increased from 19 to 29, and California now has the only majority-Asian district in the continental United States.
Two congressional contests have attracted particular attention with two longtime Democratic incumbents running against each other.
Representatives Howard Berman and Brad Sherman are duking it out in a closely watched race in California's 30th district, in Los Angeles County. Due to the "top two" rule, both are likely to advance to a real competition in November, analysts said.
"This primary on Tuesday for them is like a pre-season NFL football game," Kondik said. "It's like a dress rehearsal for the actual election."
The same is true of two incumbent Democratic congresswomen, Janice Hahn and Laura Richardson, who are facing off in the new 44th district in Los Angeles County.
In their quest to win back a majority in the U.S. House, Democrats would have to gain four or five seats in California, which Kondik said would be difficult but not impossible.
Republicans control the House with a 242-190 majority, with three seats vacant. Outside California and Illinois, Democrats are mainly playing defense, trying to hold seats they already have.
NATIONWIDE BATTLE
Several other states also hold primaries on Tuesday.
In Montana, the U.S. Senate battle is one of the hottest in the nation. Montana's only member of the House, Republican Denny Rehberg, is challenging first-term Democratic Senator Jon Tester.
Both candidates are known across the state and are expected to easily win their respective party primaries on Tuesday.
Republicans are targeting a New Mexico U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman in their quest to win a U.S. Senate majority in 2012. Democrats hold a 51-47 majority, with two independents who usually vote with Democrats.
While New Mexico leans Democratic because of its large Hispanic population, the state occasionally elects Republicans, including Governor Susana Martinez.
Former Congresswoman Heather Wilson is expected to easily win the Republican nomination over businessman Greg Sowards, said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research and Polling Inc in Albuquerque.
The Democratic Senate primary race is expected to be more competitive, with Congressman Martin Heinrich against state Auditor Hector Balderas. While Heinrich leads in the polls, Sanderoff said undecided Hispanic voters will most likely choose a Hispanic surname when they go to vote.
In New Jersey, primary voters will select a replacement for U.S. Representative Donald Payne, the state's first black congressman, who died in March.
Payne's son, Newark City Council President Donald Payne Jr., is one of six candidates. The elder Payne had represented New Jersey's 10th congressional district since 1989.
Primaries are also to be held in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Iowa, but the most competitive races in those states will be in November.
(Reporting by Mary Slosson; Additional reporting by Dan Boyce in Montana, Zelie Pollon in New Mexico, David Bailey in Minnesota, Kay Henderson in Iowa and Edith Honan in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Source: news.yahoo.com
Painting from the heart - Deccan Herald
Primitive art
Puerta del Sol is quite truly the heart of Madrid. Steeped in history and dotted with prominent sights, it pulsates day-long with locals and tourists, all happily soaking in merry Spanish vibes.
In sunny springtime I was one among them, watching the converging of people and browsing through the atmospheric radial streets around Sol that have all forms of entertainment wrapped in their folds.
I let my eyes wander through all things wonderfully vibrant, from the arts to shopping, from cinema to architectural beauties. On one of the streets here I found artists engrossed with paint and brush; and while swiftly viewing their works, my gaze got transfixed on paintings clustered under a board that said ‘pintura naif’.
These were canvases where happy, bright colours had been used for idealised portrayals — almost child-like in perspective — of city-life and countryside. The depictions were simple and real and I enjoyed looking at the works, which had me smiling often. It was the innocence of everyday living that had captured my imagination and as I saw the canvas developing, I felt I was looking at a bedtime story coming alive.
There was a hen and her brood here, a grandma there, a shining sun, swaying green fields and a bright red tractor parked somewhere in between. I was intrigued and wanted to know what ‘pintura naf’ meant.
Looking around
I walked up to one of the painters to enquire. And in that engaging Spanish lilt his explanation of the two words made it all fall in place. “Pintura is painting and naf is nave. What I’m doing is also called contemporary primitive art,” he smiled. “I went to no school. I paint from my heart,” he said and got back to the canvas.
Painting from the heart, the expression the painter used, is so true to primitive or untutored art.
It’s a genre where no restriction of formal form comes into play, thus the simplicity of outlook. In this idiom you express it as you feel it and more than often it’s a romanticised depiction: timeless and optimistic.
The nave artist, usually self-taught, leads a spectator to a distinctively realistic scenario, yet tremendously individual. Typically, it’s his visualisation of a particular vista, season, event, custom… and these are almost always brimming with hope, for the artist prefers seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses!
“The reason why a nave canvas is abuzz with cheerful hues, has tones of satire, but overall is wrapped in lots of love that brings happiness to the soul,” the Madrid painter had warmly explained to me via an impromptu translator, one among the many bystanders appreciating the art woks.
Across the world examples of primitive art are available, and though each
society uses local symbolism in their versions, the spontaneity and spirit is universal. The features of this art include bold depictions, shying away from abstract thought and most essentially the constant use of primary colours from the palette.
Nave artists are also considered keepers of tradition. Spanish nave art, for example, is said to have found its niche around the end of the 19th century, when the kingdom began witnessing political and economic disturbances. The constant unrest and decaying of society roused nave artists to safeguard Spanish culture. Thus artists began portraying Spain’s history, royalty, village life, towns, customs, architecture, etc.
In present times, when the world is getting shrunk, where information travels faster than light and technology becomes defunct in a matter of a few days, primitive artists remind us of bygone times when living was less frenzied and small pleasures delighted. As my translator in Madrid put it, “Artists of this century will capture today. And even today, they can see joy in the mundane.”
Source: www.deccanherald.com
Painting the town to celebrate new shop - This is Dorset
Painting the town to celebrate new shop
2:00pm Tuesday 5th June 2012 in Latest By Stephen Bailey
BUDDING businessman Ben Hodson is one of four traders told: “You’re Hired!”
The 21-year-old will now get £1,000 from Bournemouth council to help set up a shop.
The scheme is supposed bring long-neglected shops back into life around Pokesdown station.
If the four winners are still going after six months, they get another £1,000.
Ben and the other winners had to submit business plans then last week passed a Dragons Den-style interview.
His shop, Red Tail Studios, will sell art material and clothes printed with unique designs by local artists.
Ben, from Southbourne, told the Daily Echo: “It’s a service you can’t really get on your own.
“The area is definitely developing and I want to take part in the events.”
The council wanted traders who fit the area’s growing reputation for independent arts, crafts and vintage shops.
Another winner was Cotton Candy Design, co-founded by Cara Lloyd-Hopkins, 39, from Charminster.
The shop will sell handmade and ‘up-cycled’ products like furniture, handbags and cushions.
David Mitchell, also known as Dame Kitty from cabaret restaurant Rubyz, is opening an upmarket charity shop for Kitty’s Wish Foundation.
He said: “Our investment will include a complete re-fit of the shop which will greatly improve the look of the street.”
Last year’s version of the scheme led to the creation of two shops that are still trading, Kaotic Handbag and What Alice Found.
Sally Turner, Boscombe’s regeneration officer and one of the interview judges, said: “This project is about the long term.”
She said traders must attend a “scary” business workshop to check their preparation and they are supported after the October opening deadline.
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Source: www.thisisdorset.net
California can't get enough of the Chevy Volt as sales surge - Detroit Free Press
Just a few weeks after General Motors curbed production of Volts, Chevrolet dealers in California are scrambling to get the extended-range electric cars on their lots as sales surge because of special state incentives for electric vehicles and West Coast gas still above $4 a gallon.
It's ironic because lower demand, in general, prompted GM to shut down production for five weeks during April and May. GM still plans a three-week shutdown this summer at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant.
"I've had more people talk to me in the last couple months about the Volt than I have in the last year," said Bill Cumming, general manager of Ron Baker Chevrolet in National City, Calif., a San Diego suburb. "Currently, I have none in stock."
U.S. sales of the Volt remain mediocre at best -- just 1,680 in May. But the car is gaining momentum in California, where hybrid and electric car owners are allowed to use carpool lanes no matter how many people are in the car. Through the first quarter, the Golden State accounted for nearly 23% of all Volt registrations, according to R.L. Polk.
It's more difficult to supply the California market because Volts must have a special low-emissions package for owners to qualify for special state incentives. And the package cannot be added after production.
Considering that GM's market share in California was only 9.3% during that period, compared with 17.4% nationwide, Chevrolet can't miss any opportunity to meet demand in the most populous state. Buyers registered 837 Volts in California in the first quarter. The next-best market was Michigan, at 232 registrations, or 6.28%.
"It is crucial that the Volt performs well there. Volt's success there says that Volt is indeed an environmentally advanced and friendly vehicle," Polk analyst Thomas Libby said in an e-mail. "GM and the other domestics have for years struggled in California; the success of the Volt in California will help GM in its efforts to be viewed as a competitive manufacturer that offers contemporary and competitive products."
The supply and demand issue for GM is complex when selling Volts in California.
For Volts headed to California, GM tweaks the exhaust system to reduce emissions from its gas generator to virtually zero. The low-emissions package qualifies owners to drive solo in special carpool lanes and receive a $1,500 state tax rebate. All Volt owners, regardless of state, qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit.
Starting at about $39,000, the car remains expensive for most consumers. But in California, which has a high concentration of wealthy car buyers, the sticker price isn't as shocking.
Lure of carpool lanes
The carpool lane incentive has been in effect since February. The state has 1,400 miles of carpool lanes that are coveted real estate for commuters grappling with congestion. Some resort to inflatable dolls and mannequins to appear to qualify for the lanes.
GM says the Volt is selling particularly strong in the San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego markets -- areas notorious for intense congestion.
Mike Luner, executive manager of Del Grande Dealer Group's Capitol Chevrolet in San Jose, estimated that carpool lanes were the "primary deciding factor" for nine in 10 Volt buyers.
"Time is the most valuable commodity to these people," Luner said. "Our idea is that we want to take the opportunity to capture them with the Volt but for them to consider the other products that Chevrolet has in the future."
"There is a shortage of Volts for us," said Darryl Holter, CEO of Downtown L.A. Auto Group, whose Felix Chevrolet dealership had sold 29 Volts this year as of May 29. "We'll look to other dealers to see if they have any."
GM spokeswoman Michelle Malcho said GM was "really just starting" to meet demand for the Volt in California within the last several weeks.
"We sold everything we had out there basically," she said.
Calling on other states
The Volt has been a target of conservative pundits who have tied it to the government's rescue of GM through the 2009 bankruptcy restructuring. GM began engineering the car at least as early as 2007.
Two fires in Volt battery packs on cars that had been crash-tested generated another round of criticism. No Volt owners have experienced a fire in their cars.
When GM backed off its 2012 production targets for the vehicle, the criticism got louder, and CEO Dan Akerson lamented that the car had become a "political football."
But in California, the positive buzz for the Volt seems to be drowning out the criticism.
Some California dealers are so desperate for Volts that they're offering to buy more from dealers in other states.
"They had that shutdown for five weeks, which gave us no inventory," said Steve Krueger, inventory and fleet manager for Courtesy Chevrolet in San Diego. "We were buying them from out of state and selling those."
California dealers said buyers are quicker to embrace new technology, and the Volt's reputation as an environmentally friendly car is gaining traction.
Shaun Del Grande, president of Del Grande Dealer Group in the Bay Area, said Volt supply at Capitol Chevrolet has improved in recent weeks. He said the carpool lane ruling has been a "tremendous" boon to sales.
"We're seeing new customers at Chevrolet that we've never seen before," he said.
Contact Nathan Bomey: 313-223-4743 or nbomey@freepress.com
Source: www.freep.com
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