(Picture courtesy of the O.C. Register).
Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, who receives $600 a month from the City of Santa Ana as a car allowance, and who often drives a hybrid car provided for free by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) told the O.C. Register that the high gas prices that are brutally hurting the working poor of Santa Ana are “absolutely good, just a painful way to do it.”
Pulido also said that, “I think ultimately it’s the only way to do it. Wall Street won’t finance a product unless it gets a good rate of return. High energy prices, I think, create an environment where courageous politicians can survive and create better policy.”
The O.C. Register interview with Pulido also disclosed that he is now driving a BMW Hydrogen 7 car that has been provided to him for free by BMW.
So Pulido gets paid a car allowance even though he spends ZERO on a car and he thinks high gas prices are fine because, essentially, they don’t hurt him one tiny bit. But in his own mind he is a “courageous politician.” Why is it he just sounds like a pompous ass?
The funniest part of the interview is the bit where Pulido claims electric cars are better than hydrogen cars because refineries produce hydrogen But doesn’t Pulido know where electricity comes from? Generally speaking it comes from coal-fired power plants in Utah and from plants that use natural gas. Is Pulido that stupid that he thinks electricity is a cleaner sort of power than hydrogen?
And didn’t Pulido get his start via a muffler shop his dad started in Santa Ana? Pulido also owns a muffler manufacturing company in Mexico. So he has benefited big time from the auto industry. But now he wants to preach to the rest of us. What a hypocrite!
Update:
The chart above is from Wikipedia. It depicts sources of electricity in the U.S. in 2006. Please note that 48.9% of our electricity comes from coal-fired power plants. Another 21.6% comes from natural gas and petroleum, and 19.#% comes from nuclear power. Only 7.1% comes from hydroelectric sources and a miniscule 2.4% comes from renewable sources. Don’t forget that wind turbines kill thousands of birds, including raptors, every year. Obviously Pulido has no clue where the electricity he is so fond of comes from!
Miguel Pulido says high gas prices are fantastic - what do YOU think of them?
- Maybe Miguel Pudrido was high when he said that? (50%, 11 Votes)
- $5 a gallon? Forget it! We need to start drilling off the coast NOW! (27%, 6 Votes)
- I'm with Chuck DeVore - more nukes! (14%, 3 Votes)
- Miguelito is right - I love paying almost $5 a gallon for gas! (9%, 2 Votes)
- Electric cars rock - who cares if we have to burn coal to make the electricity! (0%, 0 Votes)
- Hydrogen cars sound good to me - but $600 a month to lease one? Yikes! (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 22
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Wow, I didnt expect this reaction when gas prices went up. What about supply and demand? Oh yeah that only works when we are getting cheap plastic crap from wallmart. It appears that this free enterprise knife cuts both ways.
I wonder if you would be happier if Pulido drove a Hummer and paid more for gas than his “allowance” reimbursed him. Besides its all part of the compensation for the office not for Pulido personally. If he can figure out a way to make it work for him without doing something fraudulent I say “good for him.”
Now about these gas prices … how much of the current price is supply and demand and how much is inflated to drive up the stock price?
I think the city should send everyone in the city a $600 check per month to help out with our gasoline costs. It is only fair.
Retire already
Art,
Just one little perk that these guys get for having to put up with all the hacks who, well, hack away.
I didn’t know that BMW model was available yet. I’ll have ot check it out.
Coal is not clean fuel but solar and wind are good clean energy. And guess what? They produce electricity!
Mary,
See the chart I just added to my post. Only 2.4% of our electricity comes from renewable sources. But 68% comes from natural gas and coal-fired power plants. I guess Pulido has no clue where electricity comes from…
Can the Papi be any more CLUELESS?
And you have no clue as to where electricity is going.
Pulido is right. I drive a Mazda 3 that my wife gets a good deal on cause she works for Mazda. Hope that doesn’t poison my ability to state the obvious about how markets work.
Mr. Pedroza, would you accept a car if one was given to you for free?….
#9,
Who wouldn’t? But that is NOT the issue. Why is Pulido taking our tax money, to the tune of $600 a month, when he is NOT spending any money on his vehicle? That is called DOUBLE-DIPPING. It is usually ILLEGAL. Get it?
Ron,
No. Pulido is wrong. Hydrogen comes from cracking natural gas. Electricity comes mostly from coal fired power plants.
Natural gas can be generated by trash and sewage. It is MUCH cleaner than burning coal.
So no, Pulido is very wrong indeed.
Art, I take back my previous comment if it implied that he didnt have to spend that money on what it was intended for. You are right, double-dipping is wrong. He should pay back any amount of that car allowance that isn’t spent on the car for fuel, oil, or maintenance.
“Why is Pulido taking our tax money, to the tune of $600 a month, when he is NOT spending any money on his vehicle?”
Mr. Pedroza, that is how the accounting works. You and others do same on their income taxes every year.
On your return, you can elect to take car expense as standard or itemized deduction [which ever is higher] regardless whether or not you have actually spent the money if you elect standard one.
I always take standard deduction which brings me more than $600 per year of “taxpayer’s money” because the government estimated millage expense is much higher than my actual expense.
It is all legal and moral so relax!
What Land is this Recorded in the County of Orange, and who has a interest in it?
Also excepting therefrom, all remaining minerals, oil, gas, petroleum, other hydrocarbon substances and geothermal heat in or under or which may be produced from said land and the perpetual right of exploring and prospecting for, and developing, producing, extracting, and taking said minerals, oil, gas, petroleum, other hydrocarbon substances and geothermal heat from said land by means of mines, shafts, tunnels, wells, derricks or other equipment from surface locations on adjoining or neighboring land or lying outside of the said land. It goes on and on to:
All water rights or interests in the water rights that may be within, under or on the property, whether such water rights are riparian, overlying, appropriative, percolating, prescriptive or contractual, provided, however, that the reservation made herein shall not reserve to or for the benefit of grantor any right to enter upon the surface of the property in the exercise of such rights, together with the right and power to use or utilize on any other property owned or leased by grantor any and all water rights or interests in water rights no matter how acquired by grantor.
Tell him not to gloat too much, that to me is a conflict of interest, and his co-chair. Does he know what profiteering is? It is the act of making a profit from others misery.
I should add that the entire BMW cost ($60,000+) is paid for by the taxpayers because the car dealer deducts it as an expense.
Art,
If Pulido did something illegal, then talk to a prosecutor and have legal action brought against him. Go ahead. We’ll be waiting to read all about how you did that.
#16,
You’ll be happy to know that there are already a few folks looking into that.
As an employee of Orange County, I sign an oath to avoid the appearance of improprieties each year. It is disturbing to see a PUBLIC SERVANT (which is what being Mayor is) being served by the public. The public is paying this servant $600 dollars for reasonable vehicle use, but he does not use it; instead he sucks up to corporations and takes on an appearance of using and being used by corporations. Just who is Mayor Pulido supposed to serve? Time for a new Mayor.
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