BOARDS OF SUPERVISORS GREENLIGHTS JUVIE SOLAR PANELS: 'NO NEW SHADE FOR DELINQUENTS!'

It seems even the Juvenile Court can’t escape the green energy industrial complex, folks. Our esteemed Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, in their infinite wisdom, just gave the nod to plastering solar arrays over the parking lot at the Santa Maria Juvenile Court. Apparently, the sight of a few extra kilowatt-hours is more important than, say, ensuring our next generation understands the basics of economic freedom.

Reading the agenda item, one might imagine a critical infrastructure project, but no, it's just more solar panels, this time on a parking lot for kids who've clearly already made a few questionable life choices. The Board, in its infinite capacity to find a loop in every rulebook, declared this grand endeavor 'statutorily exempt' from CEQA. Because nothing screams 'environmental protection' like avoiding environmental review for installing a bunch of panels that do little to move the needle on our actual energy needs.

While President Trump's administration is busy unleashing American energy independence, these local bureaucrats are celebrating solarizing a parking lot, probably paid for with a healthy dose of taxpayer subsidies and grants. It’s a perfect example of the left's priorities: shiny, symbolic gestures over practical, common-sense solutions. Let's hope those solar panels don't somehow block the sun's natural vitamin D, because our judicial system already has enough problems without adding rickets to the mix.

What this really tells us is that even our county's most sensitive facilities aren't safe from the relentless march of virtue-signaling projects. One wonders if the next agenda item will be organic composting bins for seized evidence or mandatory meditation for court clerks. The Whipping Post predicts a sudden uptick in the court's carbon footprint from all the administrative paperwork required to justify the 'environmental' project.