On the eve of the United Nations climate summit summitthis week, Gov.Jerry Brownsigned six bills to make California the biggest electric vehicle market in the nation. Brown’s goal is to have 1.5 million zero-emission cars on the road by 2025.

The new laws expand the number of clean air vehicles with access to carpool and toll lanes from 55,000 to 70,000, regardless of how many occupants ride in the vehicles.

However, what Brown did not focus on are the electric car subsidies being extended to low income residents, under the administration of the Air Resources Board.Criticsof the increasingly subsidized green political movement say this is simply more taxpayer funded… Read More

The California Air Resources Board is a state agency completely out of control. With no oversight by the Legislature, as the California Constitution calls for, Mary Nichols, ARB Chairman, is setting policy on behalf of this regulatory body, for the entire state.

ARB Goes It Alone

The ARB has taken a great deal of liberty, particularly with its interpretation of AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006. TheARB devised a cap-and-trade system whereby it holds a quarterly auction program “requiring many California employers to bid significant amounts of money for the privilege of continuing to emit carbon dioxide — or be faced with closing their doors in California, laying… Read More

By Tom Tanton and Jean Pagnone

When California makes the news, it is typically an example of what not to do. It is a state with high unemployment, out of control spending, and high taxes. Therefore it should be no surprise that California is in the news again thanks to California Air Resources Board and AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act.

Additional revelations about ‘scientists’ fudging underlying data have surfaced and advocates for the poor are awakening to the economic devastation wrought by CARB’s implementation. Now CARB has issued a legislatively required update to its ‘scoping plan.’ Discussions have reignited about the need, the mechanism and the overall benefits of this bureaucratic attempt to do something about the weather. Most significant perhaps is the application of cap and trade rules to transportation fuels which are scheduled to go into effect January 2015. This new, permanent hidden gas tax created by CARB and implemented without legislative approval will likely cost Californians 15 cents to over a dollar more per gallon of gas, with that amount continuing to increase. That adds up to $3 to $9 billion dollars taken out of… Read More

If you haven’t read my two lengthy columns earlier this week about the recent Senate committee hearing about how to spend the Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auction revenues, take the time to do so – Part l is HERE, and Part ll is HERE.

They exemplify what takes place inside the State Capitol every day, and show how policy is made.

I transcribed exactly what was said at the four-hour hearing on climate change policies, with Senators deciding how to spend the anticipated $3 to $5 billion a year taxed on California businesses who have been deemed polluters by the California Air Resources Board.

The billions of dollars expected from the CaliforniaAir Resources Board’scap and trade auctions areexpected to pay for the anticipated transition from a market economy to a centrally planned one. Yetnothing in… Read More

Part ll in a two part series. Part l can be found here.

Last week I wrote about a recent Senate Budget Committee cap and trade hearing and the billions of dollars expected to be generated by the Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auctions.

One of the issued I posed was the original purpose of passage of AB 32, the legislation under which the cap and trade hearings are conducted.AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, established the goal of reducing… Read More

With billions of dollars expected to be generated by the California Air Resource Board’s cap and trade auctions, many in the Legislature are excited with ideas of how to spend the money.

But rather than scheming on foolhardy, unsustainable spending plans, if the real goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, experts involved in the process say the Legislature should give the money back to the businesses it taxed, with the proviso the money is spent helping the companies lower their emissions.

What is AB 32 and Cap and Trade?

Last week, the Senate held a very… Read More

The governor’s 2014-15 budget proposes to spend $850 million from cap-and-trade auction revenue on various projects — including the state’s high-speed rail project. However, this would defy the very purpose of cap-and-trade.

Under AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, cap and trade takes money from business owners and manufacturers who produce products, but are deemed “polluters” by the state.

It’s like being taxed for being a business that emits any greenhouse gas emissions.

That money is taken out of the economy, and given to the government to decide how it will be spent.

California business owners only know it is money they… Read More

The governor’s 2014-15 budget proposes to spend $850 million from cap-and-trade auction revenue on various projects — including the state’s high-speed rail project. However, this would defy the very purpose of cap-and-trade.

Under AB 32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, cap and trade takes money from business owners and manufacturers who produce products, but are deemed “polluters” by the state.

It’s like being taxed for being a business that emits any greenhouse gas emissions.

That money is taken out of the economy, and given to the government to decide how it will be spent.

California business owners only know it is money they… Read More