FLASHREPORT

THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING - POLITICALLY AT LEAST

Janice Keating, Candidate for Assembly, District 25

[Publisher's Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from Janice Keating.  A former Modesto City Council Member, Keating is vying for the Republican nomination in the 25th Assembly District - Flash]

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Yesterday another good bill by conservative Assemblyman Dan Logue’s AB 118 – The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 went down in the liberal dominated Assembly Natural Resources Committee.  It was a valiant and principled effort to inject some sanity into the AB 32 mess; a debacle that has cost California countless jobs.  However, while we may have short-term defeats like this, we can win the long-term battle against these extremists on the left. 

In December of 2008, I testified in front of the California Air Resources Board in my capacity as a city council member from Modesto.   I was there to urge the board to delay implementation of the AB32 scoping plan until a full economical analysis could be undertaken.  Like so many others, I was concerned about the devastating impact that these proposed regulations would have on my city and on the state as a whole.

In my section of California’s heartland, ratepayers have been scratching their heads recently after the local utility announced that a planned solar installation would result in a 1.5% increase in electric rates.   Large food processors who have invested in plant expansions and technological improvements in recent years are faced with the prospect of having to roll back these improvements to meet the coming rules.  Unfortunately this is a familiar tune we seem to hear each year.

Many of us know that the extreme-left movement in Sacramento has pushed their green-at-all-costs agenda.  You might be surprised, as I was, how we’ve moved further out on a limb than even Europe.  Just days prior to my testimony to the CARB, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had, boldly stated her opposition to any climate regulation that would endanger jobs or investments in Germany. 

I told the board that if an E.U. stalwart such as Germany was stepping back from the brink, it would be foolish for California to plunge into a reckless scheme of massive regulation.  Apparently I struck a nerve with Chairwoman Mary Nichols as I was the only among several dozen who spoke in opposition that day to receive a verbal rebuke from her.  Given Nichols’ history of being first appointed to the Air Resources Board in 1978 by Jerry Brown and then serving as a top official in the Clinton EPA, I wore her vitriol as a badge of honor.  Chairwoman Nichols lectured me on the merits of the plan but not surprisingly, failed to address my concerns.

However, even if some of these dyed-in-the-wool environmental extremists continue to do everything they can to run our jobs, economy and proud agricultural industry into the ground, I remain optimistic that we can defeat them.   Since December 2008, there have been some developments that indicate a suspension or major overhaul of the regulations mandated under AB32 is not beyond reach.

Internationally, more and more nations are joining Germany in backing off on carbon emission regulation.  Australia, a country often contrasted with the U.S. as a model of new world environmentalism, has scrapped its cap and trade scheme. 

The recent climate change conference in Copenhagen failed to advance a Kyoto type agreement on a global scale.  To the contrary, the session exposed the international carbon regulation movement as nothing more than a Third World grab for cash - a foreign aid bonanza.  This message was not lost on a watching world – and I believe can be a catalyst for Californians to stand up against these climate-change lemmings. 

The year 2010 will provide a great opportunity to make a serious push back against oppressive measures like AB 32.  The current climate-change cheerleading administration is on its way out.  Much of the inertia behind carbon regulation in California was carried by the governor’s global appeal, but our next chief executive, regardless of whether he or she pays homage to the vague theories of human caused global warming, is not likely to adopt carbon regulation as a signature issue with the same fervor.

The Copenhagen fiasco, the exposure of blatant intellectual dishonesty by climatologists and the failure of our state government to give our job-producing businesses a chance to breathe in an already challenging economy should combine to put a serious dent in public support for AB32 implementation.  So let the full-court press begin and let’s embrace this opportunity to get California back off the edge.
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Janice Keating, a former member of the Modesto City Council, is vying for the Republican nomination in Assembly District 25 currently represented by Tom Berryhill.

You can reach Keating, via the FR, here.