CA: Gov. Backs Greenhouse Gas Strategy ... despite opposition from GOP and business leaders

Los Angeles Times ^ | April 11, 2006 | Janet Wilson and Marc Lifsher

[calcowgirl]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will announce today his support for a strategy to combat global warming that has drawn criticism from Republicans and business leaders, aides said Monday.

The market-based approach would include controversial "cap-and-trade" requirements mandating greenhouse gas producers who exceed certain tonnages of harmful emissions to buy credits from other companies that have lowered emissions.

Schwarzenegger is expected to make the announcement, endorsing major components of his climate action team's plan, at a summit he has convened in San Francisco this afternoon bringing together economists, investors, business executives, environmentalists and lawmakers.

Legislative approval could be needed to enact key elements of the 1,300-page plan, including the cap-and-trade system and a registry for businesses to report the amounts of greenhouse gases they emit.

Terry Tamminen, special advisor to the governor on environment and energy issues, said that under the market-based program, power plants, for instance, would be able to buy emissions credits not just from other power plants but also from other industries, including timber companies that set aside forests to trap carbon dioxide, a key greenhouse gas. Tamminen said such broad access to the credit market would help to drive prices down.

Limited versions of such market-based programs are operating in Chicago and Europe, he said, adding that California's would go much further. Schwarzenegger has said he wants to reduce greenhouse gases by 80% by 2050, putting the state ahead of the rest of the world.

Tamminen said one-third of those reductions could come from a market-based cap-and-trade program. The plan calls for two years of study to design the program.

Cap-and-trade programs are opposed by the Bush administration as well as by many of Schwarzenegger's business backers, including major oil companies and the California Chamber of Commerce.

[calcowgirl]

Schwarzenegger said in a news conference last week, "I have to say that the federal government has so far fallen short with showing leadership when it comes to the environment. I think that I, as governor, don't want to wait for the federal government or for any other states, as far as that goes [to act on global warming]…. California has always been innovative and has always been bold about those kind of things, and I think that this is a very bold move, this report."

[goldstategop]

Hurrah - the California Chamber Of Commerce Big Business types get both cheap labor (the illegals) and more government regulation (global warming). Now they should sit down and shut up.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[coconutt2000]

I predict a few enterprising anti-industrialists will buy up companies with lots of pollution credits, shut them down, sell the pieces, but maintain the fiction of the company.

Then they'll sell the excess pollution credits to companies that want them and make money coming and going.

The downside will be that the workers at the company will be downsized...

(Only one of the thousands of possible scenarios on why cap-and-trade environmental policies are likely to cause havoc while improving absolutely nothing.)

[goldstategop]

Its all a shell game to make it look like something is being done to cut down on global warming. In the real world, apart from all the paper being shuffled around, it won't affect global warming one iota. One could argue more heat will be created from all the paper milled than from whatever credits are swapped between companies. I find it astonishing intelligent people could fall for such nonsense. But they do take it seriously here. Welcome to Coolyfornia - the home of fruit, flakes and nuts.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[norge]

Time to nominate Alan Autry.

[baltoga]

Hmm in other words an environmental tycoon.

[Amerigomag]

My prediction in 2006.

By 2008, H₂0 will be added to the greenhouse gas list. It will be mandatory for motor vehicles to have collection devices added to their exhaust systems to prevent H₂O from condensing and dripping onto the pavement. Fuel vendors will have certified collection stations to retrieve the ugly substance from vehicle exhaust traps and transport it to state approved, hazardous waste sites. Dumping the traps along a country road or in the gutter will be a felony.