Posted on 01/22/2007 5:50:21 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Uncertainty over how California will implement new regulations seeking to cut greenhouse gas emissions could delay business investments and force companies to cut jobs, industry leaders told state regulators Monday.
The uncertainty stems from the broad mandate in the state's new global warming law. The law, which passed with great fanfare last year and took effect Jan. 1, imposes an economy-wide cap on greenhouse gas emissions but leaves open how much individual companies, industries and sectors must reduce their emissions.
Developing regulations to implement the law by the state Air Resources Board could take three years or longer. That's too long for companies writing business plans, said Dorothy Rothrock, vice president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.
"If you're a company and you're making an investment decision of any kind - expanding, modernizing, switching over to new processes - it would be nice for them to be able to factor in how they will be treated," said Rothrock, who leads a coalition that will lobby for businesses as the state begins to implement the law.
Rothrock and other business leaders urged the agency to set guidelines this year for utilities, refineries, cement manufacturers and others that will be affected by the law.
Monday's meeting was the air board's first public workshop focused on how the state's greenhouse gas law might be implemented. The law imposes the country's first statewide cap on emissions, aiming to reduce heat-trapping gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020 - an estimated 174 million metric tons.
The law is one of the key ways California seeks to combat the effects of climate change. Scientists and experts in various state agencies say climate change threatens California's water supply, agriculture, forests and coast line.
Among the first challenges in imposing the emissions cap is a directive by the Legislature to create initial steps industries can take to reduce emissions before the caps take full effect in 2012.
As part of that initial surge, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this month proposed that the air board adopt regulations promoting the use of low-carbon fuels. The governor last week signed an executive order mandating that California refineries reduce the carbon content of passenger vehicle fuels 10 percent by 2020.
The air board, which has jurisdiction over vehicle emissions, is considering implementing the proposal. Where the other early emission reductions could happen and how companies might get credit are key parts of the debate.
At the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, for example, officials are considering using manure to generate electricity. But executives are questioning whether they should hold off on the project until they are required to reduce emissions.
"We'd like to get credit for it. Do we do it now or do we wait?" said Bud Beebe, the utility's regulatory affairs coordinator. "What the heck do we do?"
The question is a major concern for business leaders who say they want to begin scaling back emissions but don't want to be penalized later by not getting credit for their initial actions.
The law provides little clarity on that point. But Catherine Witherspoon, executive director of the Air Resources Board, assured business leaders their efforts would be taken into account.
"It's worthwhile to reduce greenhouse gas emissions now because at the very least it minimizes the reductions that are coming," she said.
California Air Resources Board
http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm
"If you're a company and you're making an investment decision of any kind - expanding, modernizing, switching over to new processes - it would be nice for them to be able to factor in how they will be treated," said Rothrock, who leads a coalition that will lobby for businesses as the state begins to implement the law.
Imagine that. Passing a law that is unclear and not completely defined. Nothing like leaving the doors open to a BIG SURPRISE!!!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Our legislature passes laws, but agency beureaucrats write the actual regulations to implement said laws. These buereaucrats are typically 60's hippies, envirowhacko's or recent mid eastern immigrants.
Our legislature passes laws, but agency beaureaucrats write the actual regulations to implement said laws. These buereaucrats are typically 60's hippies, envirowhacko's or recent mid eastern immigrants.
In California, guaranteed.. unfortunately.
It's going to be interesting in deciding who gets what caps.
Essentially the big guys are going to eat up the little guys, forcing them with lower caps, paying more political contributions to get higher caps so they can continue the same emissions, or lobbying for higher caps so they can get freebie carbon credits to play the market with. The bigger guys will also have better ability to fake their stats.
The smartest thing that a business could do is leave a liberal/socialist state and take up shop in a state where there's a climate that doesn't seek to punish businesses. California is not such a state.
""If you're a company and you're making an investment decision of any kind - expanding, modernizing, switching over to new processes - it would be nice for them to be able to factor in how they will be treated," said Rothrock, who leads a coalition that will lobby for businesses as the state begins to implement the law.""
Translation-we have a disencentive to modernize and switch to new processes now because if we wait we might get money, carbon credits, for something we were already intending to do.
or... Translation: any company making deccisions on expanding, consolidating, modernizing, etc., will now add the "ABC" factor.... Anyplace but California.
For many years, I was heavily involved in these kind of decisions for a Fortune 100 company and I can tell you, there is no way we would be considering growing the business in California with the things now looming on the horizon. The borrowing (debt obligation--pending tax increases), more environmental regulation, healthcare mandates, "discrimination" laws, etc. California is quickly becoming the most business-unfriendly state in the country.
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