How about Dumb Quixote!!!
Posted on 03/02/2009 9:28:43 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Even during this deep recession, California's air-quality regulators are on an accelerated schedule to adopt a series of global warming initiatives considered unmatched worldwide.
Their aggressive push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming will eventually touch everyday life in both small and significant ways.
Just Thursday, the state Air Resources Board moved to regulate fluorinated gases commonly used by the Silicon Valley-centered semiconductor industry to make chips used in cell phones and computers.
A few weeks earlier, do-it-yourself mechanics were the target. Regulators adopted tighter rules on small cans of refrigerants that recharge vehicle air conditioners, potentially adding $1 to each can starting next year. To encourage recycling, regulators also imposed a refundable $10-per-can deposit – a leak of just 12 ounces produces as much greenhouse gas as a car burning 50 gallons of gas.
Even more regulations are on the way, practically every month for the next two years.
Among the measures under review: fees on gas-guzzling vehicles, taxes on energy producers, rebates for junking old refrigerators, automatic tire pressure checks during smog checks and oil changes, and cleaner fuels for home heating and cooling.
The agenda also includes the nation's first program to reduce the carbon content in transportation fuels, launching a business-friendly trading market for emission credits, and continuing the state's campaign to cut tailpipe emissions.
The 65 pending initiatives, when coupled with several others that have been adopted, could eliminate as much as 125 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually starting in 2020. With 33.5 million vehicles registered, the state estimates that cutting 1 million tons of emissions is equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road for a year.
But at what price? In this sour economy, many of those affected – automakers, small businesses and smokestack industries – are struggling to keep their doors open, much less invest in clean technology.
“When is a good time to do this?” said Sandra Berg, a member of the Air Resources Board. “There's always an opportunity to put things off. The reality is we need to tackle this issue now.”
Berg, president of Ellis Paint Co. in Los Angeles, said the board is purposely phasing in regulations to delay the steepest costs for when the economy rebounds. “It is an unsettling time,” she said.
Nevertheless, she said putting off curbing emissions and cutting energy consumption will increase the threat of global warming, weaken clean-air efforts and add to the toll that pollution takes on public health. “Then, for sure, we implode,” Berg said.
Many businesses are not convinced, particularly because the final bill remains a mystery.
“There needs to be an economic analysis done so we know the regulation is the most cost-effective and technologically feasible,” said Shelly Sullivan, representing a coalition of business groups.
The measures will help implement the state's landmark plan to cut 174 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, an approximately 25 percent reduction from 1990 levels.
Supporters of the strategy, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, warn that global warming could disrupt climatic patterns. That would bring longer droughts, increase the frequency and intensity of forest fires and imperil wildlife.
Rather than a drag on the economy, some see the regulations as an ignition switch for job-creating technologies.
“This is the playbook on how to rebuild our economy,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, a climate change specialist for Environment California, an advocacy group.
San Diego County Supervisor Ron Roberts, an air board member, said he has visited companies on the verge of breakthroughs that will benefit the economy and the environment.
“We've had successes,” Roberts said.
Also, the programs will do more than help curb global warming, he said.
“There are ancillary benefits, for sure – energy independence, reduction in other pollutants,” Roberts said.
Some Republican legislators are skeptical. The air board's overall policy recently survived a challenge by GOP lawmakers, who were using the state budget stalemate to wring environmental concessions out of Democrats, including weakening the global warming campaign.
Sen. Robert Dutton, R-Rancho Cucamonga, has introduced legislation, SB 295, to freeze implementation until the state's unemployment rate – edging above 10 percent in January – dips below 5.8 percent.
Roberts said regulators are always willing to revisit programs if the economic toll is too high. But industry has not presented enough “compelling evidence” to slow progress, he said.
This year, regulators will wrap up about 15 programs by the end of the year, and a dozen measures in 2010. About 30 others either have been approved or are being developed. Still others are considered benign enough to be voluntary. Implementation dates are generally phased in, with the key deadline for compliance centered on 2020.
Several programs are much more far-reaching, controversial and complex than others. For example, regulators will struggle for some time to develop a “cap and trade” program that has divided businesses and environmentalists.
Such a policy would reward low-polluting companies with emissions credits that they can then sell on an open market to industries that cannot readily curb discharges.
While most of the global warming regulations are subject to air board approval, some also fall under the jurisdiction of other agencies, such as the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission.
How about Dumb Quixote!!!
There is nothing friendly about Cap-and-Trade.
GW Ping: CARB is at it again!
Climate Research NewsClick on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
The stupid thing is that many industries will just relocate to another state rather than try to comply with these impossible standards, thereby moving the problem elsewhere. But if it’s a global problem, the net result is the same except California loses revenue from the former employers. Am I missing something?
They should all be over in Australia trying put out the rest of those fires. Wonder how much they contributed to global whateveritis?
California Jobs Transfer Extermination Board.
California’s turning into a giant Prius.
lol dumb socialists haven't a clue. Anyone smart enough to do so has or is planning to move out of California. California's economy is going to go straight down the toilet and is unlikely to recover anytime soon and these morons are the reason why.
I hear ya on the socialists running this green thing and the state into the deep rushes,, call ‘em chalkboard, no make that, greaseboard geniuses.
they just keep fudging the numbers until it looks like the slickest thing since sliced bread.
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