Posted on 08/13/2012 2:16:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Big business sees California's global-warming law as a job killer, a $1 billion tax that could force some of the state's heaviest industries to flee.
..state regulators, trying to ease the burden, are studying whether to give hardship breaks to dozens of companies.
....the state would dole out extra carbon credits the precious allowances that will give industries the license to emit greenhouse gases starting in January.... could save companies millions of dollars.
Like practically everything connected with..the Global Warming Solutions Act, the idea is controversial.
..."We're concerned about the system being gamed," said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California.
....Handing out additional free credits "would provide much-needed relief. It won't solve the whole problem," said Ed Yates of the California League of Food Processors...
Carbon credits are at the very heart of AB 32. This fall the state will allocate millions of them, each representing a ton of greenhouse gases, to approximately 430 factories, refineries and other industrial users.
In total, the credits will constitute a ceiling on California's annual carbon emissions.
The allotment will be reduced 2 percent to 3 percent a year in order to gradually bring down the amount of carbon in the air.
The 430 affected companies will get most of their allowances from the state for free 90 percent in each of the first two years.
The rest of the credits will cost money. Companies will be able to buy them directly from the state, which will hold regular auctions starting in November.
Or they can buy them from other companies on the state's "cap and trade" market.
The market is patterned after carbon markets that have been run for years by the European Union and a coalition of northeastern states.
It's making California businesses nervous....
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
The allotment will be reduced 2 percent to 3 percent a year in order to gradually bring down the amount of carbon in the air.
Uhm, yeah, except the "carbon in the air" will keep increasing thanks to industry being sent to China.
An inescapable truth mentioned down in the article (as well as CA businesses competing with other states currently w/o California's additional anti-business regulations).
The flight of businesses (and tax revenue) from CA will accelerate.
‘”We’re concerned about the system being gamed,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California.’
Whenever presented with a system as complex, arcane, constantly-changing, and insanely bureaucratic as anything coming out of California, smart people have no choice BUT to try to game the system out of self defense.
The funny thing is that simpler systems are much harder to game.
So true. Imagine a simple flat tax vs the behemoth we deal with.
If this happens, Franklin Raines’ patent on the carbon credit business model has to be re-examined. Clearly if state governments can print carbon credits by fiat, Raines’ model is unsound.
You will need a wheelbarrow full of carbon credits just to light up your fireplace.
That’s actually why we’re in the mess we’re in. Once upon a time, even the very rich with complex holdings and estates could fill out their tax forms and pay the correct amount in less than an hour. It wasn’t worth the time to try to game the system, and if you wanted to bring your tax burden down, you simply donated as much money as you wished to bring that number down.
Once taxation became so complex that one had to have a dedicated tax accountant and a tax lawyer on staff, well, it cost no additional money to task them with making sure you paid as little tax as possible - and in fact would make them a better value if they were kept busy looking for ways to reduce the amount paid in addition to keeping track of your finances.
It is simply not possible for governments to repeal the "law of supply and demand". Bureaucratic bungling will always miss the unintended consequences of government regulation. If California implements Cap and Trade, business will move to Texas. If US implements Cap and Trade, business will move from Texas to Mexico. If Mexico implements Cap and Trade, business will move to China. A few ignorant politicians cannot stop it.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
That was underneath the plan all along.
"Regulations too burdensome? Need some help? I'll get you help - for just the smallest of cost, we'll get you that advantage you need to survive, and your competitor won't."
Then they do what Obama is doing, unleash the EPA to dictate universal regulations over the states.
And speaking of "supply and demand".....
yeah, except the “carbon in the air” will keep increasing thanks to industry being sent to China.
........................................................
These dummies completely ignore the fact that the air in California does not stay right over California.
If we keep those business’s regulated and make a try at cleaning our atmosphere isn’t it better to have hose business’s here than in China where they could care less about pollution?
But no, they run these business’s out of the country and wonder why they left.
Fools.
The whole carbon credit issue was a scam started by ENRON.
This will be a complete budget disaster. There simply is no way to make cap ‘n trade into anything other than a vehicle for scams which will make California’s many other problems pale by comparison. This is an easy, easy, $50 billion ripoff of the taxpayers for the benefit of foreign criminals.
Who are these people that continue to proffer such nutty stuff...just to keep their jobs...California can hardly afford to turn the lights on let alone start this expensive nonsense again.........
So, like Obama’s friends being exempted from Obamacare because they bitched it would cost them to much to comply, California is exempting people from their laws because they might leave.
Why make a law if you are going to exempt people?
The Global Varming Scamalamadingdong Scam is just that, a scam. CARB, the Gubinator, MoonBeam and the rest of the green maggots could care less about Mother Earth or its inhabitants.
It’s all about control.
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