Posted on 05/14/2025 2:58:09 PM PDT by karpov
California Gov. Gavin Newsom released his revised state budget proposal for FY 2025–2026 on Wednesday. After having a roughly balanced budget in January, the state must now "close an estimated $12 billion shortfall to balance the budget" because of President Donald Trump's tariffs, which have "driven a downgrade in both the economic and revenue forecasts" and increased spending for the state's Medicaid program.
Despite this shortfall, Newsom's budget calls for maintaining or extending expensive government programs, including the state's cap-and-trade program, which was set to expire in 2030.
Launched in 2013 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the state, the program sets a GHG emissions cap for "covered entities," which includes electricity generators, oil refineries, and manufacturing facilities. Entities must comply with this annual cap either by voluntarily reducing their GHG emissions or by purchasing allowances (essentially permits to emit 1 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent) at quarterly auctions.
Most of the money generated from these auctions goes to the California Climate Investments program, which has funded $12.8 billion worth of environmental and energy projects since 2014. The California Air Resources Board estimates that these projects have prevented over 1,000 premature air pollution-related deaths.
At the same time, cap-and-trade has been prohibitively expensive for consumers. While some auction funds go toward utility bill rebates, the program has increased energy costs for Californians. The state's Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that it adds 23 cents per gallon to gas prices, which could increase to 74 cents per gallon if the state decides to pursue more aggressive GHG reductions. The state currently has the highest gas prices in the country.
Wayne Winegarden, senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute, tells Reason that the program is a "bad tradeoff."
(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
Gavin is an oligarchs. Newsomes, Browns.Pelosis, and Gettys own California.
How's that super train coming along? Are they almost finished?
And we should not refer to children as kids, because kids are goats.
Even if they had enough EVs, they don’t have enough electrical generation nor transmission and distribution.
Inch by inch
Guess Arizona needs to build another Nuclear Generating Station.
That would not begin to cover the need.
The roads are real bad. Big potholes everywhere.
They may fill them with a cold patch which is just cold asphalt pressed in. It soon disintegrates and you have that and new potholes appearing.
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