Free Republic

A local academic has emerged as the leading source of dark forecasts in a recession-fueled debate over whether California's war on global warming will hurt or help its economy. Sanjay Varshney, dean of the business school at California State University, Sacramento, predicts dire consequences if the state moves forward with plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions. His figures – dismissed by some economists – have been cited by business groups and politicians calling on the state to delay carrying out AB 32, the state's landmark climate change law. In a July paper paid for by the California Small Business Roundtable,...

Capitol Weekly asked the California Air Resources Board to submit a commentary for our special section on greenhouse gas. Ttwo commentaries were submitted by members of the public at CARB's request. --- Last year, clean technology venture capital poured into California at an unprecedented rate. Nearly 1.8 billion dollars were invested in California companies - that’s almost a 50 percent increase over the year before. What opened the floodgates? Multiple factors but perhaps the most significant was the passage of the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32). Before AB 32’s adoption, a lot of venture capital investment in clean technology...

illion-dollar decisions face California voters this Tuesday. Just how many billions? Unknown. In a case of the right hand unaware of the left hand’s actions, residents of one county are clueless to bond and tax initiatives found on the ballot of another. The situation has sent fiscal watchdogs howling for a master list, disclosing all tax propositions (local, state, and federal) to California voters. The California Taxpayers’ Association is leading the charge to develop a list of statewide “tax hikes.” Using its staff to develop statistics, the taxpayers’ organization has found at least 171 proposed tax increases among California’s 58...