California

Global Warming Initiative Stalled

Cristina Fard

 

        Recently, a new initiative proposed by Republican politicians and conservative activists seeks to suspend a law that was created to help address the effects of global-warming. The law, put into action in 2006, is called AB 32, and was California’s attempt to reduce greenhouse gas pollution by 2012. The program puts pressure on some California industries to become more energy efficient, and keeps big pollution offenders, like power plants and factories, under strict carbon regulation.  This Republican group would like to see the AB 32 regulations put on hold until the state’s unemployment rate goes down to 5.5% or below, and stays that low for at least one year. The new ballot campaign has sparked interest nationwide as some lawmakers see this as an opportunity to draw a correlation between environmental policy and our nation’s struggling economy. Any action in California could set the standard for future environmental policy issues nationwide.

 

• Global-warming: An increase in the earth and ocean’s temperatures widely predicted to occur due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting especially from pollution.

• Argument against:
• California’s Republican Governor stands firmly behind AB 32, insisting that the new measure is, "deceptively written to protect big polluters and would keep us from staying No. 1 in the country in creating clean tech jobs."
• There might be short-term growth for some industries, but it could potentially have a negative effect the long-term investments made in clean technology and green jobs.
• Argument for:
• Some believe that the AB 32 program stifles job growth and limits the ability of the state to be competitive in the national economic market.
• AB 32 increases taxes on things like electricity and other utilities.
• Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner, two Republican candidates for the California Governor’s seat in 2010, both support the new measure. Whitman says AB 32 “will discourage job creation and could kill any [economic] recovery.”

 

 

More information:

-http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cc.htm

-http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot-warming6-2010feb06,0,5959308.story

-http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/cap-and-trade-california.html