Governor Brown Extends California CO2 Cap and Trade Law

Costs are rising for Californian Renewable Energy Consumers

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Governor Brown has signed legislation extending California’s Cap and Trade law to 2030.

California Challenges President Trump With Cap-and-Trade Law: ‘We Do Not Have to Wait for Washington’

Katy Steinmetz 3:56 PM ET

California Gov. Jerry Brown has vowed to lead America when it comes to fighting climate change, as President Donald Trump backs down from efforts aimed at combatting global warming. On Tuesday, the leader of the world’s sixth largest economy signed a bill suggesting that his vow has teeth.

On Treasure Island in San Francisco, with pelicans flying above the bay behind him, Brown signed a 10-year extension for the state’s cap-and-trade program, which state lawmakers passed with bipartisan support the week before. The controversial program requires companies to buy permits for releasing carbon into the air, in the hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and using financial pressure to spread greener practices in the private sector. Brown emphasized that California’s law is the only one of its kind on the books in the U.S.

If we don’t do something about it, it is the end of the world as we know it,” Brown said of climate change at a signing ceremony held in the same place where former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill authorizing the cap-and-trade program more than a decade earlier. The program was due to expire in 2020 and will now continue until 2030. The state has committed to cutting emissions 40% by that time.

Schwarzenegger sat alongside Brown on the dais and took a more combative tone, telling Republican lawmakers in Washington to “Stop lying to the people!” by saying that measures like cap-and-trade can only be put in place at the expense of the economy. He touted the bipartisan support for the bill as proof that “We have a functional government here in California,” and described the passage of the bill as a lesson for lawmakers in D.C. “We do not have to wait for Washington to take action,” he said to applause.

Read more: http://time.com/4871996/california-cap-trade-bill-signing-brown-schwarzenegger/

I support Governor Brown’s right to pass this law. Seriously, states should be free to choose their own policies, and make their own mistakes, rather than having a one size fits all set of policies imposed by Washington.

I have concerns about the potential economic impact on poor people, but what California does is not my decision or responsibility. California voted for Brown, they knew what they were getting. It is up to Californians to decide when they have finally had enough of their self imposed energy price misery.

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James
July 26, 2017 12:07 pm

We call him Governor “Moonbeam” for a reason.

Logoswrench
Reply to  James
July 26, 2017 1:51 pm

Yep, and Californians keep voting him in for a reason.

george e. smith
Reply to  Logoswrench
July 26, 2017 2:03 pm

And like all politicians, he kicks everything down the road so the fat doesn’t hit the shin before he is retired and gone fishing, and if he can tie the hands of his successors in the process, he will.
So all his big brouhaha doesn’t do a damn thing till he’s out of the picture, unless he can finagle himself another couple of unconstitutional (California) terms in office.
Well that’s the essence of climate science studies. It takes 30 years to get a climate result so by that time you’ve had a great career swilling at the public trough, and you’ll be retired before it becomes apparent that it was all bull shit that you did.
There’s nothing like being on the public dole for your life’s career.
There’s some we need; Police, Fire, and Schools, and up front the Military to keep all the varmints away; but the rest is best left to the people themselves.
G

James H
Reply to  Logoswrench
July 26, 2017 7:34 pm

Thank GOD he is termed-out.!! But another eco-lib will follow. The 3 big , liberal CA cities , which comprise 90 % of the population will vote Dem until the wealthy leave of CA runs out of their tax money.
Those of us who live in the rural, 90 % of the land area, are working toward a 51st state, the State of Jefferson.

Ex-Kalifornia Kook
Reply to  Logoswrench
July 26, 2017 9:52 pm

Not me. While I never voted for Moonbeam, I can no longer vote for or against him.
I moved to Nevada.
The local Postal Annex has an interesting sign behind the counter: “We Don’t Care How They Do It In California!” My kind of people. I just hope that not too many Californians come to NV. They’ll just turn it into another California, I fear.

Reply to  Logoswrench
July 28, 2017 4:55 am

GESmih- “There’s some we need; Police, Fire, and Schools”
Yes, it’s too bad that schools just wouldn’t exist without ‘public’ schools. /sarc

Reply to  James
July 27, 2017 11:06 pm

‘We Do Not Have to Wait for Washington’
We can cripple our economy without any outside help.

commieBob
July 26, 2017 12:08 pm

Stop lying to the people indeed.

Leonard Lane
Reply to  commieBob
July 27, 2017 3:39 pm

My big worry is that Gov Brown and the loony left in California are going to drive the state to bankruptcy. Guess what then? Think they will go it alone as they are with cap and trade, EVs etc.?
Nope, they will come whining and pleading to the federal government to bail them out and spread the misery to all 50 states. And, they will not take any responsibility for their folly or promise to not do it again, over and over….

Wharfplank
July 26, 2017 12:08 pm

Jerry “Jefferson Davis” Brown, openly in defiance of Federal laws and regulations should be brought to heel, now.

fxk
Reply to  Wharfplank
July 26, 2017 2:59 pm

Let them secede. We’ll still have ports in Oregon and Washington.

MarkW
Reply to  fxk
July 27, 2017 6:33 am

We’ll still have the ports in California as well. It would be economic suicide for CA to deny access to those ports to companies not based in CA.

Tom Halla
Reply to  MarkW
July 27, 2017 2:50 pm

Have California secede, invade, and impose reconstruction on the state, properly this time.

george e. smith
Reply to  fxk
July 27, 2017 1:51 pm

Oregon and Washington are the same basket cases as California; that’s the first place Californians decide to move to.
G

Leonard Lane
Reply to  fxk
July 27, 2017 3:42 pm

Let them try to secede. We fought one war over that and settled the issue. Federal troops in California couldn’t be as bad as the loony left Democrats.

Mark T
July 26, 2017 12:09 pm

Your final thoughts are absolutely correct. Let them commit economic suicide at their own peril. Hell, the world’s 6th largest economy is suffering under an equally impressive debt load with a $25 billion/year budget deficit to boot. They can’t afford the socialism they have in place now, so the logical response is to add to it, apparently.

Reply to  Mark T
July 26, 2017 12:38 pm

The Uk’s economy is said to be the 5th world’s largest, but our leaders are just as stupid:
today the UK shot itself in the wallet by announcing abolition of petrol & diesel vehicles by 2040 in favour of going all electric.
Two minor problems though:
– Electricity capacity required is equivalent to 10 new Hinckley Point nuclear power stations. Chinese are to finance the present ‘HP’ project but consumers will be paying for electricity well over the odds, god knows what would happen if they decide to build up to 10 new ones.
– In the last financial year the UK treasury collected around £28 billion in the fuel duty. In the present day terms income tax revenue needs to go up by 16% to compensate for loss of the fuel duty.
Prognosis: all electric vehicles will not happen by 2040 or any time soon after.

george e. smith
Reply to  vukcevic
July 26, 2017 2:09 pm

Vuk; California under Brown is to go 100% Electric, AND 100% renewable, and everybody thinks that is a wonderful agenda. It would be good if the other States told the Browns and their ilk they can just do all of that inside California’s borders; and not rely on imported energy for anything.
California is swimming in buried hydrocarbons, and the plan is to leave them where Mother Gaia planted them.
G

higley7
Reply to  vukcevic
July 26, 2017 3:26 pm

The goal has nothing to do with saving energy, CO2, or anything you can think of. The goal is to cripple human movement, restricting travel to trains and buses, because electric cars are good for going nowhere but locally. Note, in Hunger Games, the people in the Districts have no vehicles of any kind. That’s the desired future for the vast majority of mankind in the UN’s view.

Reply to  Mark T
July 26, 2017 12:43 pm

In many ways it may be therapeutic for the average Hollywood intellect to undergo the period of privation and want that is lilkely to follow such democaratically enacted policies. There is nothing like a bit of uncomfortable reality to help one get off the addiction to magical thinking and wishful ignorance of facts in the real world. Those in large parts of the world where true struggle is an everyday event are far more practical in their decision-making. That’s what happens when your immediate health and survival are at stake.

rogerthesurf
Reply to  Mark T
July 26, 2017 2:04 pm

Mark T,
Absolutely right.
Like Deep Throat said during Watergate – “follow the Money” – I say during this AGW crisis – “Follow the Economy”
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com

TA
July 26, 2017 12:09 pm

From the article: ““If we don’t do something about it, it is the end of the world as we know it,” Brown said of climate change at a signing ceremony held in the same place where former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill authorizing the cap-and-trade program more than a decade earlier.”
Has anyone done a study of how much the cap-and-trade program has cost the California economy so far? It’s a tax. Taxes harm the economy. The only question is how much.

rogerthesurf
Reply to  TA
July 26, 2017 2:14 pm

TA,
I tried to research the Cap and Trade we have in New Zealand. Enquiries to the government resulted in condescending assertions that Cap and Trade was not a tax and therefore has nothing to do with the government.
Tried several other source but could not get any figures. All I know is that key industries such as electricity, cement etc. are skimming a percentage off the tax payer and what they are actually doing with this cash is unknown or out of control. The price of carbon units at the time had dropped, like the rocks they are, and it appeared that these industries are enjoying some free cash (billions no doubt) at our expense.
Cap and trade or ETS as it is known here features very little in the news and is rarely mentioned. That is, this drain on everyone’s resources, is conveniently forgotten.
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com

TA
Reply to  rogerthesurf
July 26, 2017 5:57 pm

“Enquiries to the government resulted in condescending assertions that Cap and Trade was not a tax”
I would call an unecessary payment like a carbon tax a tax, or a swindle. 🙂

Patrick MJD
Reply to  rogerthesurf
July 26, 2017 9:43 pm

I recall those discussions about the tax resulted in a ~8% rise in costs on EVERYTHING, like the GST rising from 12.5% to 15%.

Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 12:16 pm

comment image
And this challenges President Trump (and the millions of Americans who agree with him) how?

Craig
Reply to  Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 12:50 pm

Brown is a 78 year old train wreck. He is at a point in his life where he doesn’t give a flying **** about what happens to those that have to pay for this stupidy in 30 years time. He’ll be dead, buried and forgotten. At least Trump is mindful that it has and always will be, responsible economic policies that will keep America in a position of power and not groaning under the weight of democrat thought bubbles gone wrong.
It’s interesting to watch two blokes of the same generation behaving completely poles apart when it comes to the ordinary voter. One gets it, the other thinks he gets it, you decide who I’m referring to.

Reply to  Craig
July 26, 2017 7:13 pm

Note that Jerry has no children to leave his disaster to. Arnold does – although with $300 million in Daddy’s net worth, plus most of them being members of the Kennedy noble family, they really don’t have the same worries as the peasants.

Reply to  Craig
July 27, 2017 6:05 am

Critics say Trump doesn’t care about future generations but he is one of the few leaders of the Western world that has children and grandchildren. Almost all of the European leaders are childless, so like Brown, they don’t really have any stake in the future.

Leonard Lane
Reply to  Craig
July 27, 2017 4:05 pm

I heard on the news today that there are 1,000,000 illegals in California with drivers licenses. Now you know how the Dems in California use several million illegal votes from illegal aliens. And also why they are against real voter ID, the voting study the US is doing

rocketscientist
Reply to  Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 1:37 pm

IMHO governor Brown is mentally “challenged”.

Reply to  rocketscientist
July 26, 2017 4:31 pm

The scary thing, rocketscientist, is that he isn’t mentally challenged. He suffers from a derangement syndrome that affects many very highly intelligent people.
Call it climate derangement syndrome, rather like Trump derangement syndrome with it’s superficially rational guise. In fact, I’d surmise that CDS and TDS are strongly statistically correlated in the population.
I don’t pretend to understand it, but have encountered it repeatedly (both syndromes actually). Speculations supporting their case are ‘facts’ and facts disproving their case are ‘speculations.’ They *will*not* change their minds, no matter what.

Science or Fiction
Reply to  Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 1:50 pm

I just love that picture. 🙂

Janice Moore
Reply to  Science or Fiction
July 26, 2017 2:55 pm

Thanks — glad you enjoyed that. 🙂

Science or Fiction
Reply to  Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 2:01 pm

“The controversial program requires companies to buy permits for releasing carbon into the air, in the hopes of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and Using financial pressure to spread greener practices in the private sector. ”
Greener practices? Wouldn´t that be to emit more CO2???
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JotyMHfMHyc/UXu1z_dYkAI/AAAAAAAALdw/-nYZpy2CJ4A/s1600/kid-kicking-ball.gif

nn
July 26, 2017 12:20 pm

Green as in money. Other people’s money. That flows on prevailing winds and sunny days.

James at 48
Reply to  nn
July 26, 2017 1:02 pm

And my incoming money. See my post below. I am making money off of 1%er Green fools who pay more in their PG&E bills meanwhile I collect.

Latitude
July 26, 2017 12:30 pm

“We have a functional government here in California,” ……….trainwreck

Kurt in Switzerland
Reply to  Latitude
July 26, 2017 12:51 pm

Yeah, and Ahnold has a functional marriage there in Fornicalia.

Joel Snider
July 26, 2017 12:41 pm

Pretentious, isn’t he? I can just FEEL his exultation, and personal pride at seizing the moral high-ground.
If it feels good, do it.
Consequences be damned.
That warm fuzzy that envelopes these elite-types when the exert their will on others must be more addictive than heroin.

Auto
Reply to  Joel Snider
July 26, 2017 3:36 pm

Power corrupts.
Absolute power [or as close as the Californian Constitution permits] corrupts absolutely [same caveat].
Auto
See Dream-maker, Moonbeam etc. Brown over past decades.
PS
Are real industries leaving Kalifornia?
If so – why?
Energy costs involved at all??

Joel Snider
July 26, 2017 12:44 pm

‘It is up to Californians to decide when they have finally had enough of their self imposed energy price misery.’
Unfortunately, I don’t see a lot of connection between their cost of living and the policies their Progressive politicians put in place – instead, they simply leave California for places like Oregon and vote in the same types of politicians and policies here.
Oregon USED to be good place to live.

Ron Clutz
July 26, 2017 12:46 pm

Joel Kotkin has a good article that features California as the model for “soft green authoritarianism.”
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/07/24/green-losers/

MarkW
Reply to  Ron Clutz
July 27, 2017 6:38 am

It only starts out soft. As they gather more power, it always gets more brutal.

July 26, 2017 12:51 pm

Passing a law that requires a reduction of GHG emissions by 40 percent in 2030 in California is a patently insane effort by California to attempt to modify the effects of the Solar System on California’s long-term climate. The results of recent scientific studies demonstrate this action was taken by legislators who are either scientifically illiterate or hope to reap financial benefits from solar panel and windmill interests or both. One could argue that all those legislators who voted for the law should be removed from office for malfeasance. They should be judged guilty of acting in a way that is demonstrably harmful to the public and a violation of the public trust. This law has no redeeming features, and the perpetrators of this abomination should face serious consequences. Old thinking is wrong, and the policies stemming from old thinking are wrong. Vote for rational leadership in the next election. Make California right again.

Peter Plail
July 26, 2017 12:51 pm

Is there any evidence yet that businesses are voting with their feet and moving to more welcoming states. It seems like a terrific opportunity for an ambitious state to encourage enterprise.

Kurt in Switzerland
Reply to  Peter Plail
July 26, 2017 12:55 pm

Didn’t Elon Musk set up his mega battery plant in Nevada?
He must be laughing all the way to the bank!
He gets to virtue-signal worldwide, suck the Sacramento government (CA taxpayer) teat and escape CA draconian cap ‘n trade all in the same breath!
Ain’t life wonderful if you’re adored for saving the planet?

Reply to  Kurt in Switzerland
July 26, 2017 1:11 pm

It was going to be in Texas. Then Musk got a bigger subsidy offer from Nevada. California was too broke to match. That is how the Gigafactory landed in Reno. IIRC the Nevada deal was $1.2 billion.

Kalifornia Kook
Reply to  Kurt in Switzerland
July 26, 2017 10:00 pm

But Kalifornia is trying to pass a $3B bail out for Elon – for when the Federal subsidies run out. Talk about crony capitalism.
The idiots at Berkeley think capitalism is bad, but support crony capitalism. Very sad. They don’t have to understand economics.

Janice Moore
Reply to  Peter Plail
July 26, 2017 3:58 pm

For Peter Plail (and for me, too 🙂 ):

Relocating its corporate headquarters and distribution facilities from {CA} to a friendlier location, Farmer Brothers expects to save $15 million a year. Company executives are looking at Dallas and Oklahoma City. The relocation will bear real consequences for California. Nearly 350 workers will lose their well-paying jobs in Los Angeles alone.
Farmer Brothers is following Toyota, whose U.S. sales and marketing headquarters was barely a mile from the company’s main office, and has gone to Texas. Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, eBay, Occidental Petroleum and firearms retailer RifleGear followed.
Nissan bailed to Tennessee.
Most companies leaving California, reports the Orange County Register, usually depart to Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah or Florida. A study of business tax climates by the Tax Foundation finds that California’s businesses face the third-highest state and local business tax burdens in America. ….
California annually ranks last in Chief Executive magazine’s ranking of “Best States / Worst States.”

(Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/17/editorial-businesses-flee-californias-high-taxes-a/ )
lol — follow the money–> –> –> Capital flows where it finds a way.
http://cdn1.kidsdiscover.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Rivers_21.jpg
Capital rushing out of California forced into its path by the pressure of the regulatory walls of the California Enviroprofiteers
************************************************
High tech/computer tech and real estate (rentals to rich people, mainly)/finance services will save the day? Heh. Sure. And your high-tech/realtor/finance workers can have a lovely life driving to Nevada looking for a car repairperson, finding schoolteachers, road repair workers, and garbage truck drivers who can afford to live in your state, and doing all your own cooking and cleaning, etc. (those workers can barely afford to live in CA now). You’re going to just put them all on welfare? Better hope a LOT of wealthy people who are willing to pay enormous rents/mortgages move in. The tech industry can only sell so many units…..

Reply to  Janice Moore
July 26, 2017 7:18 pm

Janice, they won’t be doing their own cooking and cleaning. Not so long as truckloads of new slaves are still being imported (although some suppliers forget to turn on the AC in the trailer).

Reply to  Janice Moore
July 27, 2017 8:50 am

Jerry keeps saying that California is the sixth largest economy in the world. Folks used to say eighth. Is there really any substantiation for that number? Does it include all the Federal Government money that flows into California? (After all, it is also reported that 1/3 of Californians are on MediCal, our version of MediCare – lots of US bucks there.)
And are there any projections for how long that status may be maintained>
BTW, there is an official petition drive to put a secession vote on the 2018 ballot. Wonder what effect that will have on our economy.

hstad
Reply to  Peter Plail
July 26, 2017 6:39 pm

“California is now rated as the worst state in the Country to do business by corporate relocation experts. Businesses around the world look closely at this report to decide where they want to relocate and expand. A CEO from the semiconductor industry was quoted as saying “The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, 1,000 blue-collar jobs, is a hostile government that doesn’t want you there and demonstrates it in 1,000 ways.”
Source: Report from Spectrum Location Services eight year review – 2008 -2015.

hstad
Reply to  Peter Plail
July 26, 2017 6:41 pm

See my comment below at 6:29pm!

Raysa
July 26, 2017 12:52 pm

So at least until 2030 Californians will pay to sooth Jerry’s ego that he never made it to the Big League.
Quoting Obama and his reference to being POTUS
…. at least @realDonaldTrump will go down in history as President of the United States of America
Jerry was a state governor.

Eric Simpson
July 26, 2017 12:53 pm
James at 48
July 26, 2017 12:59 pm

I have a disclosure to make. Our household are a net beneficiary of cap and trade money, at least if narrowly looking at our PG&E bills. I know we are paying the price elsewhere in other ways. But that is a bit beside the point. The real point is, we have done zero to mitigate our CO2 footprint, as measured against a 1997 baseline. We have not changed our central heating, we have done nothing to make our home more energy efficient. I do further disclose, however, we are penny pinchers and have never been ones to use lots of natural gas and meanwhile our electricity consumption is low to middle of the road. But that is no different than our baseline. In any case, we continue to collect a small stream of passive income from this cap and trade nonsense.

Eric Simpson
July 26, 2017 1:01 pm

I’ll add this about California’s puppet of Mexico:
http://truthfeed.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/JERRY-BROWN-01-800×416.jpg

July 26, 2017 1:06 pm

If California and South Australia did not exist, we would have to create them as real,world object lessons in green madness.

Kurt in Switzerland
Reply to  ristvan
July 26, 2017 1:23 pm

Germany?

mobihci
Reply to  ristvan
July 27, 2017 4:23 am

Spain?

July 26, 2017 1:13 pm

I noticed that GW is out of control, here in Los Angeles. Morning paper tipped us off.
The record high temperature for downtown Los Angeles for yesterday (in the paper today) was set in 1891. It was a sweltering 109 degrees. Imagine that.
Put your cap on that and trade it, Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown.
To actually tie that record in today’s world, considering the well documented urban heat island effect (was none in 1891) of large modern metropolitan areas, LA would need to reach a measured high temp downtown of somewhere between 113 and 115 degrees.

Tom Halla
July 26, 2017 1:14 pm

California’s unfunded pension obligations will probably hit the wall by 2030, and drive the state into bankruptcy. The only thing Brown is really hoping for is a Democratic controlled Federal government by the time the pensions crash, to bail the state out.

Eric Simpson
Reply to  Tom Halla
July 26, 2017 1:44 pm

Right.
Or there’s another scary possibility probability:
By 2030 the illegals and low income children of illegals will totally control all aspects of CA state government, and they will demand .. redistribution of $$ to themselves and so they will implement severe Wealth Taxes and asset seizures to fund this, and, to fund the bloated government for a while. California will be sucked dry. After that, though, maybe circa 2040, the state will in fact go belly up, but the damage (and the full scale redistribution to the ‘immigrants’ [ie conquerors]) will already have been done.
Count on it. It WILL happen.

Ric Haldane
Reply to  Eric Simpson
July 26, 2017 4:40 pm

Ca is over 258 billion dollars in debt,117 billion of which is unfunded pension payments.

ltregulate
July 26, 2017 1:18 pm

The current Cap and Trade law adds about 11 cents per gallon in hidden costs that we pay at the pump in CA. The new one is estimated to be between 15 and 65 cents per gallon of gasoline per the legislative analyst. Of course, this does not count the skyrocketing costs of electricity in CA this has had a hand in creating, nor the new unrelated gas tax they just passed either. Soon we will be paying about $1 or more per gallon of gasoline in CA than almost all of the rest of the US. Who knows how many other costs are higher because of this nonsense. I’ll be moving out of here and taking my income with me as soon as my wife can retire in 4 years.

Eric Simpson
Reply to  ltregulate
July 26, 2017 3:16 pm

Yes. And I’ll be moving out of California myself soon.
Not only is the climate for business and consumers going to become unbearable, but as I suggest in my comment above, the CA government will almost certainly soon start to implement confiscation level taxes on anyone with a decent income.

Leonard Lane
Reply to  ltregulate
July 27, 2017 4:16 pm

Itregulate. My understand is that California taxes your retirement no matter where you live in the US. Please see a CPA that deals with taxes.

John F. Hultquist
July 26, 2017 1:20 pm

I urge Gov. Brown to drop the “trade” part and go with just a “cap.”
I suggest any activity that produces a “greenhouse gas” be reduced (capped) by 5% each year from the previous year.
For example, the making of beer and wine produces CO2. Every producer of those beverages should cut output by 5% by July 2018 (from 100 to 95 units), another 5% by 2019 (to 90.25 units. At the end of 10 years production will be capped at 59.9 units. Continue the decrease year after year. This slow move toward zero units should be the ethical response to doing something to prevent the end of the world as we know it.
Producers of all goods and services and individuals can make long term (or short) plans.
Moonbeam’s plan is putting in place a “cost of doing business” and will have no immediate results, and maybe none ever. Californians deserve more. Suck it up, buttercups.

Bruce Cobb
July 26, 2017 1:22 pm

One could say that California has a cornucopia of calamitous climate clowns.

July 26, 2017 1:22 pm

California politicians are willfully blind and have been thoroughly hoodwinked.
The people who believe in AGW caused by CO2 are the people who are denying science. The science of thermalization and the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of molecule energy explain why CO2 does not now, has never had and will never have a significant effect on climate.

TonyL
July 26, 2017 1:43 pm

“If we don’t do something about it, it is the end of the world as we know it,” Brown said of climate change

This is as clear a statement of climate hysteria as you will find. This law was passed in CA because far too many people believe it is true.
There has been much discussion here and elsewhere, of the Red Team/Blue Team exercise, particularly as to goals and outcome. If the Red Team does nothing more than show that such catastrophic outcomes are simply not supported by the science, and are not even possible, the hysteria will be greatly tempered.
Without the hysteria, public support for such expensive and intrusive programs will evaporate. It seems the people of CA will put up with it all if it is absolutely necessary. If these actions are shown to useless, that will be another matter. Even the most Virtue Signaling among us have second thoughts when they have to pay for it themselves.
If the Red Team does nothing more than dispel the hysteria, it will have accomplished much, indeed.

July 26, 2017 1:58 pm

Who said the following? The contributor or Mr Muscle Man?. If it was the contributor I am shocked
I support Governor Brown’s right to pass this law. Seriously, states should be free to choose their own policies, and make their own mistakes, rather than having a one size fits all set of policies imposed by Washington.
I have concerns about the potential economic impact on poor people, but what California does is not my decision or responsibility. California voted for Brown, they knew what they were getting. It is up to Californians to decide when they have finally had enough of their self imposed energy price misery

RHS
July 26, 2017 2:10 pm

I wish I could remember where I read that California wants to import only “Green” electricity and will “fine” it’s out of state suppliers for not being part of it’s cap and trade. If this is true, it won’t take long for states like Idaho and Wyoming to tell California to stuff it as they don’t have to sell/trade or otherwise supply them with surplus capacity. If this is true, I can’t wait to see the fallout and brownouts.

Doonman
Reply to  RHS
July 26, 2017 3:07 pm

The next big climate policy push in the California state Legislature will be SB100, a bill that would require the state to receive all of its power from renewable sources by 2045

Doonman
Reply to  Doonman
July 26, 2017 3:09 pm

Oh, and was it mentioned that California does not consider large hydro as ‘renewable’?

John F. Hultquist
Reply to  Doonman
July 26, 2017 5:40 pm

Oh, and was it mentioned that California does not consider large hydro as ‘renewable’?
Many places decided hydro was not renewable because to do otherwise would have grandfathered-in enough such energy that the green-stuff they wanted would not have been necessary to meet a newly mandated level. Besides, greens don’t like dams.

eck
Reply to  Doonman
July 26, 2017 7:42 pm

That’s not remotely possible. there isn’t and won’t be enough “renewable” sources to satisfy the huge CA demand by any date. In addition to other problems, would require monstrous (others can work out the numbers) acreage for solar and wind generation. Ain’t ever gonna happen. These people are nuts.

Green Sand
July 26, 2017 2:29 pm

California, described some 40 years ago, by a Californian colleague, “it is our land of fruits and nuts”
I seen nothing has happened to have changed his view

Phil R
Reply to  Green Sand
July 26, 2017 6:40 pm

Why are Californians like a box of granola?
Because once you remove all the fruits and nuts, all you have left are the flakes.

Zum Bomb
July 26, 2017 3:08 pm

India recently started winding-down their National Green Energy Fund, by transffering the $10 billion (US$valuation) in the fund to India Coal industries. Another blow to the UN Green Climate Fund!
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/25/india-gives-10-billion-dollar-green-energy-fund-to-coal/

stock
Reply to  Zum Bomb
July 26, 2017 4:09 pm

LOL Modern “Clean Coal” more renewable than even nuclear.

Roger Knights
Reply to  Zum Bomb
July 26, 2017 4:10 pm

Threadworthy!

Richard Novak
July 26, 2017 3:20 pm

Lomborg analyzed this absurdity the best.
Impact:
Even if California succeeds in making the new cuts and sticks to them for the rest of the century, according to calculations using a standard model of the U.N. Climate Panel, they will amount to a difference of .008 degrees Fahrenheit
Cost:
What’s more, California’s official estimates put the cost of its climate change policy at $13 billion to $22.5 billion a year — and such estimates often prove to be optimistic
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-lomborg-california-climate-change-paris-accord-cap-and-trade-20170720-story.html

sean2829
July 26, 2017 3:41 pm

Considering that the Cap and trade deal plus the new fuel tax will likely raise taxes by $500 per household, regardless of income. Perhaps Brown is encouraging low income residents it’s time to go elsewhere To make room for more affluent residents.

stock
Reply to  sean2829
July 26, 2017 4:08 pm

Maybe they intend to replace middle class with immigrants who pay no tax, but can always be counted on for a Dem vote. Sheesh, I meant that as a joke, but looking at it twice……..

Eric Simpson
Reply to  stock
July 26, 2017 4:30 pm

Yes, that’s exactly it! The rich will be taxed until there are no rich no more. Also the middle class will be taxed (with the proceeds redistributed) until all poor immigrants are at the same income level.

stock
July 26, 2017 4:06 pm

Just please don’t anyone say that California got the politician they deserve. Although many Cali’s are bat shit crazy, they still don’t “deserve” that.

rapscallion
Reply to  stock
July 27, 2017 4:45 am

They DO deserve the politicians they’ve got. They elected them. If sufficient Californians voted for Brown then tough. If there were enough Californians to vote for a more rational candidate then he or she would be elected, but they weren’t. You make your own bed, you’ve gotta lie in it.

Leonard Lane
Reply to  stock
July 27, 2017 4:21 pm

Why not say that stock? If it is the truth, and I believe it is.

stock
July 26, 2017 4:07 pm

Kind of curious on how they couldn’t work some pussy hats into that whole shenanigans.

Gene
July 26, 2017 5:20 pm

I suspect we will soon be hearing too that Gov. Brown’s signature legacy project, theLA to SF super train’s budget has now increased, requiring further state investment hence the prolongation Cap and Trade scheme.
However due to the hair brained schemes put in place by Gov Brown any need for a high speed train will be nonexistent due to the egress of the population from the state.
Brown seeks to have 100% renewable electricity (wind and solar) production in California by 2030, which should raise electricity costs at least 400-500% from their current already inflated rate. Additionally there will outages and brown outs, due to inadequate production and distribution obstacles which are always present with 100% “green” electricity production as seen in South Australia today. The effect will drive all but the truest believers from the California to greener business pastures. I suspect the people will follow the businesses, consequently home values will drop.
As a result state and local tax revenues will be substantially reduced.
But not all is lost. Since California is now a “Sanctuary State” there should be a great influx of undocumented immigrants from South American countries who will repopulate the state. According to liberal pundits the influx of undocumented immigrants always brings about a windfall in tax revenue, and business opportunities where ever they settle.
These illegal, oops, I mean undocumented immigrants according to CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC Democratic Party pundits should bring about an economic gold rush to the very wealthy in California. Supply and demand will win out. At least the pay-rate for obtaining domestic help will drop for the uber-wealthy Brown, Feinstein-Blum crowd in California.

Rebel with a Cause
July 26, 2017 5:43 pm

Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown misses the whole point of the Paris Accord. The idea is to con tribute to the “Green Fund” and transfer wealth to third world countries. It really has nothing to do with reducing CO2.
Is Governor Brown proposing that California contribute to the Green Fund? I suspect not!

ossqss
July 26, 2017 6:04 pm

Yeah, right?comment image

donb
July 26, 2017 6:35 pm

I agree with your conclusion. Better CA test these regulations and ideas rather than the whole US. If CA fails, perhaps the rest of the US will not attempt that. If CA succeeds, that may provide some useful information.

Snarling Dolphin
July 26, 2017 9:12 pm

You want to get serious about this Jerry and Alois?!? Ban cats! I mean ban cars! Cali has entirely too many people spending too much time in cars and trucks and it’s killing the planet! Your words: “It is the end of the world as we know it.” And all you can muster is some politically expedient cap and trade bs? Spare me the halfhearted posturing gentlemen. Ban internal combustion in Cali now or go down in history the weak willed enablers you are.

RobbertBobbert
July 26, 2017 10:21 pm

Governor Moonbeam…“If we don’t do something about it, it is the end of the world as we know it,” Brown said of climate…
Why not go the whole hog Governor?
Whack on a large sackcloth. Grow your hair somewhat…or long toupee.
Go to Mount Whitney.
Grab a sign and write and sing..
‘It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine’ REM
And scale that Mountain.
Or Jump The Climate Change Shark.
Could you take John Holdren and Tobacco Boy Al Gore with you?

July 26, 2017 11:34 pm

Once a nuclear engined car is ready for market, I’ll buy one. If it powers also home while parked, relocation to an even more sparsely populated area is foreseen. California is disqualified de facto.

rapscallion
July 27, 2017 4:39 am

If California has the 6th largest economy in the world, with these policies, then they won’t be for much longer. Business will eventually relocate somewhere cheaper. It always comes down to money.

Resourceguy
Reply to  rapscallion
July 28, 2017 9:50 am

See growth rates of Denver and Austin.

July 27, 2017 6:34 am

good

July 27, 2017 11:56 am

I always laugh when I come to this site and read the comments. California not only has the sixth largest economy in the world, but it’s thriving not despite of, but because of, its strong commitment to environmental protection. Feel free to enjoy your opiod-ridden “success story” red states like MS, AL and LA, KS, KY, need I go on? And, yes, places like TX are doing fine economically, but with: the highest rates of childhood asthma, deaths at childbirth, and breast cancer. Texas ultimately will find itself compelled to purchase high-technology to reduce pollution from … California.

James at 48
Reply to  William C. Burns
July 27, 2017 12:40 pm

California (and yes I’m a native) has a tremendous “new economy” sector. That cannot be denied. However, for those who are not working in that economy, life ain’t so rosy. Anyone who is honest about data cannot deny the wealth disparities. Those on the losing end are often affiliated with more traditional industries or activities. With the anal retentive environmental regs we have adopted, certain businesses have become either challenged or lost. This had meant pain both for owners and workers. Call it creative destruction however real lives have been harmed. Some voted for Trump. I did not and could not vote for a Kremlin bootlicker however I completely understand how angry people voted thus and cannot blame them one bit.

TA
Reply to  James at 48
July 27, 2017 5:09 pm

“Some voted for Trump. I did not and could not vote for a Kremlin bootlicker”
I would think one should have a little evidence before calling someone a “Kremlin bootlicker”. Got any?

TA
Reply to  William C. Burns
July 27, 2017 5:05 pm

California had four cities in the nation’s Top 10 polluted cities, the last time the list came out. California has a ways to go.

Snarling Dolphin
Reply to  William C. Burns
July 27, 2017 9:15 pm

Ah the force focus on meaningless statistics is strong in this one hmmmm? Cali ranks 43rd in fiscal health, in no small part because of its ludicrous commitment to “environmental protection.” Rock on.

Reply to  Snarling Dolphin
July 27, 2017 11:35 pm

Illinois prefers traditional methods.

Snarling Dolphin
Reply to  Snarling Dolphin
July 28, 2017 1:07 pm

The Fighting Illini? 49th by traditional methods. That’s a mighty impressive display of Illinois leadership capability, stamina and flat out stick-to-it-cuz-by-God-I-know-I’m-rightness!! Let’s hope we never elect a president with that sort of pedigree.

Resourceguy
July 28, 2017 9:49 am

The corrected headline should read….Governor Brown Extends High Speed Rail Project Miles to Nowhere with Another Claptrap Science Distortion Funding Strategy. It’s a winning formula based on falsehood and fraud.

Amber
July 28, 2017 2:08 pm

Funny how brave politicians like Brown are as they go collect fat government pensions . It wouldn’t surprise me if this guy moved to Texas . When the shit hits the fan he will not want to be in California that is for sure .