The costs of California aggressive measures on climate change have been called devastating, catastrophic, job killers. A measure on November’s ballot would like to end them.
The emmission of carbon imposes a cost on society, says former Secretary of State George Shultz.
Opponents cite several studies, including a 2009 analysis by the California State University at Sacramento, which calculates implementation costs at $100 billion and expenses for each household at $3,857.
These dire predictions may be off the mark. Costs should be far less moderate, and despite all the yammering, state regulators appear ready to move ahead.
The California Air Resources Board still intends to begin working on a statewide cap and trade system later this year, says the board’s Assistant Executive Officer Kevin Kennedy. It also plans to impose responsibilities for anti-sprawl measures on local planning boards with the goal of reducing miles driven.
Giving cover to these efforts are several smarter studies of the state’s effort to promote renewable energy and cut greenhouse gases 15 percent by 2020. “It would be inaccurate to say, if these studies are right, that AB32 will kill the California economy,” says Lawrence Goulder, director of the environmental and energy policy analysis center at Stanford University.
Goulder said Friday at the Silicon Valley Energy Summit that three studies, including one by Charles River Associates, predict global warming regulations to:
*Reduce California’s gross state product by a modest .2 percent to 2.2 percent;
*Change incomes in the state in a range that will add $86 to salaries or cut them by $2,800;
*And increase jobs statewide by 10,000 or reduce them by as much as 485,000.
According to former secretary of state George Shultz, now a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institute, greenhouse gases might be more intelligently viewed from the opposite angle.
“The emission of carbon imposes a cost on society,” he says. “That is a fact.” Regulations such as cap and trade or a carbon tax help level the playing field and assign a monetary value to innovation.
