Good analysis of this strange, or visionary, bill.
An excerpt.
BUSINESS: Is green good or bad for state's economy?
David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer, September 1, 2006
Take your pick:
Will California's drive to cut greenhouse gases reshape the state's industries, weaning businesses away from fossil fuels and setting the stage for the state's next golden age?
Or will it drive away businesses, ship jobs to Nevada and kill the California economy?
With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger poised to sign into law a hard-fought agreement over global warming, economists and business groups remain sharply divided over the legislation's likely effects.
The measure, which passed the Assembly on Thursday on its way to the governor's desk, will limit the amount of greenhouse gases spewed within the state.
Some see the effort as the latest crushing regulatory burden to hit business, especially if other states don't follow suit. They say it will raise power prices, because electricity plants are among the largest producers of greenhouse gases. That in turn will boost the cost of doing business in California, already an expensive place to make a buck.
The companies that tend to produce the most greenhouse gases -- power plant operators or gasoline refiners -- won't want to expand in the state, skeptics say. Manufacturers will flee.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, outlined the doomsday scenario Thursday in a press release titled "California votes to join the Third World."
"It is unfortunate that California's state government would be pushing such a wrong-headed policy at a time that entrepreneurs are already fleeing the state, due to some of the highest electricity and gasoline prices in the country," said Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the institute.
But others sense an opportunity. They argue that California can cut greenhouse gas emissions with little increase in the price of electricity and, down the road, will reap an enormous payback by having retooled its economy for the 21st century. Much of the rest of the world is working to turn industry greener -- California could lead the trend in the United States, they say. Global warming, they say, ultimately represents a much more insidious economic threat than any regulatory mandate. "California's economy is vulnerable to climate impacts, but it can benefit from climate action," Michael Hanemann, professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley, said in a statement.
