California’s move into the unknown, again, will soon reveal to us whether this was a smart move or a very strange one.
Time will tell.
An excerpt.
Editorial: Cool move
California leads on fighting global warming
Published 12:01 am PDT Friday, September 1, 2006
Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have taken a monumental step in the fight against global warming with the passage of Assembly Bill 32. Once again, California is leading, and much of the world is cheering.
This legislation, which Schwarzenegger has agreed to sign, would make California the first state to set caps on industrial gases linked to global warming. Under the bill, California industries and utilities would have to reduce such pollution 25 percent by 2020.
Right up until midday Wednesday, it appeared that talks might collapse as both sides haggled over whether California "may" or "shall" use market mechanisms to achieve emissions reductions. It was a largely meaningless dispute. No one seriously expects California to adopt a traditional regulatory approach when much of the industrial world -- including most of Europe and utilities in the northeastern United States -- is moving toward a cap and trade system for reducing emissions.
Eventually the two sides adopted market language that made the governor comfortable. They also clarified the timetable for implementing the program, a good improvement for the final product.
There are many unknowns as California builds this model for reducing greenhouse emissions at the lowest possible cost. Will certain industries, such as cement manufacturers, try to relocate outside of California and ship their products in to escape the emissions caps? Will the shift to alternative energy greatly increase electricity prices, or will it help to buffer the state from spikes in fossil fuel prices?
