Will the last sensible person to leave California..........Any CEO who decided to build a plant in California after this action should be fired by his board. This is designed to lead to business by "pull." Straight out of "Atlas Shrugged."
California Bill To Cut Greenhouse Gases 25% By 2020
California's legislature and Governor have agreed to a bill that will require a 25% cut in greenhouse gases by 2020.
Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday struck a deal on legislation to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the next two decades.
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Under the bill, California would take the lead in limiting greenhouse gas by reducing emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020.
This can only be accomplished by either much higher energy prices or big technological advances. California has a better chance of achieving this goal of the price of oil remains high.
California's economy and population have grown since 1990. So to reach the 1990 level of emissions California will have to cut emissions 25%.
Democrats and top aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have spent the last few months negotiating a bill that would put the state on the path to reducing its emissions by an estimated 25 percent by 2020, to the levels of 1990.
But the cut per capita will be higher due to population growth which will occur in the next 15 years. Though the state government could (at least in theory) set fossil fuels energy taxes so high that the population of the state declines.
The California Air Resources Board will be empowered to force industries to cut back on their emissions.
The bill gives the California Air Resources Board, which enforces the state's air pollution controls, the lead authority for generally establishing how much industry groups contribute to global warming pollution, for assigning emission targets, and for setting noncompliance penalties. It sets out a two-year time frame, until 2009, to establish how the system will operate and then allows three years, until 2012, for the industries to start their cutbacks.
Will California state, county, and local governments be forced to reduce emissions by 25%? Or will they take the "Do as I say, not as a I" approach.
Also, will most of the requirement for emissions reduction by placed on industry. If that happens then the percentage decrease in energy for industry will be much higher than 25%.
Will some future California legislature scale back the ambitions of this law? Will exemptions be made or time tables changed? I suspect so.
Rising energy prices in California will drive higher energy using industries to move to other states or abroad. Also, rather than build CO2 emitting coal and natural gas fed electric power plants the state government could let electric prices rise until demand falls enogh to cause a great reduction in CO2 emissions by power plants.
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