Climate Change Can Wait For Nov. Election

Katy Grimes: Taking a page from national political campaigns, California’s highly politically charged Air Resources Board made a surprise decision yesterday to postpone the first cap and trade auction from August to November — after the November election.

At an informational hearing about how to spend the proceeds of the sale of carbon permits, Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board announced  that the first carbon permit auction will be moved to November 14th.

The California Air Resources Board has been planning to sell the emission rights (carbon credits), claiming the sales will raise $4 billion in 2012-13, and help shore-up the state’s deficit. But this $4 billion is not new revenue coming into the state; the $4 billion will come from taxpayers, homeowners, business owners, and utility users, in addition to the high taxes and utility costs we already pay.

Hedging their bets, it’s clearly a political, “just-in-case,”  strategical move:

— Just-in-case anyone in the media decides to report on what cap and trade will actually cost California businesses;

— Just-in-case utility rate payers start screaming about increasing utility bills;

— Just-in-case the carbon trading scams become public;

— Just-in-case California energy companies aren’t able to force energy suppliers to get 33 percent of their electricity from renewable resources, particularly after taking California’s hydroelectric producing Klamath Dam offline;

— Just-in-case more California solar companies file bankruptcy, even after receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies from the government;

— Just-in-case voters notice they are being lied to about the long-term effects of climate change.

The people paying the bills in California are not climate change deniers, we are climate change realists.

MAR. 28, 2012