Bienvenue à Québec, CARB!

by CalWatchdog Staff | December 13, 2012 5:52 pm

Dec. 13, 2012

By Katy Grimes

Hear ye! Hear ye! Cap and trade is alive and working, so says the big announcement today from the California from the California Air Resources Board and California Environmental Agency… at least between California and Quebec.

“California Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Matthew Rodriquez and Air Resources Board Chairman Mary D. Nichols today applauded Quebec on the adoption of the Province’s amended cap-and-trade regulation[1] to allow for linking with California’s program,” the press release from the CARB said.

“Welcome to the New World Order,” a friend wrote in an email to me.

“Quebec’s announcement demonstrates the critical role that government can play in reducing carbon emissions and addressing climate change,” said Matthew Rodriquez, Secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency[2].  “Our two programs share a common objective and we look forward to coordinating our work in California with them.”

California working with Quebec on the reduction of carbon emissions has never made sense, unless Quebec is the only government that would work with the Golden State. Perhaps Quebec and California have more in common  than anyone realizes. “Two Quebec towns share the dubious distinction of being the most polluted city on MoneySense’s annual list,” MoneySense reported[3] in March.

“This step marks a significant advance in our four-year collaboration to expand climate action between our individual jurisdictions,” said ARB Chairwoman Mary D. Nichols[4].  “Quebec’s action sets the stage to link our two emissions trading programs to provide a model program that other states and provinces can join.”

carbon-emissions-fuelling-atmosphere_5106[5]

CARB should move to Delaware

CARB is the same state agency which set up a private corporation, Western Climate Initiative Inc. to manage the cap and trade program, in Delaware.

Delaware is well known as a tax and corporate haven, and does not have the same open-meeting laws that California has. “The California Open Meeting Act is a composition of the Ralph M. Brown Act which legislates local governments and political subdivisions and the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act which legislates the executive branch of the state, and the Grunsky-Burton Open Meeting Act which legislates methods by which public meetings are conducted on the state level,” the Sunshine Review explains[6].

CARB has never suffuciently answered why they registered the corporation in Delaware, but anyone who owns or runs a California corporation will tell you that and that between the tax advantages and privacy/secrecy laws, Delaware has its advantages.

CARB pulled this maneuver in defiance of the California Constitution, Article I Section 3[7]:

(b) (1) The people have the right of access to information concerning the conduct of the people’s business, and, therefore, the meetings of public bodies and the writings of public officials and agencies shall be open to public scrutiny.

Article 1, Section 10[8] of the United States Constitution [9]is another the CARB should read:

No State shallenter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws; and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress.

It is hard to believe that this state agency is flying by the seat of its pants. Surely they have a bevy of state lawyers at their disposal to keep them in line. Or not.

Bienvenue à Québec!

Endnotes:
  1. amended cap-and-trade regulation: http://www.mddep.gouv.qc.ca/changements/carbone/Systeme-plafonnement-droits-GES-en.htm
  2. California Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/
  3. reported: http://www.moneysense.ca/2012/03/20/11-worst-places-to-live/ms_stgeorges/
  4. ARB Chairwoman Mary D. Nichols: http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm
  5. [Image]: http://www.calwatchdog.com/2010/05/31/new-green-job-future-a-fraud/carbon-emissions-fuelling-atmosphere_5106/
  6. the Sunshine Review explains: http://www.sunshinereview.org/index.php/California_Open_Meeting_Act#ixzz2Ez3tVyGB
  7. California Constitution, Article I Section 3: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_1
  8. Article 1, Section 10: http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm
  9. United States Constitution : http://www.constitution.org/constit_.htm

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2012/12/13/bienvenue-a-quebec-carb/