AB 32
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On AB 32 …
... Schwarzenegger and the business lobby are playing a perilous game of chicken with state Dems. Let's hope they don't collectively blow it.
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AB 32 and Arnie’s ABC 32 (C is for “caps optional”)
As I said a couple of weeks ago after Arnie's eco-rendezvous with the British PM, the real measure of the governor's greenness will be in the passage of several bills being deliberated in Sacramento right now.
In the next ten days, assembly members will decide whether The Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32 [PDF])and the Clean Alternate Energy Act (Prop 87 [PDF]), among others, will arrive at Schwarzenegger's desk intact or as grossly watered-down versions. According to this story in the L.A. Times, business groups and even the California Chamber of Commerce are putting major pressure on the governor to reign in those legislators who would be so brash as to listen to their constituency (a poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California and released in mid-July indicated that 80% of likely voters support these climate change bills).
Schwarzenegger is indeed straddling a barbed fence: on the one hand, he can ill afford to alienate the businessmen who support his campaign, yet on the other, public opinion is strongly anti-global warming.
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The real meat and potatoes in California
Like Lisa said, yesterday's schmoozing between Schwarzenegger and Blair was touching but symbolic. The real meat of environmental legislation right now is pending in Sacramento, where Fran Pavley and Fabian Nunez have introduced the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) (PDF). According to the the Environmental Defense fund:
AB 32 is the first statewide effort to cap greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of California's economy. It would set a firm cap that would ensure that California's greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 25% by the year 2020, putting teeth in Governor Schwarzenegger's goal to reduce California's emissions.
According to a summary Q&A (PDF) about the bill, a market based cap-and-trade system is one several "flexible compliance mechanisms" that could be considered by California Air Resource Board (CARB). A specific regimen for carbon trading is not actually included in the bill, a fact which even the LA Times seems to have tweaked.
Rod Beckstrom, CEO of Carbon Investments in Palo Alto, and Ray Lane, of Kleiner Perkins, had an interesting if optimistic take on AB 32:
