California's AB32 CO2 law is aimed at reducing CO2 emissions from all sources in the state. It also sets up a "cap and trade" system of granting and selling carbon credits to emitters. The credits start out free but the amount ratchets down over time. Emitters are forced to buy credits from other businesses if they can't meet the newest standards. The enforcer of AB32 is the California Air Resources Board (CARB). They have already forced truckers, hospitals, farmers and businesses to replace or retrofit diesel engines with newer designs over the past several years, in initial compliance with AB32. This has cost California voters almost $1 Billion for grants for truck engine replacements.
One of the industries that AB32 impacts especially is food processing, one of California's most significant. Processors use natural gas to dehydrate and cook food. One example of the impact is at Land O'Lakes Butter, which was forced to spend million of dollars on a new boiler to comply with CARB's newest exhaust emissions regulations. The new standards are so stringent that even a brand new boiler could not meet them. Thus Land O'Lakes is being fined and/or will have to buy carbon credits to make up the difference.
Thus, unelected bureaucrats are forcing businesses to reduce production, reduce employment, and maybe to make them move out of state. Steven Greenhut reported on a October 20 meeting with food processors in this article: California-global-warming-law-choking-food-processors. "(CARB Board member) D’Adamo agreed that CARB does not believe that AB32 will reduce global warming, but rather was passed to encourage other states and countries to follow California’s lead."
CARB always purports the estimated benefits of reducing pollution. But Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, R-Fresno, "a physician, focused on public health issues. Regulators and environmentalists talk about public health in a general sense — potential problems from an overall warming trend that humanity has limited ability to change. Meanwhile, Halderman focused on the real-world health problems caused by unemployment and poverty."
By the way, at CARB their euphemistic term for lost jobs is "leakage." How sweet. How head-in-the-sand. How sad.
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