AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET

The 72-hour public disclosure clock is ticking for Gov. Jerry Brown to get a couple of Republicans to roll-over and pass bills to reauthorize California’s Cap-and-Tax scheme.

Breitbart News reported that Gov. Brown jetted off to China in early June to deliver the Under2 Coalition keynote speech to 176 nations, provinces and cities to promote adoption of California’s scheme that forces businesses to pay high auction prices on a government-run exchange for the right to emit carbon, known as “Cap-and-Trade.”

But back home, Brown’s legacy as world’s leader in the battle against climate change was already at risk of imploding as he was unsuccessfully lobbying rabid industry opponents and their Republican allies to find enough pork and tax exemptions to get a couple of Republicans to roll-over on their caucus and vote to extend the ‘California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006’ (AB 32) that requires reducing greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, extended for another decade.

Originally passed by Republican Gov. Schwarzenegger, the ‘California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006’ (AB 32) requires the state Air Resources Board to adopt a statewide GHG emissions limit equivalent to 1990 levels by 2020, and set up a market-based mechanism to achieve maximum feasible and cost-effective GHG reductions.

Brown calls Cap-and-Trade a free-market solution to the world’s most pressing crisis, but according to the League of Cities it acts like a tax to fund social-justice initiatives including:

$200 million for transportation and sustainable affordable housing;
$200 million for low-carbon transportation programs;
$150 million transit;
$250 million for High-Speed Rail; and
$202 million for clean energy, natural resources, and waste diversion.

Brown been in non-stop negotiations over the last six weeks to get support for Assembly Bill 398, which modifies and extends the what industry calls “Cap-and-Tax” for until 2030. Brown is also pushing AB 617, which would shame businesses as the legally responsible party for monitoring and publishing of their GHG emission levels.

Democrats in both houses of the legislature have endorsed the measures to keep the cash flowing to their constituents and California’s highly-subsidized sustainable industries. But Brown needs a two-thirds vote of both houses by the July 21^st recess, to have a higher probability of sustaining the inevitable legal challenges.

Passing the legislation looked good until the petition to recall California freshman Senator Josh Newman over voting to raise the gas taxes and vehicle registrations by about $.32 per gallon went viral and Republican sponsors turned in 85,000 qualified signatures on June 27.

The recall success stimulated support and funding for the ‘Repeal The Gas Tax’ initiative that seemed well on its way to getting the 365,000 signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Democrats are concerns spiked after the UC Berkeley’s Institute of Government Studies poll revealed 35 percent of voters support the tax and 58 percent are opposed.

Although the Democrat-controlled legislature changed rules to move the recall to next June, Breitbart News reported on July News that repeal sponsors plan to go to court to oppose Democrat California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra’s “misleading official description of the ballot initiative as, “Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes.”

Brown’s political triangulation to pick up business and Republican support for cap-and-tax includes offering oil companies higher California GHG emissions rights for joining ‘Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation’ (REDD) in Nigeria and Indonesia, has infuriated the powerful ‘Friends of the Earth’ lobby as a scam.

But the California Chamber of Commerce, which lost a suit to invalidate cap and trade as an illegal tax, told the Mercury News that for the they would support a 2030 extension for the right deal. Brown supposedly is offering to give existing California businesses more grandfathered GHG credits and limit the highest auction price for GHG credits.

Gov. Brown has until Thursday night to get Republican support for the two bills. Although that looks challenging now, the Democrats are sure to be dealing as the clock ticks down.