 The state's costly, grandiose
scheme to combat global warming is finding resistance from many of the
same folks who approved it two years ago. Meanwhile, legislative
opposition also is growing to the plan to create a global warming state
think tank financed by a utility users' surcharge.
It appears that paying for saving mankind from a projected 1- or
2-degree increase in temperature over the next century already is
proving too costly in today's limited dollars.
"Powerful state senators from both parties are challenging Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed spending spree on selected programs to
address global warming," the San Diego Union-Tribune recently reported.
That news came on the heels of an opinion by the state Legislature's
attorneys that the Public Utilities Commission overstepped its
authority by voting to force electricity and natural-gas customers to
pay to create a $600-million global warming think tank.
Confronted with a current, undeniable $17-billion budget deficit,
apparently even legislative Democrats are finding the price tag for
long-term solutions to global warming's alleged threat too big a price
to pay, at least for now. We're glad there are representatives in
Sacramento who can distinguish between actual, existing problems and
computer-generated future projections.
We may be about to discover how committed legislators really are to
the hyped concern over climate change, considering that the globe
hasn't warmed for about a decade and is projected to cool even more
over the next decade, and no global warming-caused calamities yet have
occurred outside of contrived computer models. When weighing the
concrete crisis of too many government programs operating on too little
tax revenue, we're glad to see some legislators prefer to address
current, real challenges.
Democrats, the Union-Tribune reported, are concerned that Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget borrows too much from other
environmental programs to cover costs associated with combating global
warming.
Republicans also appear to be girding for a fight. The GOP threatens
to hold up the budget until the governor agrees to delay implementing
new industry emission-cutting regulations contained in the 2006 Global
Warming Solutions Act.
State Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, observed so-called new "green"
businesses have yet to emerge, but costs imposed on existing businesses
by global warming regulations may drive them to Nevada, where there are
no greenhouse-gas reduction laws. Democrats also complain that millions
of dollars in services and scores of jobs face elimination, while
global warming regulations would still be financed.
Meanwhile, legislators complain that by approving a global warming
think tank's creation, the Public Utilities Commission worsened the
already difficult task of coordinating state agencies to deal with
climate change. They cite a legislative counsel's opinion that there is
neither a constitutional nor statutory basis authorizing the think
tank's creation. The think tank would spend $60 million a year for 10
years to accelerate research into quickly reducing greenhouse gases,
something critics say already is widely researched, and something we
suspect is of marginal importance considering man's infinitesimally
small contribution to the gases and the unproven link between those
gases and global temperature changes.
Lawmakers threaten to require the PUC to get legislative approval
before proceeding with the think tank. We would like Sacramento to
clean up one mess before it makes another, so we're hopeful legislators
can slow the rush to impose costly greenhouse gas regulations. While
they are fixing the budget, they may have time to rethink their rash
plans to save us from what's likely not to be much of a global warming
threat. Source
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