Breaking News from the California Department of Food & Ag

Release #08-088 

  Media Contact: Steve Lyle, CDFA Public Affairs, (916) 654-0462  HEALTH REQUIREMENTS FOR SANTA’S REINDEER WAIVED BY STATE VETERINARIAN  Reindeer cleared to land in California  SACRAMENTO – California State Veterinarian Dr. Richard Breitmeyer has granted a 24-hour permit waiving all brand inspection and health requirements for nine reindeer slated to visit California on the evening of December 24 and in the early morning hours of December 25.  The permit application was filed by a rotund, jolly man with a red face and a white beard. He signed the paperwork, “K. Kringle.”  Brand inspection and health requirements—which help veterinarians prevent the spread of [....]

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AB 32′s Economic Cost Is Far Lower Than “Allowance Value”

   (The following is a response from Larry Goulder, a Stanford University economics professor, regarding the AB 32 allowance value discussed in a previous posting here and the actual economic cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.)  As chair of the Economic and Allocation Advisory Committee to the California Air Resources Board, I am writing to clarify an issue relating to your recent blog concerning the value of emissions allowances under California’s AB 32.  In your blog, you accurately described the draft report’s range of estimates for the total value of emissions allowances over the interval 2012-2020. The listed range [....]

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Caltrans Swift At Putting Federal Stimulus Dollars to Work

Caltrans, the state’s Department of Transportation, has been swift in using nearly $1 billion in federal economic stimulus money, already putting out to bid projects using 92 percent of the funds, a recent report by the Legislative Analyst shows. Transportation agencies for the state’s cities and counties have been slower in spending their $1.6 billion, with less than one-third of their funds out to bid. The pace of the local agencies could hurt them. A 2008 bill, ABX3 20, requires that whatever federal stimulus money a local agency hasn’t obligated by February 1, revert to Caltrans for redistribution to other projects. The Legislative [....]

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Draft Report Assesses Financial and Economic Costs of AB 32

California entities that emit greenhouse gases could pay between $48 billion and $143 billion between 2012 and 2020 as part of the implementation of AB 32, according to a draft report by the California Economic and Allocation Advisory Committee. The report, Allocating Emissions Allowances under California’s Cap-and-Trade Program, takes a somewhat dimmer view of the impact of the landmark legislation, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, than its champions like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who signed the measure in 2006. “Climate policy can … place burdens on consumers: such policy can be expected to raise the price of fuels and these price increases will [....]

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Some Surprises on California’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting List

Six hundred five businesses, cities,military bases and other California emitters of greenhouse gases report the level of those emissions to the state Air Resources Board. The air board’s spreadsheet of those reporting and  a November 18 press release by the board discuss the process. The reporting has been required since 2007. It’s part of the state’s implementation of AB 32, the 2006 measure aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.  While refineries, cement makers and utilities are all on the list – and tend to have the highest levels of emissions – there some surprises. Del Monte’s Hanford fruit and vegetable canning [....]

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Major Recycler Sues Over Beverage Container Fund Insolvency

California’s largest single recycling services provider sued the state November 9 claiming $416 million in so-called loans made to the cash-starved general fund from the Beverage Container Recycling Fund are illegal and must be repaid. In a lawsuit filed in Alameda Superior Court, Tomra Pacific Inc., which operates nearly one-third of the state’s 1,200 supermarket parking lot recycling centers, claims the loans have driven the recycling fund into insolvency, causing the state Department of Conservation to eliminate payments to recyclers and irreparably harming the state’s 23-year-old effort to reduce can and bottle waste. “The continued effect of the (department’s) funding [....]

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State Water Board Gains Some New Powers and Hard Tasks

Charlie Hoppin almost became one of the most powerful persons in state government. He has plenty of power as chairman of the State Water Resources Control Board but the Yuba City rice farmer was going to be presiding over a body with significantly greater powers to halt water scofflaws – at least when the recently concluded special session on water began in late October. But in the dead-of-night last minute deal cutting that capped the special session the very interests that feared those powers would be leveled against them, succeeded in removing them from the package. Among the recommendations of the [....]

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Guest Post: Regulatory Costs to Small Business

Posted by Gino DiCaro, Vice President, Communications, California Manufacturers and Technology Association  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released a study Sept. 22 on the cost of state regulations on California small businesses.  The research, conducted by Sanjay Varshney, concluded that on average, each small business spent $134 thousand on regulations in 2007.  The report also concluded that the total cost of regulation to the state is $493 billion and 3.8 million jobs.?? Over the past few years of California’s manufacturing and economic decline, the state’s regulatory environment has been pinpointed as a primary reason for the high costs and unpredictability that makes the state an uncompetitive place [....]

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Air Board Approves AB32 Scoping Plan

Ignoring criticism from economic experts and the Legislative Analyst’s Office, the California Air Resources Board has unanimously adopted a plan to create the country’s most aggressive assault on greenhouse gas emissions.

(Editor’s Note: See post below for more information.)

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AB 32 Scoping Plan “Biased” and “Incomplete,” Outside Reviewers Say

The state’s economic analysis justifying a multi-billion plan to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the next 12 years is “flawed,” “biased,” as well as underestimates costs and overstates savings, according to six economists who critiqued the proposal. 

A separate assessment by the Legislative Analyst published Nov. 17, concluded that the California Air Resources Board’s AB 32 Scoping Plan contains an “inconsistent” and “incomplete” evaluation of costs and savings and fails to prove that by 2020 implementing the plan would create a slight economic benefit for the state. 

The air board, which is scheduled to vote on adopting the plan at its [....]

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