Posted on 04/08/2012 7:48:38 AM PDT by SmithL
For the past 10 years, California has struggled with huge budget deficits and wrenching cuts. Suddenly, however, the state is poised to raise billions from an unusual new source: the proceeds from its landmark global warming law.
The windfall could come as soon as this fall, when state officials are set to begin auctioning off pollution credits to oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters as part of a new "cap-and-trade" system.
The amounts are potentially enormous: from $1 billion to $3 billion a year in 2012 and 2013, jumping to as high as $14 billion a year by 2015, according to the nonpartisan state Legislative Analyst's Office. By comparison, the state's current budget deficit is $9 billion.
But like thirsty castaways on an island surrounded by ocean water they can't drink, Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislators face strict constraints on how they can spend the money. More than 30 years of court rulings and ballot measures -- dating to Proposition 13 in 1978 -- limit its use, probably only to projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
To add another hurdle, major business groups are preparing lawsuits, arguing that the state cannot collect the money at all.
Still, Brown and others in the Capitol are cautiously making plans. On Monday, the state's High-Speed Rail Authority slipped into a news release that the money would be used as "a backstop" that could save the struggling bullet-train project. And in a follow-up interview with this newspaper, Dan Richard, chairman of the rail authority, asserted that a large portion of the money could go to fund high-speed rail.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
They’ll get less than the projections as more companies flee California.
All I want to know is how do I get in on this SCAM and how much money can I make?
Consumers shafted again.
People need to get over this notion that actions have no cost.
Emphasis on "could".
And even if it does, the idiots in Sacramento and the thousands of bureaucracies in this state will just spend 10 times more than whatever this brings in so we will have accomplished nothing except driving more businesses out of the state.
Is this groundhog day? I thought cap and trade was dead.
Such as the train to nowhere.
Are these progressives insane? Really?
They're acting like this is some windfall of $$$ raining down like manna from heaven. What they fail to grasp is that the money comes from someplace, in this case oil refineries. Now these refineries have that much less money in the till to upgrade equipment (jobs) , expand production (jobs and lower gas prices) and hire more people.
Maybe I'm missing something, but gov Moonbeam and the thieves in Sacramento are acting just like hungry castaways on an island with no food, who suddenly start gnawing on their foot and think they've been given an endless feast.
.
Funny that California consumers think some one else will pay this money.
Idiots have a powerful media and education system working to please them, smart people don’t.
It is but Kalifornia wants to be first state to jump off the cliff.
“Carbon Credits” of the Global Warming religion are the same as “Indulgence Papers” of the Catholic Church during the middle ages... The goal is to scam the stupid and take their money telling them that you have been saved and in the meanwhile the priests of the Global Warming religion are getting filthy rich...Global warming is the biggest hoax in history of mankind...
Another extra ambitious plan by California to drive businesses from that state.
For the companies and consumers left behind, from where do you suppose these companies will get the cash to pay for the pollution credits?
Bwaaa ha ha ha haaaaaaa!!!
As if Gov. Moonbeam and his Commie Pinko friends give a damn about laws and rules and all that crap.
Oh, San Jose Murky News, you crack me up.
You would think they would look at the epic fail of cap and trade in Europe and realize they are living in Wonderland. California already has tough emission laws. There is no ‘low hanging fruit’ left for the gov fleece. Those who can move will, others will just leave.
“Maybe I’m missing something, but gov Moonbeam and the thieves in Sacramento are acting just like hungry castaways on an island with no food, who suddenly start gnawing on their foot and think they’ve been given an endless feast.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well said, but I’ve always preferred the poignant image of an old toothless dog, chewing on a dry bone until its gums bleed, then savoring the delicious treat it has in its mouth.
Among others, The power companies should just shut down and turn off the lights. Something tells me that there will be a lot loss jobs in California in a few years.
According to Tribune. BLAME IT ON BUSH!!!!
Higher gas prices cause less public anger this time
Several factors are behind the relative complacency now compared with the price surge of 2008, analysts say.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-fi-gas-outrage-20120407,0,816255.story
..the tax payers of the US....anyone else think this is a payoff from the Odungo administration?...notice the word "could" get paid. This sounds so hinky
As if "strict constraints" ever stopped them, ever.
$1-3 billion in new “taxes” on the consumers still paying their own power bills. These additional costs will be passed on to the consumers. They might as well just call it what it is - another tax increase.
Oh - that’s right. They’re calling it fees, so in Romney’s world it is not really a tax increase.
Wouldn't they just love to know they'll owe no royalties to Fannie Mae? A certain FReeper (me) filed a provisional patent application describing "natural process assets that transform the state of mobile commons such as air and water" more than eighteen months before Bartels' application date.
There, fixed it.
These leeches also told us the lottery would save education and balance the budget, and tobacco taxes would save health care and balance the budget.
Nothing has changed and they continue to spend 20-30% more then they take in in revenue.
I don’t blame the politicians as much as the morons in this state who keep electing them.
Exactly. As if all this $$ just appears from nowhere, like manna from Heaven. The consumer will pay the bill. Employers will pay the bill, which means fewer jobs and less tax revenue (when they decide to leave). Idiots all.
**$1-3 billion in new “taxes” on the consumers still paying their own power bills. These additional costs will be passed on to the consumers. They might as well just call it what it is - another tax increase.***
Liberals don’t get it. Corporations and big business don’t pay taxes, it is the consumer that pays all of it. All costs are passed on in the final price.
And these new taxes will go where all the other taxes have gone, down a RAT hole.
Thanks for posting the article.
“The windfall could come as soon as this fall, when state officials are set to begin auctioning off pollution credits to oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters as part of a new “cap-and-trade” system. “
And WHERE do the oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters get the money to pay for those ‘pollution credits’?
I hear they have a lot of cliffs.
You'll have to dumb this down for me just a bit.
Actually, a lot.
Those same leeches told us that if we hid underneath a WOOD DESK it would protect us from a nuclear fireball.
Windfall of cash?
Sounds more like a Ponzi scheme.
Well, with the exception of Obama qualifying for President.
My wife and I have good paying jobs in Silcon Valley, but we can’t wait to get out of this insane state. Not only will companies flee, people will too when their energy bills soar.
Ah, them Kalifornians are too smart by half.
GOOGLE SAYS:
About 3,160,000 results (0.46 seconds)
and in related news:
High Speed Rail Authority approves what critics call 'train to nowhere'
That would bring in trillions.
Couldn't charge Eric Holder's people, though. That would be racist.
I like the quote in the Mecury News, that states:’the funds will somehow be restrained to enviromental projects’ great lies if anyone accually believe the frauds in Sacremento; to think Arnold pass this offensive legislation(we should have known that if you marry a Kennedy you will always be liberal no matter what party affiliation). That prick not only fathered a bastard kid, got his murdering son’s pal sentence slashed in half, but put into motion, years of lawsuits, and counter lawsuits, in a time we cannot even afford to give free cell service to legislators. Progressives are anything but! That piece of garbage should be shipped back to Austria before he does any further damage——God, Califorians are so effing stupid, they voted for Brown again, what do you expect.
Bingo. California is getting exactly what it deserves. I just hope the rest of the country doesn't get stuck bailing it out.
Cap and trade. You can still pollute but will have to pay for the ability.
Yes, but they'll spend twice what they project.
This is not a wacky idea in the sense that land management services toward environmental ends do cost money are are therefore (in theory) "worth" compensation. For example, how I manage my land does effect how much runoff there is and therefore can mitigate floods to a degree while storing water for late season release or human groundwater use. It might not be much in the aggregate sense, but automated transaction processing could make it worth the overhead by the time all such contracts were combined. Such a market would then optimize each property for its appropriate combination of uses.
There is a problem however: How do you measure (and more importantly VERIFY) what is or is not actually performed and how did it work? My patent covers that. Bartels does not.
Because I foresaw the potential for an enormous and corrupt market in bogus "services" (complete with university-determined price fixing), I filed for patent to preclude such a powerful monopoly. Because it was sitting in the USPTO for eight long years and I had no money to do much more than keep it going, the thugs of this world didn't know of my application while they got the fast track. Once I fired my lawyer (on his recommendation) I went pro-se, wrote my own claims, and gained that patent.
I hate like hell sitting on this thing because it gets weaker without me putting it into motion, but at least it could be cited as prior art, thus invalidating the claim for royalties under Bartels.
A FReeper throwing sand in those gears would be news, n'est ce pas?
The article presupposes that any one is going to abide by crap and trade. The money has already been spent and California is is far in debt that 3 billion wouldn’t put a dent in it.
For those companies who have finally realized that they have no hope of continuing running a decent business in California:
There are 7 states that have NO personal income tax. Some don’t tax corporations, either.
Properties are less expensive in many of those states. Property taxes are less, also. I have 5.58 acres with house, garage, well, septic & my property taxes last year were $1200. Properties can be bought at the bottom or the top of the price ranges.
Talented & qualified persons you have now would have an opportunity to go with you and improve their usable income, also.
Here in N Nevada, the reacreational activities are abundant. Summer/winter & in between.
Look at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Park just east of Reno, along Interstate 80. Also- look in the Carson Valley at the aitport complex.
If your business needs access to major transportation, or wants to build a newer facility, see what they offer on their website.
I have absolutely no personal connection with Lance Gilman, the developer, nor with any company that is there already.
I just am a former resident of California who has known for years that California is sinking into a morass of it’s own making.
I left & I don’t miss it.
The alternative to being scammed by cap and trade is to shutdown. Watch the power plants go away. No taxes from them or from businesses who can’t function without electricity. Windfall? No. Windstorm with lots of damage.
magic thinking - on a par with cargo cults among Pacific islanders.
It seems to me that the net effect will be to force power generation and manufacturing out of CA.
The grid will have to be improved to accommodate the change. Remember the brown-outs?
Then Californians will pay rates for electricity that is imported from other states.
Perhaps CA will then increase taxes on imported energy to create the next “windfall.”
This is actually funny, in a sickening sort of way.
Democrats always project that they will get huge increases in revenues by raising taxes. And it *never* works. Never, ever. It is the curse of Arthur Laffer.
And corporate taxes are the worst, because Democrats are just unable to grasp the idea that all those “mountains of free money” that are corporate profits, DO NOT go to bizarre “Scrooge McDuck” types, who use it to fill swimming pools with gold coins, buy chicken egg-sized diamonds, and smoke cigars rolled in one million dollar bills.
But because of the mindless greed and hate of Democrats, corporations *do* spend far more money than they want to on ambitious young tax attorneys and accountants, who are then tasked with a major, ongoing project: Tax avoidance (note: “avoid”==legal; “evade”==illegal).
And when the Democrats projected tax revenues of “millions and billions and trillions” of dollars results instead in a handful of subway tokens and some used chewing gum, the Democrats loudly complain and whine that the “evil” corporations are “stealing” money from the government, and should be forced to give more money. That is, even higher taxes.
Some people are really slow on the uptake.
However, because of their persistence, some corporation do eventually cough up some bread, which instantly translates to inflation, as they pass 105% of the costs on to consumers. And while the Democrats have no problem with screwing consumers, in past, even in California, consumers had other ideas.
Yet this time, push may have come to shove. This is because California has been oppressing industry for years, to the point where California is borderline for any profit margin at all.
Cap’n Trade IS NOT about “global warming”, “climate change” or “savin da planit”. Cap’n Trade is about politicians stealing other people’s money to get themselves reelected by promising the voters more “free stuff”.
Wow. 100% of the comments at the mercury news site would fit in right here at FR!
““The windfall could come as soon as this fall...”
I thought windfalls were bad. The lefties are always screaming about the evils windfall profits. Where are they now?
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