With great fanfare, California is about to pass a law mandating a 25 percent cut in state greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. While AB 32 appears to be a big development at first glance, closer examination reveals that it is little more than a sophisticated political dodge; a convenient vehicle by which politicians can appear to do something about global warming without actually having to do much of anything concrete about it. If past is prologue, environmentalists are in for a big disappointment. AB 32's environmental promise comes due 14 years hence – that is, long after the politicians who...