Breaking News: California Chamber of Commerce Sues over AB 32 Auction
The California Chamber of Commerce has launched the first industry lawsuit against the auction portion of California's cap-and-trade program on the basis that auctioning off allowances constitutes an unauthorized, unconstitutional tax. The complaint was filed today in Sacramento Superior Court and seeks to stop the auction and have the auction regulations declared invalid. The Chamber argues that the Legislature never authorized the Air Resources Board -- the agency...
CONTINUE READINGTime for a California Oil Severance Tax
California's new Democratic supermajority will be sorely tempted to raise taxes and fees across the board, which I have earlier suggested is a bad idea politically. But that hardly means that it should reject new revenues altogether, and the easiest place to start would be an oil severance tax. The oil severance tax works exactly like it sounds: it taxes producers based upon the barrels of oil they take out of the ground. California is one of the few oil producing s...
CONTINUE READINGWhy the GOP Should Embrace Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
There's a lot of discussion these days about how the Republican Party should reposition itself in light of last week's election results. Support for renewables and energy efficiency would make sense as part of a package of policy adjustments -- it would strengthen the Party's appeal to swing voters, women, and younger voters, with only limited fallout among current GOP supporters. Here are some key finding from a recent Pew poll: 70% of independents support increase...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Do You Do With a Supermajority? Be Very Careful!
As Cara observes, California Democrats seem to have achieved the unachievable in Sacramento -- a 2/3 majority, allowing them to raise taxes without permission of the GOP. It's not quite there, because a couple of state Senators were elected to Congress, and as soon as they take their seats, special elections will need to be held for their Senate seats. But they are safe Democratic districts: for the next session, the supermajority seems to be assured.So what should...
CONTINUE READINGMaking Climate Policy While Congress Sleeps
In our system of government, Congress is the institution with the greatest power to address issues of national importance. Unfortunately, Congress has been AWOL on the issue of climate change. The election has made it marginally more likely that Congress might wake up and take action on climate change, possibly even including a carbon tax as part of a budget deal. But the odds still seem to be strongly against any break in the congressional deadlock on this issue. ...
CONTINUE READINGOne Additional Legal Challenge To AB 32: Prop 26
One addendum to my post on new developments and cap-and-trade. I should have mentioned that Proposition 26 -- which tightened the 2/3s vote requirement for taxes to include fees -- may be the basis for another legal challenge to the cap-and-trade program. California voters approved Prop 26 in 2010. Unless Prop 26 is found to be retroactive, which the Emmett Center has previously concluded it should not be, any lawsuit challenging cap-and-trade on the grounds that i...
CONTINUE READINGNew Developments for Cap-and-Trade in California
There's big news for California's cap-and-trade program to control the state's greenhouse gas emissions on two fronts this week. Cara alluded to the first in her post this week about California Democrats gaining a supermajority in both houses of the legislature after Tuesday's election. The legislative development is important because the state legislature can probably take steps -- with a two-thirds vote -- to reduce legal vulnerability about whether cap-and-trade...
CONTINUE READINGWhat might the election mean for environmental law?
Three quick thoughts on the implications of the election for environmental law in general, and greenhouse gas regulation in particular: (1) Congress will matter less. A stronger Democratic majority in the Senate and a reelected Obama mean that the courts are probably the only thing standing between full implementation of EPA’s carbon dioxide regulations under the Clean Air Act. It will be that much harder for Republicans to peel off Democrats...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change May Be More Severe Than Previously Expected
The Washington Post reports on a new study with grim implications about climate change. The study suggests that temperature increases by the end of the century will be at the upper end of predictions -- 8°F. (Keep in mind that this is the global average -- the change will be lower over the oceans but higher on land, and lower in the tropics than in temperate and polar regions.) The result would be "drastically higher seas, disappearing coastlines and more severe dro...
CONTINUE READINGOn the Nature of “Stuff”
In celebrating National Schadenfreude Day yesterday, I could not help noticing Bill O'Reilly's complex analysis of the election returns: "Voters want things. They want stuff. Who's going to give them stuff? Obama." Well. Actually, the government has given the wealthy "stuff" all the time. It gives them a whole plethora of specific tax breaks and credits. Indeed, one could argue that Bain Capital's entire model is based upon tax arbitrage -- a huge gift from the ...
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