That’s what people call California. If you’re thinking about the glitter and the shine of that precious metal and how California reflects it in its forward-thinking, economically smart and environmentally sound approach to climate and energy, then you see what I see. The clean tech vision and environmental ethic are embraced all along the political spectrum, from the Republican movie star Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to the Democratic once-and-future Governor Moonbeam, Jerry Brown. (Brown, not incidentally, doesn’t shrink from that moniker, coined by Mike Royko to mock him. “Brown says the nickname shows he’s ‘creative and not hidebound to the status quo. Moonbeam also stands for not being the insider, but standing apart and marching to my own drummer. And I’ve done that.'” Good on ‘ya, Jerry!)
After the thorough thrashing by voters of the cynical attempt by some special interests to turn aside California’s landmark greenhouse gas regulation, AB 32, the California Air Resources Board gave final approval to the plan last week. California approves first broad US climate plan is the headline from AFP. “The largest US state, which would be the world’s eighth largest economy if a country, will from 2012 start a ‘cap-and-trade’ system under which industry will be required to cut emissions but can trade credits on a new market.”
Adding California, plus its fellow members in the Western Climate Initiative, to the growing international carbon market, along with Europe’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the US Northeast states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), and systems on the drawing boards in Japan, China, Australia, and elsewhere, and you’re starting to get some serious traction. As Everett Dirksen said, “A billion dollars here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re starting to talk about some real money.” Not to mention greenhouse gas reductions.
Don’t believe me? How about a guy who’s made a few dollars here and there along the way, and who is also a top analyst of and writer about international finance and economics: George Soros. In this recent commentary from Project Syndicate, Soros says “Instead of a single price for carbon, this bottom-up approach is likely to produce a multiplicity of prices for carbon emissions. This is more appropriate to the task of reducing carbon emissions than a single price, because there is a multiplicity of sectors and methods, each of which produces a different cost curve.” Et voilà!
California is pushing ahead on this critical front and on a number of others. We owe the Golden State a lot.