Be prepared — I bet the California economy is going to take a dive
Bookworm at Bookworm Room on Sep 01 2006 at 12:24 pm | Filed under: Feature Article, Politicians at Work
Whenever a government agency gets lots and lots of power, businesses get strangled and a State loses its tax base. Certainly California has been an excellent example of this trend, as California businesses have fallen and failed under ever increasing government oversight from government offices staffed with people hostile to business and individual enterprise (something I’ve blogged about here and here*). So it was with great trepidation that I read the following about a topic that I’d managed to ignore with some success over the last few days:
The agreement between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators to cap greenhouse gas emissions will give a state agency with a history of shaping national environmental policy tremendous new clout over the California economy.
A 46-31 vote in the Assembly on Thursday sent sweeping global warming legislation to Schwarzenegger’s desk, and he has promised to sign the bill that calls for the 11-member California Air Resources Board to become the key player in the state’s ambitious effort to curb carbon emissions. The board has a monumental task as it enters a years-long process of developing both regulations and market-based schemes that could affect everything from forest management to the price of gas.
All I can say as a California resident is “oy vey.” You know that there’s going to be more and more government control over anything businesses can do, right down to dictates controlling how often a small business owner can open his office windows.
government, California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic
