Newsom and Schwarzenegger mark 20 years of California climate law
Science & ClimateWell-covered
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The Facts
- Gavin Newsom and Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared at the California Economic Summit in Long Beach.
- Their appearance marked 20 years since California enacted the Global Warming Solutions Act.
- Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act into law in 2006.
- The law required California to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
- State officials say California reached its 2020 emissions target ahead of schedule.
- Schwarzenegger and Newsom argued that California's climate policies can support economic goals.
- Critics cited by The Center Square questioned California climate policy costs and regulatory effects.
Context
What is the Global Warming Solutions Act?
The 2006 California law set a goal of reducing the state's greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and helped establish the state's emissions-control framework. NY Post Internewscast Journ… Center Square
How did California pursue the emissions target?
The state used mandatory emissions limits and reporting for major industrial sources, along with a statewide cap-and-trade program, according to the accounts. NY Post Internewscast Journ…
What debate remains over California's approach?
An economist cited by The Center Square said the policies imposed high costs and regulations, and argued that other states reduced emissions faster without California's regulatory approach. Rome Sentinel Center Square
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Both frames treat the 2020 target met ahead of schedule as real, and both treat the costs and regulatory effects critics raise as a legitimate burden to be weighed, not dismissed.
- Where Left and Right split
- The left and the right split on whether California's emissions win justifies its costs.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is one of values: whether a mandate's legitimacy rests on the environmental target it met or on who absorbed its costs, and no emissions data settles that.
- Watch for
- Watch for California's cap-and-invest program, extended through 2045, as it moves toward formally linking with Washington state's carbon market.Los Angeles Times
How left and right read it
A binding emissions limit is a promise to the people who breathe the worst air and absorb the worst heat, and California kept it: the 2006 law required cutting emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and officials say that target was met ahead of schedule. That record shifts the burden: when critics raise costs and regulatory effects, the question is what they would put in its place.
Someone pays for every mandate. Twenty years after that 2006 law capped emissions at 1990 levels, the costs and regulatory effects critics keep raising are borne by Californians who were not on that Long Beach stage, which is why an anniversary staged as mutual congratulation lands so poorly. Judge these rules by their price rather than their longevity, and roll back the ones ordinary people are made to carry.
“Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Gov. Gavin Newsom patted themselves on the back Wednesday as they celebrated California's controversial climate laws at an event in Long Beach.” — New York Post
California met its emissions target ahead of schedule. The fight is whether that result justifies the costs critics say residents still carry.
The receipts — 8 sources
Independent coverage (8)
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