Not to detract from the governor’s environmentalist cred, or the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The issue is transcendent. But the climate change fight won’t be won by swatting mosquitoes or empty symbolism.
Basic, common-sense protections like these are often assailed by business interests as job-killing overregulation. There’s practically a cottage industry of corporate groups whose job is to attack California laws that support workers’ rights and oppose any new worker protections. Despite these attacks, California has passed some of the strongest workers’ rights laws in the nation.
But even proponents such as Jacobs acknowledge that cities are raising the minimum wage to levels that have not yet been fully vetted. “There is no simple existing economic model consistent with the empirical minimum wage research literature that can be used to estimate the impact of a minimum wage law, taking into account all the direct and indirect effects as they course through a regional economy,” wrote Jacobs and several colleagues advising Los Angeles council members.
“This paper demonstrates that even the complete elimination of state GHG emissions will have no measurable effect on climate change risks unless Cali- fornia-style policies are widely adopted throughout the United States, and particularly in other countries that now generate much larger GHG emissions. As California Governor Jerry Brown, a staunch proponent of climate change policies, recently observed, “We can do things in California, but if others don’t follow, it will be futile.” . . . Nevertheless, the extent to which California’s GHG policies have and may be likely to inspire similar measures in other locations, is rarely, if ever seri- ously evaluated by state lawmakers or the California judiciary. Absent such considerations, imposing much more substantial GHG mandates may not only fail to inspire complementary actions in other locations, but could even result in a net increase in GHG emissions should population and economic activity move to locations with much higher GHG emission rates than California. “
Despite plunging prices in the last seven years, rooftop solar arrays remain an expensive home improvement, costing $15,000 or more. A 2013 study by the liberal research and advocacy group Center for American Progress found that 67 percent of solar arrays installed in California went to ZIP codes with a median household income between $40,000 and $90,000. Wealthier areas accounted for almost all of the rest.
The requirement aims to ensure that wages keep pace with cost-of-living increases, but business advocates say it could cripple entrepreneurs’ ability to adjust wages to unpredictable economic conditions — effectively enshrining automatic annual layoffs when times get tough.
With little fanfare, the president in March scaled back the ambitious goals laid out in 2009 that sought the million units on the road by 2015 as it became clear that technology and consumer interest were not keeping pace with his ideals. Sales and government purchases have failed to meet even lowered expectations, government sales data and U.S. sales data show.
Calling California’s cap-and-trade emissions auctions a form of extortion, the National Federal of Independent Business’ Small Business Legal Center has filed a brief in the Third District California Court of Appeals, saying the auctions are a burden to small business and that the California Air Resources Board lacks the legal authority to sell emission allowances.
The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday voted 14-1 to support creating a citywide minimum wage, which will rise from the current statewide minimum of $9 an hour today to $15 an hour over the next five years.
While two-thirds of Los Angeles County employers expect business conditions to improve this year, they have serious concerns about governmental impediments, such as high taxes and fees, increased regulation and cumbersome permitting processes.
In the past five years, roughly a dozen states have enacted laws barring local governments from requiring businesses to provide paid sick leave to employees. The number of states banning local minimum wages has grown to 15. And while oil-rich states such as Texas and Oklahoma are pursuing bills banning local restrictions on drilling, other states where agriculture is big business have been banning local limitations on the types of seeds sown for crops.
Recently approved environmental rules could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of desalination plants proposed along California’s coast. Industry officials say projects will continue to move forward — though it’s an open question about whether the technology will ever flourish in the Golden State.
The eight-foot-tall dam, which is constructed of concrete blocks, reeds and mud, will remain in place at least until November, so that the LADWP can fulfil a variety of mandated obligations, including dust mitigation, tribal land requirements and assisting the Lower Owens River Project — the nation’s largest river restoration effort.
Sabrina Lockhart, a spokeswoman for Californians for Energy Independence, an advocacy group for oil and gas companies, said, “It’s ironic that a billionaire who is promoting policies that will cause energy prices to rise suddenly cares about what Californians pay at the pump.”
California’s cap-and-trade program, in which permits to pollute are traded and fees are levied, has been a swelling source of revenue, helping to fuel major initiatives in the updated spending blueprint released by the governor this week. . . Simply put: When power plants burn fuel and tailpipes spew exhaust, money is pumped into the governor’s agenda.