AB 32, California’s signature anti-climate change legislation, was praised by environmentalists across the world when it passed in 2006. But as it has been implemented, its hue has gone from green to grey. And so too has its future dimmed.
Not Much Bang For the Buck: To assess AB 32’s primary goal of reducing California’s emissions, we need to assess the Golden State’s emission reduction relative to the other 49 states, which have been slow to implement anti-climate change actions. Over the courseof the last decade, California hasn’t done much better at reducing emissions, but this data only incorporates two years of AB 32 being truly in action. But even looking at just 2012 and 2013, California still isn’t performing much better than the rest of the country. In absolute terms, CO2 emissions increased in California by an average of 1.2% while they dropped by an average of 0.8% per year in the rest of the nation. On a per capita basis, we see a similar picture – increasing (0.2% on average per year) in California, but falling (1.3% on average per year) in the other 49 states. Only in terms of emissions per real GDP do we see California reduce its emissions in 2012 and 2013, but again, the rest of the nation still outperforms the Golden State (1.2% on average versus 2.0% on average). Meanwhile, California’s all sector average electricity price is almost 1.5 times higher than the national average and regular gas prices are almost 1.3 times higher. AB 32 is definitely increasing energy prices, but isn’t significantly reducing emissions.
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