Cap and Trade: Jerry Brown signs his bill (and calls opponents political terrorists)

By Dan Bacher - Red, Green, and Blue, July 28, 2017

“California is leading the world in dealing with a principal existential threat that humanity faces,” said Governor Brown at the signing ceremony. “We are a nation-state in a globalizing world and we’re having an impact and you’re here witnessing one of the key milestones in turning around this carbonized world into a decarbonized, sustainable future.”

Background: Cap and Trade: “Yes, this deal sucks, but we need to pass something. Anything.”

Brown signed the legislation on Treasure Island because it was the same location where Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 (the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006) that authorized the state’s cap-and-trade program more than a decade ago.

Schwarzenegger also spoke at the signing ceremony, along with  Senate President pro Tempore Kevin De León, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia and others.

Over 65 environmental justice, consumer and conservation groups strongly opposed the legislation that was based largely on a Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) wish list. Julia May, senior scientist at Communities for a Better Environment, summed up the many problems with AB 398:

“The Cap & Trade extension was written by the oil industry, is even worse than the current failed program, includes preemptions from local action, gives away so many free credits we will never meet climate goals, and allows oil refineries to expand indefinitely with no program for Just Transition to clean energy that is so desperately needed in environmental justice communities.”

Background: Cap-and-Trade: 50 environmental groups oppose California’s Chevron-written bill AB 398

Brown, not known for handling criticism of his stances and policies well,  accused opponents of the legislation from both the left and right of “political terrorism” in interviews on public radio stations.

In an interview last week with CapRadio’s Ben Adler, Brown defended Republican Assembly Minority Leader Chad Mayes after he joined with Democrats on the cap-and-trade vote, incurring criticism from Republicans. In that interview, Brown  characterized those criticizing the legislation as wanting to bring the “political terrorism” of Washington to California. www.facebook.com/…

Then on July 25, Brown criticized AB 398 critics of practicing “forms of political terrorism that are conspiring to undermine the American system of governance” in an interview with David Greene of NPR (National Public Radio) http://bit.ly/2eLu3g6 . Below is the relevant excerpt from the transcript:

BROWN: Yeah. We listened to a variety of opinions from a variety of points of view. And some of the folk on the left said, oh, you can’t talk to oil companies. Are you talking to the Chamber of Commerce? Are you talking to the Farm Bureau? That’s just horrible.

And then on the other side, The Wall Street Journal and some of the Republican activists said, you’re a Republican. You can’t vote for something that a Democrat would support. Well, both of those, in my view, are forms of political terrorism that are conspiring to undermine the American system of governance. 

Critics of  AB 398 were appalled by Brown characterizing their opposition as “political terrorism.”

RL Miller of Climate Hawks Vote said in a tweet after reading and hearing the NPR story: “@JerryBrownGov labels me political terrorist because I say#capandtrade extension shdn’t start w/ Big Oil wish list n.pr/2v5BXYq.”  

More: Jerry Brown calls me a political terrorist (for opposing his Chevron-penned cap and trade bill)

In a brief phone interview, she commented, “I was shocked that the Governor would go out of his way to accuse those who care most about climate change of ‘political terrorism’ just because we said the bill took its talking points from Chevron.”

The real victims here

When it comes to criticism of his environmental policies, Brown appears to have a very thin skin. In May 2015 at a speech before the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), Brown said opponents of the Delta Tunnels project, renamed the California WaterFix,  should just “shut up.”

Governor Jerry Brown frequently poses as the “resistance to Trump” and vows that he will “defend science” against the Trump administration, but the Brown administration on July 22 revealed the hollowness of that vow as it approved flawed environmental documents that clear the path for the construction of the Delta Tunnels.

The Brown administration has also teamed up with the Trump administration to allow Big Oil to pollute aquifers in three major California oil fields in Kern County.

In spite of California’s reputation as a “green leader, Big Oil is the largest corporate lobby in the state and exerts enormous influence over the Governor’s Office, Legislature and regulatory agencies.

E&E News says Big Oil’s intense spending had a huge impact (“Businesses Spent Millions Lobbying Before California’s Cap-and-Trade Vote“):

At least seven oil companies and the petroleum trade group Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) together doled out more than $34 million to persuasion efforts from 2015 through the first quarter of this year. The parent companies of the three biggest investor-owned electric utilities spent a combined $9.1 million. Four agriculture groups bankrolled nearly $1.6 million.

Each of those interests stands to benefit from A.B. 398, which extends cap and trade through 2030.

As usual, the California Oil Lobby was the biggest spender in the 2015-16 legislative session, spending an amazing $36.1 million as of December 31, 2016.

The spending amounts to $1.5 million per month — nearly $50,000 per day — over the last two years. The $36.1 million surpassed the $34 million spent in the prior session, according to an American Lung Association report.

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) was the top overall oil industry spender during the 2015-16 session, spending $18.7 million. As is normally the case, WSPA ranked #1 among all lobbying spenders this session

Chevron, the second overall oil industry spender, spent $7 million in the 2015-16 session. It spent $3 million in 2016, sixth among all lobbyists in the current session.

In the seventh quarter alone, WSPA dumped $2.6 million into lobbying legislators and state officials. Since the 2007-08 Session, the oil industry has spent $133 million in lobbying in California.

WSPA and Big Oil use their money and power in 5 ways: through (1) lobbying; (2) campaign spending; (3) getting appointed to positions on and influencing regulatory panels; (4) creating Astroturf groups: and (5) working in collaboration with media.

To read the complete report, go to: http://www.lung.org/local-content/california/documents/Oil-Industry-Lobbying-2016-update-4_1-31-17.pdf

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.