Growing the Economy and Curbing Greenhouse Gases

Dan Weintraub is skeptical that we can continue to grow our economy under the greenhouse gas regulations resulting from the passage of AB32. He is afraid that increased costs on businesses will drive them out of the state. Fortunately for us all there is somebody who is tracking the reduction of greenhouse gases in conjunction with economic growth. SacBee:

A key measure that sums up the entire challenge is one that compares carbon emissions per million people to the state's economic output.

Ideally, the two lines would move in opposite directions.

"We want the economy to grow while we want emissions to decline," said Doug Henton, an economist and Next 10 adviser. "That's it in a nutshell."

Interestingly, that's also pretty much what has been happening over the past decade – even without the state's intervention. California has been using less carbon per person while its economy has been growing.

But AB 32 raises the bar. It requires not just a reduction in carbon emissions per person, but a big reduction in the total amount of emissions, even as the state's population is expected to continue to grow by more than a half-million people per year. And as the innovation index shows, California begins this effort with its residents already producing emissions that are only half the national average and about one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions produced per capita in Texas.

Weintraub writes as if this occurred in a vacuum. While AB32 certainly as he says "raises the bar" the state has been issuing environmental regulations that have lead to the growth in green technology development in the state, as well as reductions in emissions. It has been decades of early movement on regulations that have led to California leading the way on emissions per resident.

He does point out the perfect example however of how this can work.

Perry compares the greenhouse gas reduction goals to California's recycling program. In 1989, about 10 percent of the state's waste was diverted from landfills. But state-mandated waste reduction goals spawned an entire industry and new markets for recycled material, and today more than half the state's waste no longer goes to its landfills. Meeting the greenhouse gas goals, he said, can follow the same path, even if it might be more difficult.

We can have our cake and eat it too. We can grow good jobs here in California and preserve our environment for generations to come. Perhaps we can show the country how this is done yet again.