September 9, 2014 - Beginning January 1, 2015, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will add transportation fuels to its Carbon Cap-and-Trade auctions. What does that mean? It means the price of gas will go up. Those Cap-and-Trade profits won’t come out of thin air. Who will it impact? All of us, but particularly those on fixed or limited incomes.
This is something that I tried to stop before the end of the session. CARB and the Brown Administration authorized this gas tax without public knowledge or legislative approval. The CARB mandate will require companies that sell transportation fuels into the California market to comply with the Cap-and-Trade program regulation, and the costs of compliance will certainly be passed on to consumers. In 2006, when the Legislature passed AB 32 (legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions), it gave the non-elected CARB huge powers to achieve these reductions through taxes and fees.
There were two bills to stop this tax. I coauthored a measure by Senator Andy Vidak (R-Hanford) which would have permanently removed transportation fuels from California’s Cap-and-Trade system. The second measure was by Assemblyman Henry Perea (D-Fresno). It would have delayed putting fuels under the cap-and-trade program until January 1, 2018. Neither measure made it to the governor’s desk. Governor Brown could delay or permanently block transportation fuels from Cap-and-Trade by executive order, but so far he’s shown no sign he’s willing to do so.
