by Katy Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow and California Globe Editor
As Appearing in the California Globe
Wildfire smoke has added enough pollution to the air to wipe out nearly half of the total air quality gains made from 2000 onward
California Governor Gavin Newsom claims that greenhouse gas emissions are down in California – not just down but “down 20% since 2000.”
“Pollution is down and the economy is up,” Newsom said. “Greenhouse gas emissions in California are down 20% since 2000 – even as the state’s GDP increased 78% in that same time period,” Newsom says, in a press statement bragging that the “State invests nearly $33 billion in cap-and-trade dollars to make communities cleaner and healthier.”
Newsom gets this groundbreaking information from none other than the California Air Resources Board – a board made up of Newsom appointees. And now the governor wants to extend the shady cap-and-trade program out beyond 2030 to reach the 2045 goals. Oy. The grift never ends in Newsomworld.
As the Globe has been pointing out for many years, California already surpassed its original greenhouse gas emissions reductions target of 1990 levels of by 2020 – this was achieved in 2016 – even the Governor’s Climate Dashboardwebsite admits this:
“The 2006 California Global Warming Solutions Act (Assembly Bill 32) set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. California surpassed this target four years early in 2016, and emissions have continued to drop since then. California’s next climate target is to reduce emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. The Scoping Plan lays out how California will achieve this target.”
