Pollution Bill Could Help State Clean Up in Jobs

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Excuse us if this sounds harsh, but we need to get something straight when it comes to climate change:

We’re not about to take financial risks for polar bears or rainforests.

We don’t mean we don’t care: It’s always painful to see those photos of the bears floating on shrinking ice floes and the disappearing rainforests. The point is we care a lot more about our families, our jobs, our businesses and our communities – which may help explain why it took some in California’s small-business leadership a little while to warm up to the state’s clean energy and climate law. However, once we began seeing the huge amount of money being invested into California businesses to develop and grow a global clean energy economy, the state’s climate change policies became more relevant.

Over the six-plus years since AB 32 was passed, there has been so much hue and cry from wealthy foes of the law, most of whom are led by the fossil fuels lobby, that your average busy person has a hard time clearly understanding what the law does. It is easy to write it off as a liberal diversion, even one endorsed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Some fear it risks casting our economy into uncharted waters for the sake of a furry icon on a Coca-Cola can.

But many of our business colleagues have come to appreciate that the state is actually better prepared to weather the uncharted climate change waters thanks to the many concrete benefits for California, primarily including more than $3.9 billion in private-sector investment in a promising new clean energy economy. Our state’s pioneering steps to limit pollution that dirties our air, increases respiratory ailments and threatens the stability of our climate has sent a strong signal to businesses that expect that such limits will inevitably be imposed nationwide. They appreciate the clarity, which helps them plan well into the future, as well as the common-sense, market-based approach California has taken.

All this new investment – pouring in even during the worst years of the recession – bodes well for our state’s economic future, which means it’s also a boon to our families, jobs and businesses. The world is transitioning to a clean energy economy, and we’d much rather have California, as the ninth largest economy in the world, lead this transition rather than send all that revenue and job growth to Asia.


Direct benefit

What’s more, thanks to legislation passed last fall, AB 32 will now directly benefit California’s most disadvantaged communities. A measure sponsored by State Sen. Kevin de León guarantees that one-fourth of the several hundred million dollars California expects to collect over the next year from polluters, who must buy “allowances” to comply with the plan, will fund programs in low-income neighborhoods suffering from high rates of pollution. De León’s bill creates a trust fund aimed at both helping these communities avoid disproportionate negative impacts of climate change and encouraging investments that will lead to more green jobs.

The specifics have yet to be established, and right now are the subject of some lively discussion. Yet we expect they’ll include programs to protect low-income Californians from the worst effects of future dangerous heat waves, floods and fires that scientists warn will be more common in a warming world. Some of the money will also likely fund public transit improvements and job training to help Californians find work in the clean energy economy.

De León’s law recognizes that the worst polluting industries and transportation corridors have long been concentrated in the state’s poorest communities. This makes the 4.6 million Californians who earn income below the federal poverty level particularly vulnerable to the harshest impacts of climate change, including worsening air quality, with its toll of chronic respiratory illness.

Besides receiving this direct aid, many disadvantaged Californians will likely benefit from thousands of anticipated new green-collar job opportunities, from entry-level positions installing insulation to positions requiring some training, such as mechanics to work on electric cars.

And if all this turns out to help the polar bears and the rainforests, too, you won’t hear us complaining.

Leonard E. Robinson is an environmental consultant, public speaker and host of the KDEE-FM (97.5) radio show “Going Green With EnviroBro.” Ruben Guerra is chairman and chief executive of the Latin Business Association, which represents more than 800,000 Latino businesses in California.

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