{"id":220962,"date":"2026-03-15T16:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/220962\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:47:13","slug":"dan-walters-as-gas-prices-soar-californias-new-carbon-emission-rules-prompt-war-of-words-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/220962\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Walters: As Gas Prices Soar, California\u2019s New Carbon Emission Rules Prompt War of Words | Opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Noozhawk\u2019s<\/a> note: We republish news articles and commentaries from\u00a0CalMatters<\/a>\u00a0on state and local policy issues that affect Santa Barbara County readers.]<\/p>\n

Last week \u2014 as the conflict between the United States and Iran raged and gasoline prices soared due to disruption in the global oil trade \u2014 a political war erupted in California over proposed air pollution rules that could increase fuel prices even more.<\/p>\n

The California Air Resources Board\u2019s<\/a> new crackdown on greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, \u201crisks driving production, and the associated emissions, out of state, ultimately undermining both California\u2019s economic base and global climate objectives,\u201d the California Manufacturers & Technology Association<\/a> says.<\/p>\n

Association president Lance Hastings<\/a> added in a statement, \u201cIf these proposed regulations move forward, Californians should brace for higher costs across the board with no end in sight. There is still time to fix this. CARB and the Legislature<\/a> must act before it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed regulation \u201cwill cripple the survivability of the state\u2019s remaining refineries, which will result in California losing the entire industry to this misguided program,\u201d Andy Walz<\/a>, a high-level Chevron<\/a> executive, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Two California refineries\u00a0have announced plans to shut down<\/a>\u00a0and Chevron, which operates two of the remaining plants, has repeatedly implied that California\u2019s regulatory climate might force it to flee the state as well.<\/p>\n

However as business pressured the Air Resources Board to ease the limits, a coalition of environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund<\/a>, complained that the proposed rules don\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, in the face of federal backtracking, California reinforced its leadership on fighting climate change by extending its cap-and-invest program while prioritizing reducing high electricity bills and saving households money,\u201d their letter read.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, CARB\u2019s 2026 proposed C&I program amendments fall short of the near-term ambition needed for California to be on a consistent and affordable path to achieve its 2045 carbon neutrality goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 15 Democratic legislators released a letter expressing concern that the new rules would raise fuel and energy costs that are already among the nation\u2019s highest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crisis is not a fallacy nor a thinly veiled threat,\u201d the legislators said. \u201cIt is a reality borne by consumers today, who are historically and empirically least able to afford it.<\/p>\n

\u201cCalifornia\u2019s climate leadership cannot come at the cost of destabilizing our energy markets and burdening those least able to bear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly \u2014 or ironically \u2014 all 15 signatories voted less than a year ago for the legislation that empowered CARB to draft the revisions, which were released in January and are due to be finalized in May.<\/p>\n

The legislation behind this flurry of warnings and laments is\u00a0Assembly Bill 1207<\/a>, which\u00a0emerged from backroom negotiations last September<\/a>. It quickly passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom<\/a> signed it.<\/p>\n

The measure renames the cap-and-trade program cap-and-invest and extends it 15 years from 2030, the current expiration date, coinciding with the state\u2019s declared intention to make California carbon neutral by 2045.<\/p>\n

It authorizes the Air Resources Board to adjust the emission limits accordingly.<\/p>\n

Until now, the state\u2019s business community had fundamentally supported the auctioning of emission allowances as a market approach preferable to the direct regulation of emissions, which many environmental organizations favored.<\/p>\n

Capitol politicians also liked auctions because they generate large amounts of money \u2014 an estimated $31 billion since 2013 \u2014 that are supposed to finance carbon emission reductions.<\/p>\n

One major recipient has been the state\u2019s\u00a0much-troubled bullet train project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, when the state incurs one of its periodic budget crises, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund<\/a> has also been tapped for expenses that have little, if any, connection to greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n

The cost of living is now a\u00a0top-drawer political concern<\/a>, and with gasoline prices topping $5 a gallon in many regions, anything that pushes consumer prices even higher is bound to become a political football.<\/p>\n

This commentary was\u00a0originally published on CalMatters and is reposted with permission. Click here to sign up<\/a>\u00a0for CalMatters newsletters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Noozhawk\u2019s note: We republish news articles and commentaries from\u00a0CalMatters\u00a0on state and local policy issues that affect Santa Barbara…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,471],"class_list":["post-220962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-opinions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}