Democrats in CA Pull a Fast One

by Dan Logue

It has only just come to light that written into a budget trailer bills passed last month was a special exemption for one of the state’s most controversial public agencies – the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

The exemption will allow CARB to use a private third-party corporation to conduct its cap-and-trade auction without having to comply with state laws, called the Bagley-Keene Act, that require state agencies to keep meetings and records open to the public. This is a gross violation of the public’s right to know about state agency actions that affect them.

Senate Bill 1018, one of the thirty-plus bills passed by the Legislature to implement the state budget, was literally drafted and signed into law over a 48-hour period. The majority party rushed this through to prevent the public from discovering what was in the bill and organizing opposition to prevent it from passing. It comes as no surprise that within this bill is a further blow to the public trust, in the form of the CARB exemption.

CARB has been working for several years on a controversial cap-and-trade system that will charge manufacturers, farmers, truck drivers, and eventually almost every business in the state costly fees in an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The California Manufacturers and Technology Association commissioned a study that estimated that it could cost California consumers almost $10 billion in its first year, and could cost more than $60 billion per year by 2020.

For the average person this means higher prices for food and home goods at grocery stores, higher prices for gasoline and other fuels, and dramatically increased electricity rates. Every facet of life will be affected by this new policy, yet the public will have no oversight of its actual implementation. This is because SB 1018 specifically exempts the Western Climate Initiative, Inc. (WCI) from state transparency and open records laws meant to prevent backroom deals.

CARB will argue that this is necessary because the WCI is a private corporation formed by CARB and the Canadian provinces of Quebec and British Columbia to facilitate their cap-and-trade auctions. However, state law clearly intended organizations like the WCI to be subject to the requirements: CARB is delegating power to the WCI, funneling money through the WCI, and two state officials will be voting members of the WCI board. The fact that the majority party thought it necessary to specifically exempt the WCI proves that they assumed under normal circumstances the law would apply.

Whether you are a business owner or an environmentalist (or both), this should worry you. An unaccountable corporation will control a policy that will dramatically impact our economy and natural resources, while the bureaucrats involved act in total secrecy. The people of California deserve a responsible government that keeps them informed of actions that will alter their everyday lives, not a runaway bureaucracy or legislature intent on hiding things from them.