Op-Ed: Common sense: Suspend AB32

(R-3rd District)

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed Assembly Bill 32 in 2006, California's unemployment rate was a modest 4.8 percent. Now it stands at 12.5 percent.

AB32 requires a massive reordering of our state's economy and massive tax increases to pay for these shifts. It includes a provision for it to be suspended if our state faces economic hardships — and that time has come.

The governor refuses to order a suspension, so I have teamed up with Ted Costa of People's Advocate and Congressman Tom McClintock to give the people of California an opportunity to make this important decision.

On Nov. 25 we submitted the California Job's Initiative to the attorney general for title and summary. We will begin gathering signatures to qualify this measure for the November 2010 ballot in mid-January. If you would like to help, go to www.danlogue.com.

The California Jobs Initiative is a simple two-sentence measure that suspends AB32 until California's unemployment rate is once again under 5.5 percent.

Whether you think global warming is a serious threat or the latest Hollywood script, whether you think climate changes are impacted by human actions or beyond our control, this is a reasonable measure at this time.

With unemployment at 12.5 percent and another looming budget deficit, this is not the time for California to attempt an overhaul of the entire economy at a costs of tens of billions of dollars.

Since my election to the state Assembly, I have sought a repeal of AB32, also known as the Global Warming Solutions Act. AB32 gives the California Air Resources Board (CARB) the power to enact draconian emissions standards on California vehicles and businesses. A bill so strict that the technology to meet the standards does not fully exist and most businesses will have to fold up shop or relocate.

AB32 is based heavily on the theory that global warming is a "man-made" condition.

In recent weeks the "Climategate" scandal has revealed some very disturbing e-mails and information from the environmental science community. These leaks have revealed that reputable scientists and universities doctored their statistics and withheld evidence contrary to their own theories. They silenced dissenting opinion for political gain. In short, the "science" that CARB has based its decisions on has been found to be fraudulent.

Even worse, one of the lead agents at CARB who wrote the decision on diesel emissions rulings was exposed as having doctored a Ph.D.! That's right, a fake doctor using fake science to restrict the kind of vehicles we can use.

These scandals alone cry out for a suspension of AB32 until it can all be sorted out.

The impact of AB32 doesn't exist in a vacuum. Real people are hurt by the increased costs.

Dr. Sanjay Varshnay, dean of the business college at CSU Sacramento, conducted a study on the costs to consumers of AB32. Varshnay predicts costs could exceed $100 billion. This is based on hidden costs such as higher energy prices, housing, food and transportation. The annual cost to the average family would be about $4,000.

Varshnay's study also predicts heavy job losses. Job losses due to AB32 could range anywhere from 500,000 to 1.1 million. At a time when our state is suffering from double-digit unemployment, do we really want to make things harder on businesses struggling to keep their doors open? Are we really prepared to handle even more layoffs?

Supporters of AB32 claim it will create a windfall of new "green jobs." However, a recent study shows that a green jobs push in Spain has been a disaster. Spain lost 2.1 private sector jobs for every one "green job," and the cost to the taxpayers of Spain for each of these news jobs was a staggering $700,000.

California simply cannot afford such experiments in our troubled economic times.