I wonder how good it is going to feel when businesses up and leave
Air pollution regulators in the San Francisco Bay area aren’t waiting for state or federal authorities to do something about global warming.
The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s board of directors is set to vote on new rules Wednesday that would impose fees on factories, power plants, oil refineries and other businesses that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.
If the board approves the plan, the agency, which regulates air pollution in the nine-county Bay Area, would be the first in the country to charge companies fees based on their greenhouse gas emissions, experts say. The new rules would take effect July 1.
The modest fee — 4.4 cents per ton of carbon dioxide — probably won’t be enough to force companies to reduce their emissions, but backers say it sets an important precedent in combating climate change and could serve as a model for regional air districts nationwide.
“It doesn’t solve global warming, but it gets us thinking in the right terms,” said Daniel Kammen, a renewable energy expert at the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s not enough of a cost to change behavior, but it tells us where things are headed. You have to think not just in financial terms, but in carbon terms.”
The Liberal way of solving problems: let’s feel good! Kinda like their ideas on solving the gas prices.
