Who could have possibly seen this coming? (via Watts Up With That?)
California lawmakers are turning cap-and-trade into the slush fund critics long feared
For years, critics of California’s cap-and-trade program have lambasted it as a government slush fund. They say that politicians are able to dip into it to fund their pet projects or raid it to fill the shortfall of the moment — as long as they can assert a mildly credible connection between the spending and the state’s ambitious goals to fight climate change.
Well, California lawmakers are about to prove those critics right.
As part of the budget negotiations, lawmakers shelved Gov. Gavin Newsom’s controversial “water tax†that would have raised $140 million a year to help low-income communities finally clean up their contaminated water systems.
Instead, lawmakers plan to fund the much-needed water cleanups with $100 million a year in cap-and-trade dollars — money that is paid to the state by polluters and which is legally required to be spent on projects to reduce the greenhouse gases responsible for global warming.
So how do leaders justify using cap-and-trade dollars for water cleanups? Newsom’s office said that communities with tainted water need bottled water delivered in trucks that pollute the air. If the water supply is cleaned, that will reduce vehicle emissions.
They could do so much more if the California government and all those who work for it gave up their fossil fueled vehicles. Heck, they could have a referendum that would force all government employees to give up their personal fossil fueled vehicles.
By that ludicrous logic, California could pay for expanded Medi-Cal benefits with cap-and-trade dollars too, because if people have preventive healthcare, they’ll get sick less and drive to the hospital less and produce fewer greenhouse gases.
Don’t give them ideas.
But cap-and-trade dollars are for projects that really reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as replacing dirty diesel engines or capturing methane pollution from dairies. Lawmakers undermine public trust in — and public support for — the state’s climate program when they divert that money to other needs.
They should require that all airports in California close. And those horrible hotels and vacations spots, because people come in fossil fueled vehicles, right?
Anyhow, no one should be surprised that Warmists would play games with the money.
Read: Surprise: California’s Cap And Trade Program Becomes A Slush Fund »
Democratic presidential hopeful Eric Swalwell on Monday stood outside the National Rifle Association headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, to unveil a gun-control plan that includes banning assault weapons, instituting a gun buyback program and requiring licenses for all gun owners.
New York lawmakers reached a deal late Sunday night to pass one of the most ambitious climate bills in the nation, setting the Empire State on a course to shape what the Green New Deal could look like at a state level.
President Trump said in a tweet Monday night that U.S. immigration agents are planning to make mass arrests starting “next week,†an apparent reference to a plan in preparation for months that aims to round up thousands of migrant parents and children in a blitz operation across major U.S. cities.
Two mighty musical women from two different generations of activism –Â 
White House hopeful Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) says he will take the fight for gun control to the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) home turf.
A beachside 
Politics is like private enterprise. You either sell your product or perish.
