California Warming Law Hurts Job Market

Published November 27, 2011

California businesses are being forced to purchase expensive new equipment to comply with the state’s global warming law, which impedes job-creation, legislators and business representatives reported in state legislative caucus hearings on Oct. 18.

Expensive Mandates

Land O’ Lakes, Inc. spent $4 million to buy a low-emission boiler that reduced carbon dioxide emissions by a mere 5 percent, Tulare County board member Ben Curti reported in the hearings.

California Air Resources Board member Dorene D’Adamo countered that such expenditures help businesses such as Land O’ Lakes because global warming is a “serious environmental threat” to crop production, particularly by causing more drought.

Assembly Member David Valadao, a Hanford dairy farmer, disputed D’Adamo’s assertion companies benefit from government forcing them to purchase expensive equipment to produce infinitesimal reductions in global carbon dioxide emissions.

“AB 32 will raise the cost of doing business in California, which will force jobs out of our state and discourage long-term investment,” said Valadao.

Crop Fears Unjustified

National and global production of all important food crops has been steadily rising during the past several decades as global temperatures have increased, with nearly all crops setting production records during the past few years.

The National Climatic Data Center has documented a moderate increase in U.S. precipitation during the past century, with most of the precipitation gains occurring during the summer and fall drought seasons. A number of peer-reviewed scientific studies have also documented long-term, ongoing improvements in U.S. and global soil moisture during the past century.

“Agricultural growing conditions and crop production have been steadily improving as temperatures moderately rise,” said Heartland Institute science director Jay Lehr. “There is no need to impose new costs on doing business in California or anywhere else out of concern for crop production.”

James M. Taylor ([email protected]) is managing editor of Environment & Climate News.