California businesses are being forced to purchase expensive new equipment to comply with the state’s global warming law even though the equipment is having only a minimal impact on emissions. As a result, employers have less money on hand to hire workers and invest in business growth.
Land O’ Lakes, for example, 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 told a state legislative caucus hearing yesterday.
California Air Resources Board member Dorene D’Adamo countered that such expenditures help businesses like Land O’ Lakes because global warming is a “serious environmental threat” to crop production, particularly through causing more drought.
Assembly Member David Valadao, a Hanford dairy farmer, disputed D’Adamo’s assertion that companies like Land O’ Lakes benefit from government forcing them to purchase expensive equipment to marginally reduce 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.
National and global production of all important food crops has been steadily rising during the past several decades as global temperatures have warmed, with nearly all crops setting production records during the past few years.
The National Climatic Data Center has documented that U.S. precipitation has moderately increased during the past century, as global temperatures have warmed, with most of the precipitation gains occurring during the summer and fall drought season. A number of peer-reviewed scientific studies have documented long-term, ongoing improvements in U.S. and global soil moisture during the past century as global temperatures have warmed.