Will The Last Person To Leave California Please Turn Out The Lights?

“California’s cap-and-trade program survives a legal battle in a win for Gov. Jerry Brown and environmentalists”

This is great news for one of the world’s most ambitious climate programs and one of the best tools to solve climate change globally,” said Erica Morehouse, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund. “We need that kind of positive news more than ever these days.”

[…]

The program has also been an important source of revenue for the state, with billions of dollars generated by auctioning off pollution permits. The money is required to be used on projects that reduce emissions, and Gov. Jerry Brown is counting on some of it to help finance the bullet train from Los Angeles to San Francisco.”

Read the rest at the LA Times

Related: “California Senate just passed a new gasoline tax”

The legislation, for which final details were unveiled last week, would raise the base excise tax on gasoline by 12 cents per gallon, bringing it to 30 cents. Another variable excise tax would be set at 17 cents.

The excise tax on diesel fuel would jump 20 cents per gallon and the sale tax on diesel would go up four percentage points. Electric cars would pay a $100 annual fee.

The package also creates a new, annual vehicle fee ranging from $25 for cars valued at under $5,000 to $175 for cars worth $60,000 or more.”

Again from the LA Times