Prospective Employment Effects of California Proposition 23

If approved by the California electorate this November, Proposition 23 will suspend the implementation of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) until the California unemployment rate declines to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters. AB 32 directed the California Air Resources Board to begin developing discrete early actions to reduce greenhouse gases while also preparing a scoping plan to identify how best to reach the 2020 emissions limit of 427 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent of greenhouse gases.

Given the increasingly controversial nature of the scientific and economic analyses underlying policy proposals ostensibly directed at the purportedly adverse effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and given the economic and employment conditions now characterizing the state, the employment effects of AB 32 have become an important political and policy concern, says Benjamin Zycher, a senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute.

Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.

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