Cap and Trade Moves Forward in California

Nothing better defines California's governing class these days than the determination to bend the state's economic future to their will. You see this in their willingness to abet organized labor's desire to destroy the private sector in the name of class warfare; you see it in their efforts to force green technology to become a viable, self-sustaining industry via taxpayer subsidy; you see it in their belief that excessive regulation and taxation have no effect on economic growth. But most of all, you see it in their unwillingness to consider that it's harder for a modern economy to function without power. And now, Californians will learn this the hard way, as the Air Resources Board has voted to move forward with implementing a cap-and-trade program starting next year. That's right: a state whose unemployment rate has hovered around 12% for months, and where almost 1 in 5 residents lives in poverty, will have to figure out how to jump-start its economy while being charged a tax on the power it uses to do so. Also of note: none of the states currently taking jobs and dollars out of California has plans to implement a similar system.