California climate change fund vetoed

by Cromwell Schubarth, Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have redirected to poorer communities some of the billions of dollars that California is expected to raise through a cap and trade program.

Assembly Bill 1405 called for 10 percent of the money raised through the sale of emission credits to be used to fund cooling centers and mass transit in poorer communities as a way to help them deal with global warming.

The governor called the bill "premature" since the money that it seeks to spend "does not currently exist and might not ever exist in a fund controlled by the state of California."

The so-called cap and trade funds won't begin to be generated until AB32, the sweeping climate change law passed in 2006, takes effect in 2012. Proposition 23 on the November ballot would suspend that law until the state's unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters.

The governor opposes Prop. 23, saying it is backed by powerful oil companies from outside the state as a way to protect their profits but backers of the bill he vetoed said Thursday that he is protecting oil interests by that action.

"Without a Community Benefits Fund to supplement our climate law, we are putting Californians -- especially those who already breathe the dirtiest air -- at an even greater risk," said Nidia Bautista, policy director at the Coalition for Clean Air.