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Energy affordability, economic and climate resilience, and meeting the state’s climate goals are top of mind for state Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, who was appointed chair of the Senate’s Committee on Energy, Utilities, and Communications.
Josh Becker
“It’s a big year, and overall a critical time, where energy policy is going to determine not only our environmental future, but also our economic resilience,” Becker said.
He’s been a longtime advocate for clean energy solutions and was appointed to the highly competitive chair position with specific goals in mind — for one, an upcoming reauthorization of the state’s landmark cap-and-trade program.
Originally signed into law in 2017 and authorized until 2030, the cap-and-trade program provides key limits on carbon emissions and creates a tradable market for carbon emissions credits. Reauthorizing the program will allow legislators to set those regulations for upcoming years.
“That is the single most important climate policy here in California, and we're going to completely rethink it this year, because that's what we do,” Becker said. “When we reauthorize it, we get to sort of rethink it.”
As devastating fires rage throughout Los Angeles, California’s efforts to combat the impact of climate change remains top-of-mind for many residents. Aside from immediate emergency response, carbon removal is one policy that the state must emphasize to slow that impact, Becker said.
Defining and validating the market for carbon removal can incentivize the innovation economy to create tangible solutions, he said.
“We're going to have to remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere,” Becker said. “We have lots of entrepreneurs working, including the Bay Area, to do that, but we need to let them know there's going to be a long term, predictable market for carbon removal.”
Other mitigation efforts include expediting distribution of climate bond and budget money for wildfire and water resilience projects across the state.
Additionally, Becker hopes to address California’s affordability issues and ongoing cost-of-living crisis through his tenure on the Energy Committee. Increasing energy rates are not tenable for residents or businesses, he said, and finding ways to bring rates down will be another key priority.
“The prices that people pay affect what else they can spend money on, but also businesses' decisions to locate here or not,” Becker said. “Affordability is a huge issue.”
California’s aggressive climate-related goals — including reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 — will require an intentional collaboration on many of these policy goals to be successful.
Being a leader on innovative, green energy policies is key in the global fight against climate change, Becker said.
“If we are proving that we can continue to innovate, find new solutions, scale them up, do it affordably, then that helps us meet our climate goals, but it also helps us break down the cost and the risk of everything for the rest of the world,” he said.
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(7) comments
None of our politicians is strong on GHG emission prevention - it's just not on their menu.
Instead Mr. Becker and his San Mateo friends are all about "Mitigation" - these are projects that create more GHG short term, but promise to fix the problem long-term. Only to later find out that the problem just got bigger:
- Cap and Trade. If a company creates 200 units of GHG emissions and another makes 0 units, company 1 can pay company 2 to take over 100 units. So instead of one company producing 200 units you end up with 2 companies producing 100 units each. Unfortunately the planet does not really care, who produces the carbon.
- Fuel Efficiency Standards. You can buy great cars with 40mpg, 50mpg and better. But people don't buy those, they still buy the cars with 20mph, they are just now way bigger. So all in all average fuel efficiency has hardly improved.
- EVs. the same with EVs. A small electric vehicle would be a great way to get around town, since most people driver fewer than 30 miles per day, they don't even need a big battery. The best EVs are called eBikes. But instead of focusing on a low price and high MPGe the industry - thanks to Mr. Musk - is all about testosterone. An EV needs to have crazy acceleration, a huge oversized battery, and an enormous weight. The cybertruck proves there is nothing "green" in EVs.
- PCE pretends to buy solar power between the hours of 9pm and 10am, so people with huge EVs with oversized batteries can pretend they are charging "green power". Of course at night it is more likely that the Hummer-E is charged with "imported power" (aka coal) from Arizona or Nevada.
- PCE is buying to be the "owner" of Shasta County hydro power so San Mateo politicians like Mr. Becker can claim they are "green". Unfortunately nature does not care if Shasta County or San Mateo County is green, all in all PCE is increasing GHG emissions with this scheme (rebound effect).
It would help if Mr. Becker explains the benefits of the Cap and Trade program. Essentially, large carbon emitters are charged a fee which is then funneled into the State's general fund. Some of that is financing the train to nowhere and the rest is partially funded back to utility customers after the utilities have skimmed off their portion. There is no carbon reduction whatsoever, it is just another shell game that is making millions for carbon traders at California residents' expense. Mr. Becker clearly does not know anything about the mechanics but it sounds so appealing to the masses.
I don't believe "carbon removal" is in the bill: AB 398: California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006: market-based compliance mechanisms:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB398
So basically, Josh Becker is not going to make life for Californians any better. It is noted that Mr. Becker is worried about carbon emissions yet Mr. Becker, and California’s so-called leaders, did nothing of note in regards to forest and fire management as well as water resources to prevent more California wildfires. Thanks to their lack of foresight, the carbon from southern California forest fires have set back carbon emissions for at least the next 100 years, perhaps 500 years. I’m betting Mr. Becker won’t do anything of note to help California citizens, only to handicap them. Fortunately, those that have the means and the desire can leave California, taking their state income taxes with them to a better managed environment.
Mr. Becker isn't too concerned about carbon emissions. How do I know? There are simple litmus tests:
- does your county still do highway expansion projects: YES
- is your county producing renewable energy of any kind: NO
- is your county's public transportation system outstanding: NO
- how many miles of bus lanes do you have: 0 miles
- how many miles of protected bike lanes does your county have: almost 0
- are all your schools equipped with bike lanes: absolutely NO
- is your county using a CCA to "greenwash" your carbon: YES, Absolutely since 2016
- is your CCA (peninsula clean energy) basically just buying "green bragging rights": YES, absolutely
- is your main solution another hoax project called "Carbon Capture": YES, it is.
Our energy politicians are currently paying oil companies to use carbon for fracking. CO2 goes into the ground for "carbon storage", the oil and gas company gets paid for that. Then the "natural gas" that is coming back out is burned creating more CO2 than the amount that was being "captured". But the oil and gas company can make more money.
As long as we don't see bus lanes, bike lanes and windmills along the long San Mateo County coastline, we know our politicians are pulling a scam to look green.
Burlingame recently opened its first protected bike lane, a two-way cycletrack on California Dr. from Oak Grove Ave. north to the Broadway Caltrain station. IT IS A GEM!! I'd love to see move cyclists use it.
65% of Americans always say they are interested in cycling more, but this requires real bike lanes. Nonsense like "slow streets", "bicycle boulevards", "neighborhood greenways", and the other subpar projects just don't achieve the same.
So we need a network of protected and buffered bike lanes. It's as simple as that.
Mr. Becker and his predecessors built several thousand miles of car lanes and are giving away another several thousand miles for free car storage (aka "residential parking"). Then they added business parking at the rate of 4 empty parking spots per car.
I do not think a few hundred yards of protected bike lane on California Ave will do it.
Looking at how Mr. Becker's political friends on the San Mateo City Council are scheming on taking away regular bike lanes from low-income school children - we can tell the California Ave bike lanes are on very shaky grounds as the political leadership around here is very weak and very much "sponsored" by corporate interest.
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