Whitman On AB 32: Just Say No!

Tip 'o the hat to Wyatt Buchanan at the San Francisco Chronicle for posting on Meg Whitman's oped in the Merc on Thursday... I completley missed it. If you did too, Whitman came out and said that on Day 1 as governor, she would suspend AB 32 and reform CEQA.

In this election season, them's fighing words!

Here are some choice pull quotes form her oped:

"With this ongoing economic crisis, the governor has the ability to issue an executive order putting a moratorium on most AB32-related rules. I urge him to do so. And if he does not, I will issue that order on my first day as governor.

We first must get our economy back on track. In January, the first AB32 mandates take effect and will lead to higher energy costs at a time when we can least afford them. They will discourage job creation and could kill any recovery.

Meanwhile, Congress is working on its own version of AB32. We can't measure the true impact of AB32 on California's economy until we know what the federal standards will be. So a moratorium now on AB32 would give us an opportunity to coordinate our environmental efforts with Washington. And if we do it right, it might save California businesses time and money. This is surely preferable to even more jobs fleeing our state.

The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, is also ripe for reform. It is a jumble of ambiguous rules that require environmental analysis of projects ranging from a nuclear power plant to bike lanes. Over time, CEQA has been expanded way beyond what the Legislature originally intended. It often eats up time and money and discourages business expansion."

Opinion: To create jobs, curb environmental regulation [San Jose Mercury News]