California is already home to a third of the nation’s unemployed workers.
Now lawmakers have a plan to kill even more business in the state.
And their latest bright idea would create a regulatory burden that will make the state one of the worst places to do business.
A new law has passed the California Senate that will require businesses to report the amount of greenhouse gas emissions they generate to the Secretary of State.
The so-called “Climate Corporate Accountability Act” was approved by a margin of 27 by 3.
If the Assembly musters anywhere near that much enthusiasm, it seems likely to become law considering it’s the kind of crazy nanny state move Governor Gavin Newsom is likely to be falling over himself to sign.
If the lawmakers force businesses to start reporting their emissions, it’s almost guaranteed to be only the first of many laws they’ll pass allowing them all kinds of power to fiddle with the operations of private businesses.
The proposed law will require businesses to calculate three categories of “emissions” including those generated directly, emissions from purchasing and using electricity, and “supply chain” emissions.
Who knows how much figuring that all out will cost businesses – no doubt they’ll soon be hiring new employees who will be generating their own “emissions,” putzing into the office to do the government’s bidding – of course, making the company less efficient in the process.
For now, the law is targeted at large businesses, but Chamber of Commerce groups throughout the state are sounding the alarm, warning that it will affect almost everyone.
“Although SB 260 contains a large threshold for applicability, the bill requires companies to track emissions not only for its California sites or products, but for worldwide operations … Requiring reporting of emissions associated with a company’s entire supply chain will necessarily require that large businesses stop doing business with small and medium businesses that cannot meet the onerous reporting requirements required by the bill, leaving these companies without the contracts that enable them to grow and employ more workers,” a coalition of organizations, including the California Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement.
This latest hot mess of a bill is only a small part of the huge push California Democrats are making to paint themselves as climate leaders.
Governor Newsom is pushing to spend more than $37 billion in taxpayer dollars on “climate investment” over the next six years – including $22 billion in new spending this year.
And that dollar amount doesn’t even begin to consider how those policies will increase the cost of doing business in the state or how much more goods and services will cost as a result.
Unfortunately, bad ideas spread through blue states faster than a lab leak from Wuhan.
It’s likely only a matter of time before California’s mess becomes our collective nightmare.
Stay tuned to Blue State Blues for any updates to this ongoing story.
