Senate offers cap-and-trade spending plan
State lawmakers’ $1.2-billion proposal includes subsidies for cleaner cars, energy efficiency and parks.
SACRAMENTO — With two weeks left in the legislative session, Senate leader Kevin de León is making a new effort to unsnarl a two-year budget gridlock over money generated from the state’s cap-and-trade program.
The Senate’s $1.2-billion spending plan, released Wednesday, would include money for cleaner cars, energy efficient upgrades and urban parks.
“We have the opportunity to follow through on the promise of cap-and-trade, which is to use polluters’ dollars to clean up the air we breathe,” De León (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement.
“Working families in our most economically disadvantaged and polluted areas deserve to benefit from investments now so they have access to the cleanest technologies and the tools to make their communities more livable.”
California’s landmark cap-and-trade program, in which businesses purchase permits to pollute, has raised more than $4 billion — all of which must be used to fund efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But for the last two years, Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers have been unable to agree on how to spend $1.4 billion generated by the program.
The funds have been in limbo while the Capitol has been consumed by high-profile — and politically fraught — climate bills.
The Brown administration put forth its spending proposal this year, before a disappointing auction of pollution permits in May cast doubt on the program’s viability.
The most prominent change in the new Senate proposal from Brown’s plan is in subsidies offered to residents who purchase lowand zero-emission vehicles.
The Senate proposal slashes funding for the main subsidy program to $100 million from $230 million and in its place boosts a similar effort tailored to low-income residents to $150 million from $30 million. The increased funding for the latter program would allow it to expand current efforts in Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley to statewide.
The funding impasse has relegated Californians interested in both subsidy programs to waiting lists. The proposal includes:
$100 million for energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization.
$30 million for wetlands and watershed restoration.
$100 million for urban parks.
The spending plan must be approved by both houses and the governor before it would go into effect.