Bay Area air board approves global-warming fees for businesses

[audtatious]

SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area's air pollution board today became the first in the United States to charge businesses fees for the global warming gases they emit.

The fees, ranging from $180,000 a year for a large oil refinery to $1 annually for a service station, would fund district efforts to calculate, study and control carbon dioxide, methane and other warming gases.

Representatives of oil refineries and several business groups opposed the fee, saying it would duplicate and interfere with the state's landmark law to control global warming gases statewide.

Air board administrators and board members said their efforts would complement the attempts by the California Air Resources Board to rein in global warming gases.

The fees were approved on a 15-1 vote. Mike Shimansky, a Danville Town Council member who serves on the Bay Area board, said he worries that once established, the fees will grow sharply in coming years.

The fees, effective July 1, will raise $1.1 million from 2,500 Bay Area businesses that already have air district permits that limit their emissions of smog-forming gases. Most would pay $1 or less a year

--------------------------------------------

And, so, it begins. Since these fee's will be given to these companies, who do you think will eventually pay them?

[smockers83]

The only problem that hinders any such program is how does one control emissions of CO2 without cutting back on production. What technologies are readily available that can destroy, capture, or place CO2 elsewhere? Injecting it into the ground and growing trees. That's about it. Injecting it into the ground is expensive and is only a temporary solution as it will seep out eventually. Putting it into ocean water isn't possible since the oceans have already absorbed their capacity of CO2. Until any such technology that provides a permanent solution at an economical price is available, these types of programs are a waste. But on the flip side, it has to start somewhere in order to subsidize research into such technologies.

[audtatious]

IMO, the desire far outsteps the technology we have today. The only alternative is to cease and desist activities to meet the environmentalists requirements.

[rn79870]

Interesting enough, this month's Smithsonian magazine came today. It has an article on Wallace Broecker, of Columbia Univ, who first warned of global warming in 1979. He has a plan to put 17,000,000 CO2 scrubbers in the US to combat GW. The collected CO2 will be infused into the earth, or somehow turned into another element if the process can be made less energy dependent. He mentions his new book, "Fixing Climate." Might be time for another trip to the library.