Planning for Climate Change So what are the likely economic
effect of tighter greenhouse gas regulations and the adoption of
a cap-and-trade system for pricing carbon emissions?
Conservatives insist it would devastate the economy, but in
California, at least, a new report says the effect would be
pretty small: It concluded that the measure will yield modest
job gains statewide, will have a negligible effect on the
state's overall economy — the eighth largest in the world — and
could benefit some sectors like alternative energy businesses.
...."These policies can shift the driver of economic growth from
polluting energy sources to clean energy and efficient
technologies, with little or no economic penalty," the report
said. Thousands of manufacturing, mining and utilities industry
jobs will be lost, but service, finance, and other sectors will
gain similar numbers, leaving the most populous U.S. state about
the same in terms of total jobs, income and growth, the report
said. Five scenarios found a maximum effe