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Earlier at present, we reported on a novel association between town of Richmond, California, and Chevron that may put $550 million into town’s coffers over the subsequent 10 years to compensate for the environmental hurt to the residents of Richmond by the aged oil refinery that has been working throughout the metropolis for over a century. That settlement resulted from a singular thought by town to tax every barrel of oil delivered to the refinery for processing over the subsequent 50 years. That proposal, if enacted, would have price Chevron as much as $90 million a yr. Multiply that by 50 and you might be speaking about some critical cash. Now town of Berkeley, California, has latched on to the ability of that taxation plan and intends to make use of it to push its agenda of eliminating methane gasoline from the residences, factories, and eating places inside its metropolis limits.
Berkeley pursued a plan to ban methane for years, however the thought was deemed unlawful by the courts. Undaunted, Berkeley thinks it has discovered a brand new lever to maneuver its agenda ahead. Methane might burn extra cleanly that coal, however it nonetheless produces pollution which are damaging to human respiratory and circulatory programs, particularly in younger youngsters. As well as, methane itself is a greenhouse gasoline that’s 80 occasions extra highly effective than carbon dioxide. It leaks from wells, it leaks from pipelines and pumping stations, it leaks from distribution programs, and it leaks inside properties and business buildings, typically to the purpose of inflicting explosions. Irrespective of the way you slice it, methane is dangerous stuff and the earlier “we the people” cease utilizing it, the higher for all people and for the Earth.
Berkeley Poll Measure
On November 5, residents of Berkeley will vote on a poll measure that proposes taxing the homeowners of buildings of 15,000 sq. toes or bigger primarily based on the quantity of pure gasoline consumed every year. If handed, authorized consultants say this might be the primary tax within the nation to focus on using a particular gas supply for buildings. Metropolis officers estimate that the tax would apply to over 600 buildings in Berkeley and generate $26.7 million throughout its first yr, an quantity bigger than town’s annual gross sales tax income. Of these funds, 90% would go towards retrofitting properties and buildings within the metropolis with electrical HVAC and home equipment, and 10% would go towards metropolis administrative prices.
Some CleanTechnica readers have argued that the plan put collectively by town of Richmond is flawed as a result of the funds from Chevron will grow to be a part of town’s basic fund as a substitute of being earmarked for addressing the impacts of local weather change, and that may be a cogent objection. The Berkeley plan is rather more targeted on mitigation.
5 years in the past, Berkeley launched the nation’s first ban on methane gasoline hookups in new development. Praised as an modern solution to minimize carbon emissions and cut back air air pollution by environmental advocates, Berkeley’s gasoline ban impressed comparable legal guidelines in dozens of California cities and kicked off a surge of constructing electrification insurance policies in additional than 100 native governments nationwide. However in 2023, the coverage was struck down by the US Court docket of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit following a lawsuit from the California restaurant trade. In January, the identical courtroom declined to revisit its resolution, dealing a closing blow to town’s effort.
Regardless of these authorized woes, local weather organizers say town stays undeterred. “People look to Berkeley as a bellwether for progressive climate action as well as an incubator of ideas,” Daniel Tahara, one of many lead organizers for Fossil Free Berkeley, informed Canary Media. “Someone needs to be putting ideas out there, and we think that has been and can continue to be Berkeley.” He and others from Fossil Free Berkeley say that this yr’s poll measure was partially motivated by the defeat of town’s gasoline ban, which was lastly repealed in March. “A lot of momentum was lost statewide,” he stated, as cities throughout California and different Western states rolled again their very own gasoline bans in response.
Neighborhood members gathered greater than 4,500 signatures to get the proposed gasoline tax on the poll, which formally certified on the finish of Might. The tax would cost giant constructing homeowners $2.96 for each 100 cubic toes or 100,000 BTUs of pure gasoline used, a worth primarily based on the social price of carbon, which estimates the damages brought about to society by extra greenhouse gasoline emissions. Residents in low revenue communities can be among the many first to obtain funding from the taxes to improve and electrify older buildings, and union labor can be prioritized for constructing retrofit work funded by the tax. If accredited, the coverage would take impact January 1, 2025, and expire on the finish of 2050.
Taxing Polluters — What A Nice Concept!
Amy Turner, director of the Cities Local weather Regulation Initiative at Columbia College’s Sabin Middle for Local weather Change Regulation, stated that Berkeley’s proposed tax is a novel method. Current insurance policies, comparable to constructing efficiency requirements in New York Metropolis, Boston, and Seattle, require buildings to decrease emissions over time and may superb property homeowners for failing to conform. However they are usually “fuel neutral,” which means they don’t explicitly goal a particular vitality supply like fossil gasoline. “We haven’t seen a fee or a payment of any kind be connected directly to the kind of fuel that a building is using,” she stated.
Some commerce teams, just like the county’s constructing and development trades council, have criticized the measure for levying further prices on native companies in an space with taxes that already larger than common. Whereas the legislation explicitly prohibits property homeowners from passing on prices to renters, a metropolis report expressed considerations that the tax might nonetheless end in larger rental prices “either at the time of lease renewal or, for price-controlled units, adjustments during times of vacancy.” The report additionally acknowledged the initiative would seemingly enhance job alternatives for contractors and incentivize all-electric new development of enormous buildings in Berkeley.
Berkeley’s proposed tax requires a easy majority to go, however that isn’t the one hurdle. The measure will even have to face up to the identical authorized scrutiny confronted by town’s earlier gasoline ban. In April 2023, the Ninth Circuit Court docket dominated that the federal Vitality Coverage and Conservation Act, a legislation that units nationwide vitality effectivity requirements, preempted Berkeley’s ban, stating that the coverage would in impact stop using gasoline home equipment that meet these nationwide requirements.
Fossil Free Berkeley organizers level out that the courtroom’s resolution explicitly allowed for the potential for a carbon tax much like the one on the November poll, making the brand new measure secure from authorized challenges primarily based on the Vitality Coverage and Conservation Act. Turner likewise famous that town’s new method — a tax slightly than a ban — is considerably totally different from the one tossed out by courts. “Certainly there are incentives of all kinds for buildings to be built or be operated in certain ways, and those are not subject to EPCA preemption,” she stated.
“Sin Taxes” In America
There’s a lengthy historical past in america of imposing taxes on gadgets which are deemed doubtlessly dangerous to people. Identified colloquially as “sin taxes,” they apply to alcoholic drinks, tobacco merchandise, playing, and the like. The courts have constantly upheld such taxes even when they’re so excessive they threaten to make individuals give up shopping for whiskey or cigarettes. Ask anybody what these taxes are like in Canada, the place at present a pack of cigarettes might price as much as $12 due to federal, provincial, and native taxes.
Methane accounts for a few third of Berkeley’s greenhouse gasoline emissions. The proposed tax would assist cut back these emissions and put together town for an vitality transition that’s already underway, Tahara stated. In March of 2023, the Bay Space Air High quality Administration District, which governs air air pollution in Berkeley and different close by cities, handed laws to section out the sale of home equipment that use methane gasoline by 2027. However the regulation “left a lot of the thorny implementation issues to local municipalities,” comparable to make it reasonably priced for properties and companies to make the change, Tahara stated.
The Takeaway
The battle between fossil gas advocates and opponents will probably be ongoing for the foreseeable future. The courts have been tilted strongly towards so-called conservative positions since 2016, when a failed former president did every little thing in his energy to pack them with ideologues who assist the concept liberty means freedom from authorities oversight for companies. To conservatives, liberty means poisoning the Earth to the purpose that people can not survive. That such a distorted viewpoint ought to be held by so many is a supply of nice consternation to many local weather justice advocates.
Taxing polluters makes a lot sense, it’s a surprise nobody considered this sooner. However we will ensure that if this plan will get accredited, loads of different cities and cities will probably be seeking to borrow a web page from the Berkeley playbook.
