Jerry Brown Defends Embattled State Climate Law but Is Open to 'Adjustments' New York Times
Brown, the leading Democratic candidate for governor in the state, said his likely GOP opponent in the November general election, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is mistaken in her view that freezing the law for a year or more would help the California economy and jobs rebound.
"That stop-and-start is exactly what creates investor uncertainty" in the clean-tech sector, Brown said during the GreenNet 2010 conference here. "To just respond to particular pressures, if you let that happen, you don't get anywhere. It's called breakdown, as opposed to breakthrough."
In the same breath, Brown said he would support adjusting the law, known as A.B. 32, to account for states in the West backing away from cap-and-trade policies meant to address global warming and lower carbon emissions in a regional market.
During a question-and-answer session with reporters, he would not say what specific changes he would favor, deferring to the California Air Resources Board's process on shaping regulations, which are scheduled to go live in 2012.
