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Innovation, Not Overregulation: Burdensome mandates like California’s cap-and-trade program stifle innovation by penalizing carbon use rather than rewarding clean-tech breakthroughs. True environmental progress comes from empowering entrepreneurs, not expanding government control.
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Economic Freedom Drives Environmental Gains: As C3 Solutions has shown, countries and states with higher levels of economic freedom see better environmental outcomes. California’s heavy-handed approach undermines prosperity by deterring investment and placing a costly burden on innovators.
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Economic Competitiveness: Ultimately, this policy harms California’s competitiveness, encourages entrepreneurs to simply move their operations to freer states (like Texas), and prevents the emergence of more effective, market-driven solutions for environmental challenges.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and top state Democrats announced Tuesday they would seek an extension of the state’s cap-and-trade emissions reduction program — countering Trump administration efforts to thwart such initiatives.
Newsom — along with state Sen. Mike McGuire, the Senate president pro tempore, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas — made this decision following a recent federal executive order that called for the rollback of what President Trump described as local environmental “overreach.”
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
