Kinder, Gentler GOP Embraces ‘Cap and Trade’

Lawmakers vote for anti-market measure, then giddily pose with Democratic leaders — in return for zilch.

Steven Greenhut July 20, 2017

California Republican Assembly Leader Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley ought to be embarrassed today, and not just because of the front-page Sacramento Bee coverage about his alleged affair with former GOP Assembly Leader Kristen Olsen, who is now a Stanislaus County supervisor.    Those allegations long swirled around the Capitol. They recently made the news after a conservative blogger wrote about a letter that Olsen’s estranged husband reportedly had sent to the Assembly asking for an investigation into whether state resources were used to hide the alleged relationship. (Mr. Olsen later retracted his request, per the Bee.)

The main reason Mayes should be embarrassed is an apparent reason the blogger wrote about the allegations. Like most conservatives here, he was furious at his lack of principle. This week Mayes backed a plan to extend California’s cap-and-trade program for another decade.

The program is supposed to fight climate change, but has become a state-directed boondoggle that imposes massive new taxes on business and consumers, and creates a sea of revenues to fund the governor’s $68 billion pet bullet-train project; programs that pursue “environmental justice”; and all sorts of unrelated Democratic priorities......To Read More....