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Report: Climate Policies Boost The San Joaquin Valley

The Alon oil refinery in Bakersfield on Rosedale Highway
Joe Moore
/
Valley Public Radio
The Alon oil refinery in Bakersfield on Rosedale Highway

California has a reputation for progressive climate policies, and a new study shows it’s having an economic impact the San Joaquin Valley.

 

Over $13 billion: That’s how much the state's climate policies have delivered to the San Joaquin Valley, according to a study out of UC Berkeley and the non-profit group Next 10. The group’s founder, Noel Perry, says those benefits included tax revenues, direct investment in local businesses, and nearly 40,000 jobs.

"I think it’s interesting to see the San Joaquin Valley as a bellwether for climate policy," Perry says--"that if climate policies can work in the Valley, it seems like they have a good chance of working other places."

These benefits are derived from energy efficiency projects, renewable portfolio standards, and the state’s cap and trade program that may be discontinued in 2020.

The study recommends continuing these climate and energy initiatives, as well as creating programs to help workers transition out of the Valley’s most greenhouse gas-emitting industries.

Kerry Klein is an award-winning reporter whose coverage of public health, air pollution, drinking water access and wildfires in the San Joaquin Valley has been featured on NPR, KQED, Science Friday and Kaiser Health News. Her work has earned numerous regional Edward R. Murrow and Golden Mike Awards and has been recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Environmental Journalists. Her podcast Escape From Mammoth Pool was named a podcast “listeners couldn’t get enough of in 2021” by the radio aggregator NPR One.
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