Professor Frank Co-Authors Prop 23 Op-ed for L.A. Times

Professor Richard Frank co-authored an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times on Proposition 23, which would suspend implementation of California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).  Professor Frank also spoke on climate change and AB 32 at a legislative hearing convened jointly by the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources and at a Sacramento conference sponsored by the University of California's Giannini Foundation.

The article, "Proposition 23 and the Damage It Would Do to California," written with UC Berkeley School of Law Professor Daniel Farber, references information in a study, co-authored by Frank and Farber and sponsored by the UC Berkeley law school's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, that concludes that the initiative would disrupt climate change efforts in California, eliminate green jobs, chill energy investments by regulatory uncertainty, and create unfair differences in the treatment of various business sectors.

"In an era when California government is often called a model of dysfunction, our state's climate change and renewable energy policies stand out as one example of visionary, effective public policymaking," Frank and Farber write. "Proposition 23, if passed in November, would substantially undermine California's impressive leadership and progress on the climate change, green jobs and renewable energy fronts."

On October 1, Professor Frank testified before a legislative hearing convened jointly by the California Senate Committee on Environmental Quality and the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources.  Frank testified at the invitation of both committees regarding the background, provisions and implications of Proposition 23.  Also attending the hearing were King Hall students from Frank's Climate Change Law & Policy course, who were recognized and welcomed to the hearing by the Chairs of the legislative committees.

On October 4, Professor Frank spoke at a Sacramento conference sponsored by the University of California's Giannini Foundation entitled, "California Climate Change Policy: The Economic and Environmental Impacts of AB 32."  Frank spoke on the topic, "AB 32 and the Political Economy of Climate Change Legislation," on a panel moderated by UC Davis Engineering Professor and California Air Resources Board member Dan Sperling.

Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is Executive Director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment at UC Berkeley and a Visiting Lecturer at King Hall.

L.A. Times: "Proposition 23 and the Damage It Would do to California"