Mediaboss Marketing

July 21, 2017, 11:13 a.m.

A cadre of Republicans have spent days taking slings and arrows after breakingwith party activists and many of their colleagues to support California's premiere climate change program.

Now some of them are defending themselves in the pages of the Wall Street Journal.

"We served our people and did our jobs as legislators by rolling back taxes, cutting regulations and protecting Californians from higher costs," wroteAssembly Republican Leader Chad Mayesof Yucca Valleyand Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside, two of the eight Republicans who voted for the legislation on Monday.

The Journal had criticized some Republicans for supporting the extension of the state's cap-and-trade program, which requires companies to buy permits to release greenhouse gas emissions. The newspaper's editorial board said California Republicans are "so beaten down in the minority that they now confuse surrender with victory."

Cap and trade could boost gas prices by24 to 73 cents a gallon by 2031, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Analysts Office.

ButMayes and Chavez argued that the program ispreferable to other, more costly regulations that would have been needed to meet the state's climate goals, which became law last year. The final legislation also included two other Republican goals:the rollback of a fire prevention fee, which has been levied on landowners, and the extension of a tax credit for manufacturers.

"Republicans in California must live with the realities of a deep-blue Democratic state," they wrote. "This isnt Washington, D.C., or Kansas. We have to cut taxes and regulations every chance we get."

Read more from the original source:
Assembly Republicans defend climate vote as 'protecting Californians from higher costs' - Los Angeles Times