Walters: Cap and trade has become a backdoor tax on California consumers

Nineteen years ago, during actor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s governorship, he and the Legislature created a program that would, in theory, reduce California’s emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases deemed to affect the planet’s climate.

The plan, dubbed cap and trade, authorizes the California Air Resources Board to conduct quarterly auctions of emissions allowances which refineries, electric power generators and other industrial facilities purchase to offset their emissions. It’s an alternative to actually reducing emissions or financing other projects to cut them.

Once purchased, the allowances can be sold and traded back and forth. As the auction prices increase over time, emitting facilities would, in theory, be motivated to make reductions.

Proceeds from the auctions have steadily