Over the last several years, California has passed many green laws that propose to ease the burden on the environment while also producing local energy resources. While activists will argue that such moves are advantageous for the future of California as well as the planet, it could also have a negative impact on the job market and economic growth of the state.

Already, analysts and socio-economic and political forecasters are saying that the latest global warming laws could possibly lead to an increase of unemployment in California.  The negative effects of too many green laws are plenty. Companies will have to spend a lot on changing current and existing technology and infrastructure to make way for various green oriented processes. Jobs may have to be cut to balance out these new expenditures. Or potentially increases in work load.  In other cases, companies that will not be able to afford the change may be forced to shut down entirely. If unions have it their way, there could be strikes and lock downs which would result in more jobs being affected.

Under new green laws, certain industries such as agriculture will come under heavy regulation that can impede growth and development of new markets. Other sectors that fall under such heavy regulation would be the automobile industry, the garment manufacturing industry, and even the housing sector.

Another factor to consider is products which are built using environmentally friendly processed will no doubt be more expensive for consumers.  This could potentially lead to low demand.  While a balance in the implementation of green laws is what is wanted, too many green laws would potentially harm the job and consumer markets.

While Governor Schwarzenegger has stated that the new green laws of AB32 will help create more jobs and facilitate the growth of California's green economy, the fact remains that caution must be taken when pushing forward with AB32 as to not damage existing industries. The availability of new green jobs may not be proportionate to the number of jobs lost at companies affected by the impact of AB32.