The Universal Income Project, a basic income advocacy group headquartered in San Francisco, is hosting a Q&A with California state senator Bob Wieckowski on basic income and carbon dividends.

This free public event will take place on July 25 at Covo, a coworking space in San Francisco.

Wieckowski, along with Senate President Pro Tempore Kevin de León, was a sponsor of Senate Bill 775 (SB 775), introduced earlier this year, which proposed to revise the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program and institute a small basic income in the state.

Under SB 775, a portion of the new carbon revenue would be directed towards a newly created California Climate Dividend Program, which would distribute quarterly cash payments to all individual residents of California. The bill proposed a Climate Dividend Access Board to work with state officials to develop a mechanism to deliver the quarterly dividends (see the previous Basic Income News article “California State Legislature to Consider Carbon Dividend”).

Many American proponents of basic income see a carbon dividend, such as that proposed by SB 775, as a politically feasible stepping stone to a universal basic income of a livable amount.

At present, however, California is unlikely actually to adopt such a policy: on Monday, July 17, the state legislature voted to extend the state’s current carbon cap-and-trade program, which had been set to expire in 2020, through 2030. This program does not include a dividend.

For more information about the Q&A with Bob Wieckowski, see Eventbrite and Facebook.

Top photo: Coal power plant in southern California, CC BY 2.0 Rennett Stowe.