Scheme comes out of AB32, the landmark climate change bill
by Brian Leubitz
In Washington, Congress is twiddling its thumbs as they debate what science stopped debating years ago. Rather than aggresively taking on the environmental challenges of our lifetime and building a new sustainable economy, we are pretending the problems don’t exist. Sure, we apparently care about the budget deficit that we are handing future generations, but a livable planet is apparently a luxury that we don’t care to pass on.
But California, as they say, is different. We passed AB32, with a Republican Governor, yet. And today, we have a real system to put in place:
California has cap & trade – or will once the program starts ramping up next year. Today’s approval by the state’s Air Resources Board was described by chair Mary Nichols as like “moving a large army a few feet in one direction.”
The objective that “army” is marching – or shuffling – toward is, of course, the fulfillment of California’s goal to roll back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the end of this decade. With at least a semi-intentional pun, Nichols calls cap & trade the “capstone” of that effort, although the program is expected to produce at most, 20% of the hoped-for reductions in carbon emissions. The rest will come from other measures either lumped under or related to the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, more widely known as AB 32.
Those other measures include stricter standards for tailpipe emissions, a “low-carbon fuels standard” (still being worked on), and the ambitious-but-attainable goal to get a third of the state’s electricity from renewable energy sources, also by 2020. (KQED Climate Change Blog)
Across California, cities and counties are actually doing something about climate change. In fact, San Francisco recently announced that the City has reduced carbon emissions levels 12 percent below 1990 levels.
There is a lot more hard work to come, but it is really, really good to see this unanimous vote on the cap and trade system.
If California businesses weren’t fleeing the state by now.
This will hasten their exit.
I really hope other states welcome them.
Unfortunately California is business unfriendly, always has been and always will be.
UCS WELCOMES GROUNDBREAKING CAP ON GLOBAL WARMING EMISSIONS
STATE AIR BOARD APPROVES CRITICAL COMPONENT OF AB 32
Sacramento, CA (Oct. 20, 2011) – The California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved a program today to cap global warming emissions and put a price on carbon pollution, a move the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says is key to moving to a clean energy economy in California and triggering the economic benefits that will flow from that transition.
“We’re already seeing new businesses move to California to take advantage of the market being fostered by its clean energy policies,” said Adrienne Alvord, the California and Western states director at UCS. “The actions taken by CARB enhances the state as a destination for the growing clean tech industry.”
CARB’s vote makes California the first state to put an economy-wide cap on global warming pollution.
“California alone can’t stop climate change, but we’re the eighth largest economy in the world, so what we do matters,” said Alvord. “There’s a saying that where California goes, the rest of the country follows, and I think that’ll hold true for the state’s clean energy plan. By putting a price on carbon, these regulations will level the playing field and help us move away from old, dirty energy sources to a cleaner and more self-sufficient energy economy.”
The cap and trade regulation is part of a comprehensive package of policies that will reduce California’s global warming emissions back to the state’s 1990 levels in 2020. The rule that CARB voted on today is expected to make about 20 percent of those reductions.
“If fossil fuel use continues and grows, we’re looking at a ten degree temperature increase by the end of the century, along with increased air pollution, prohibitive damage to coastal property due to sea level rise, and up to a 90 percent loss of Sierra snowpack,” said Alvord. “As implementation moves forward we’ll continue to monitor the program’s progress to ensure it protects the environment and public health, and provides the maximum economic benefits.”
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