California Adopts Landmark Emissions Reduction Blueprint
by Leslie Berliant - Dec 11th, 2008
in
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), chaired by Mary Nichols, voted Thursday to adopt a blueprint plan to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, constituting a 30% reduction below projected business-as-usual levels. It is the first step in strategic implementation of California's landmark 2006 law, the Global Warming Solutions Act
The Associated Press reports:
The plan adopted Thursday by the state Air Resources Board is the most comprehensive roadmap to date to cut the amount of heat-trapping emissions in the United States. It outlines for the first time how individuals and businesses will meet a landmark 2006 law that made California a leader on global climate change.
The plan was unanimously passed and includes 31 new rules and multiple components, including forest conservation, energy efficiency, clean car standards, more aggressive clean fuel standards and reductions in industrial carbon emissions. The main component of the plan, however, is a cap-and-trade program covering 85 percent of the state's emissions. This program will be developed in conjunction with a regional carbon market, the Western Climate Initiative, which encompasses seven states and four Canadian provinces.
The plan also proposes full deployment of the California Solar Initiative, high-speed rail, water-related energy efficiency measures, and a range of regulations to reduce emissions from trucks and from ships docked in California ports. There are also measures designed to safely reduce or recover a range of very potent greenhouse gases other than CO2 — refrigerants and other industrial gases — that contribute to global warming, all of which will impact a number of industries, including shipping and trucking.
Targeted fees will fund the plan administration and new reporting requirements will be implemented. Full compliance with the new regulations is slated for 2012, with more details yet to be worked out. The board believes that all of this can be achieved while benefitting California’s economy through growing the green technology sector, a belief that has been echoed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"We have laid out a plan which if followed can transform our economy," board Chairman Mary Nichols said as all eight board members approved the plan. - Reuters
According to Reuters, critics are calling the plan “hopelessly optimistic” when it comes to the economics of implementation.
At last months Governors’ Global Climate Summit, despite the state facing a $41.8 billion budget short fall over the next 18 months, Governor Schwarzenegger was optimistic about the green technology sector and credited it, along with the movie industry, with saving California’s economy from an even deeper melt down. He went on to talk about a solar energy company in Sacramento that is hiring over 1000 employees and opening new offices while other industries shed jobs at alarming rates.
Not everyone agrees with CARB’s projection of 100,000 new jobs created and an average $400 per household savings through efficiency efforts, however. California’s truckers believe it will cost their industry $5.5 billion according to Los Angeles Business. As far as Californians go:
The average Californian, for example, can expect to pay to have his or her car tires inflated during oil changes and to pay higher power bills as utilities try to increase their use of renewable energy. - Associated Press
These costs to individuals may very well be offset by efficiency rebates and reduced energy usage, however. CARB projects that these statewide efficiency measures will cost the state $25 billion by 2020, but that amount will be offset with $40 billion in savings.
The central role of a cap-and-trade system in emissions deductions is not universally embraced by environmental groups. Southern California Public Radio reports that some of the CARB members would like to reconsider the possibility of a carbon tax instead of cap-and-trade as the board continues to work out the details, though the Governor has stated that he does not see this as a viable component. However, cap-and-trade has been the subject of criticism from outside the environmental community recently with the Government Accountability Office releasing a study that was critical of the use of offsets in Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme. And as CARB was approving their blue print, The New York Times was running an article chronicling the failures of cap and trade in Europe.
While some of the details still need to be worked out, it is clear that California’s leadership in addressing climate change is critical. It is the most populous state in the U.S. and was the world’s 8th largest economy in 2006. President-Elect Obama has frequently pointed to California as the model for national standards on efficiency and emissions reductions. Today’s vote was another example of California’s unique ability to lead on climate issues.
Leslie Berliant is a writer living in Los Angeles. She is a partner at BLU MOON Group, a cause marketing firm that specializes in advocacy campaigns. She writes about the environment and other topics for a number of publications including Celsias, PNN and the LOHAS Journal. She is also a featured poet in several books including Deliver Me and Big City Mantra.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Post new comment