Posted on 06/02/2005 8:46:53 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO — California will go toe to toe with global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday as he set targets for reducing the state's greenhouse-gas emissions in coming decades. His executive order calls for reducing these emissions — mostly carbon dioxide from cars and power and industrial plants — to their 2000 levels by 2010, to 1990 levels by 2020 and to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
The targets aren't as ambitious as those of the Kyoto Protocol, a reduction pact adopted by more than 140 nations but rejected by the United States. The Assembly sent a bill to the state Senate on Tuesday that would press California toward the stricter Kyoto standards of reducing emissions 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2010 and 10 percent below by 2020.
Signing the order at a City Hall ceremony during the United Nations World Environment Day conference's opening day, Schwarzenegger said California's natural beauty often reminds him of the pristine Austrian countryside of his youth. But he acknowledged "the march of progress does not come without consequences," and the state's economic ambition must be tempered by its environmental stewardship.
"As of today, California is going to be a leader in the fight against global warming," he said. "The debate is over. We know the signs, we see the threat, and we know the time for action is now."
His order directs the state Environmental Protection Agency to oversee statewide efforts to meet the reduction targets and to report progress to the governor and Legislature starting in January.
State Controller Steve Westly, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2006, sponsored the stricter Assembly bill authored by Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City. Westly issued a statement Wednesday saying Schwarzenegger "has missed a key opportunity to address this issue by putting forth a good idea without any type of enforcement to support it."
Jason Mark, the Union of Concerned Scientists' California director, acknowledged Schwarzenegger's targets aren't as aggressive as the Assembly bill's but remain "strong targets that have global significance." Now he and lawmakers must agree on how to reach these goals, he added. "There's a lot of heavy lifting to do as we go forward."
Scientists believe global warming poses a dire threat to California in coming decades. Most notably, the Sierra snowpack already is shrinking and could end up a fraction of its current volume by century's end. Skiing aside, that snowpack accounts for a big chunk of the state's water supply, so its reduction could choke off the lifeblood of California's agriculture and other economic sectors. Meanwhile, hotter weather plus more population will boost demand for water over time, and hydroelectric power production will drop even as energy demand — especially in increasingly hot summer months — rises.
And higher temperatures will strike more directly at some of California's core industries; the Napa and Sonoma valleys could grow too warm to produce premium wine grapes, while Southern California's dairy production could be crippled. Rising sea levels could threaten the coast, and health risks such as asthma could intensify.
"The change is under way — the only issue is when we take action," said professor Michael Hanemann, director of the California Climate Change Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The effects of reducing emissions won't be immediately visible, he said, but the problem gets exponentially harder to mitigate the longer we wait, and there's "no morning-after pill" to roll back that clock.
California in 2000 ranked 10th in the world for greenhouse-gas emissions; topping the list was the United States as a whole, accounting for a quarter of mankind's emissions.
To reach his targets, Schwarzenegger said Wednesday he wants full implementation of a 2002 law giving automakers until 2009 to produce new cars and trucks for California that will collectively emit 22 percent less greenhouse gases by 2012 and 30 percent less by 2016. Carmakers and dealers have sued to stop the law from taking effect.
The governor also said he wants to speed up the timetable for requiring that more of California's energy come from renewable sources, keep pushing for 1 million solar-powered California homes and keep reducing the state's 70,000-vehicle fleet's emissions.
Mark, Hanemann and two other scientists who briefed the media before Schwarzenegger's announcement Wednesday said it is hard to see how California can meet the new targets without creating a mandatory cap-and-trade system on greenhouse-gas emissions.
In such a system, the state would set an overall cap on its amount of emissions and grant allotments to individual emitters. Those that reduce their emissions below their allotment could sell their extra credit to others that need to exceed their limits, creating a market incentive for reducing emissions.
A similar system instituted in the 1990s to reduce acid rain by controlling sulfur dioxide is generally considered a success.
A few dozen protesters, most wearing red "Stop Arnold" stickers supplied by the California Nurses Association, stood outside Schwarzenegger's signing ceremony Wednesday. Facing guests at a post-ceremony reception under City Hall's rotunda, they chanted, "Hey hey, ho ho, Schwarzenegger has got to go."
They handed out fliers claiming Schwarzenegger is no environmentalist, noting he vetoed a bill requiring the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to limit air contaminants, and signed California onto a multi-state electricity transmission line which could encourage building more coal-fired power plants — a major greenhouse gas source.
Most greenhouse gases come from politicians of both parties..
I hope there is a plan for several new nuclear reactors. That would help considerably, and if properly implemented would result in lower energy prices to boot...
Or he does, and has decided to take political advantage of the state of fear.
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