Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Interesting development in CA

AP reports an important development in the policy battle of regulating greenhouse gases:
California would become the first state to impose a limit on all greenhouse gas emissions, including those from industrial plants, under a landmark deal reached Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative Democrats.

The agreement marks a clear break with the Bush administration and puts California on a path to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by an estimated 25 percent by 2020.
Given the success of California at independently regulating pollution from automobiles and driving technological advances that have improved emission performance worldwide, it seems possible that this might be the move that forces everyone else on the GHG-regulation bandwagon. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

8 comments:

EliRabett said...

Given the size of their economy they are the piper

Anonymous said...

According to many press reports, this appears to be raw politics and retribution directed toward San Joaquin County. Since that is the richest and highest tax base per capita in the state (and the biggest manufacturing base with CO2 emissions), this will "redistribute" some funds to places that "need" it more. Sounds like a certain failed economic philosophy from the early 1900s.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Graves, did you forget Stockton is a big port, and that there are many coal fired power plants, and that the bulk of the cement industry and agriculural and oil production industries are there? Perhaps you should read up, and of course Calif. taxes both wealth and income (that's why their economy has been stagnant for many years). I doubt this political ploy by Arnie and his DemoBuds to get him re-elected is going to work to reduce any CO2, and of course enforcement will be a joke, while the industrial bosses will be laughing all the way to the bank as they evade and manipulate the cap and trade pyramid scheme to their best advantage. If you think the bogus power crunch and manipulation was bad, you ain't seen nothin' yet pard.

Anonymous said...

Oops, need to correct my error, it was the San Joaquin Valley I intended to say, not just one county in it, sorry for any confusion.

EliRabett said...

You still got it wrong George, care to post the link to the article....

EliRabett said...

Oh yeah, and to make the rubble bounce, exactly how large is the Port of Stockton?

Hank Roberts said...

Chuckle. Maybe they're busily looking the facts up so they can present their evidence convincingly.

"in the 1970s,....California banned oil as a fuel for electricity generation and halted construction of coal-fired power plants due to concerns about air pollution ...."
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/39477/

Hank Roberts said...

Edited to bring the info up to date:

"... California Senate ... approved a bill that would limit purchases of electricity from coal-fired power plants by the state's electric utilities and large companies.
"...Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger...is expected to sign it. A separate measure to limit greenhouse gas emissions among all heavy industry... also ...passed Thursday.
"Together, the two steps ...make California by far the most active state in combating global warming...."
-- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1693465/posts