CALIFORNIA AIR REGULATORS have released a broad and bold plan to battle global warming, but it’s going to take cooperation like we’ve never seen before.
State residents are essentially being asked to live closer to where they work, use less electricity and stay on top of car maintenance; automakers are being asked to build cars that deliver higher gas mileage and lower emissions; oil companies will be asked to produce lower carbon fuels and industry will be asked to cap greenhouse gas emissions.
It’s a broad plan that involves many factors and many sectors of society, yet if the state is to follow through with the historic legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago to combat global warming, plans by the Air Resources Board need to be heeded and taken seriously by everyone. We wonder if that’s going to happen.
The plan includes local governments building future residential developments near public transportation, shops and businesses to reduce the miles Californians drive. That idea makes great sense and is doable, but it should be considered that public transportation needs to expand into outlying areas that tend to be more affordable. Homeowners will be encouraged to put solar panels on their roofs and install solar water heaters, yet there already are breaks in place for residents to move in this direction, and many have yet to do so. The draft plan estimates these policies will cut 80 percent (133.8 million metric tons of greenhouse gases) of the needed amount to get to the mandated 1990 levels by 2020.
The rest will depend on industry and utilities, the state’s major emitters. Regulators hope to entice industry by using a cap-and-trade program where businesses who cannot cut their emissions because of cost or technical hurdles would be allowed to buy emission credits from companies that have achieved cleaner emissions. But this brings into question what type of monitoring system will be in place to ensure businesses are properly reporting or that the state is properly keeping track of those who pollute. We can see many disputes unless the state has a sound monitoring system in place.
California’s real problem lies in Washington, D.C., between the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House. A huge part of this plan is counting on a reversal from the Bush administration and the EPA’s refusal to allow California to enforce its own greenhouse gas standard for new cars sold in the state, which would see new cars in California getting 43 miles per gallon by 2020.
What if the new administration follows Bush’s policy and fails to warm up to California’s plans?
Industry experts question whether the state is moving too fast in changing the way we fuel our cars, heat and cool our homes and use our lights. While these are legitimate concerns, our question is how long do we wait? Or maybe a better question is how long can we afford to wait?
The day before air regulators announced their plan, the federal Energy Information Administration released its long-range energy forecast that foresees no mandatory international agreements on capping greenhouse gases. Thus, the forecast estimates global energy demand will rise by 50 percent, and so increases the world’s dependence on fossil fuels especially coal and oil; oil prices could climb to $186 a barrel by 2030; emerging economies will see energy demand grow by 85 percent; and annual releases of carbon dioxide, linked to global warming, will rise by an astonishing 51 percent in 2030 than they were in 2005.
Maybe California won’t receive the cooperation it needs from key outside factors, but it’s clear our course must change. Even if the state fails to reach its 2020 deadline, and that’s likely, the groundwork needs to begin toward our quest to become a cleaner planet.