California Agency Outlines Plan to Fight Global Warming
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 06.26.08
photo by photoreb via flickr
The California Air Resources Board announced today that they have developed a plan which will reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30%, from projected levels by 2020 or about 10% from today’s levels.
The report estimates that this means reducing state average individual carbon emissions from 14 tons per year to 10 tons per year. The long range goal of this plan is to reduce emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.
"Blazing a trail" for a more sustainable future
In the words of CARB chairman Mary Nichols, The Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan shows that, “California is once again blazing a trail to lead other states and the nation to a cleaner, more sustainable future, energy independence and a healthier environment.”
Cap and Trade in forefront
According to CARB, central to the plan is a cap and trade program covering 85% of the state’s emissions. The plan also calls for utilities to produce a third of their energy from renewable sources, as well as to expand energy efficiency programs, and building and appliance efficiency standards. Furthermore, the plan calls for full implementation of the California Clean Car law to get more fuel efficient cars on the road.
Additionally, improvements in urban planning to make California cities “more livable, walkable cities, and [to] shorten commutes” are called for.
Public comment encouraged
The Air Resource Board invites public comment on the Draft Plan, before a final draft is prepared for consideration in November. Once this is approved the plan will still have to go through the regulatory process before being implemented.
It may take two years, and who knows how much it will get changed, watered-down, or improved in that time, but California has taken a bold step with this one.
:: California Air Resources Board
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CARB is a joke. They lowered requirements for
car companies so they can keep producing gas
guzzlers. They should be hyping BEV and PHEV.
Who's paying them off?
So...will CARB revive the electric car they killed?
I sure hope so. =]
If most cars are still primarily gas-powered in 2020, while already all the major car manufacturers are planning fuel cell and PHEV vehicles for the next few years, it will be the greatest failure of technology and policy in my lifetime. By 2020 reducing CO2 emissions should consist primarily of using clean energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and nuclear), eliminating deforestation, and handling methane emissions (from farms, mostly).
Also, why do our most courageous leaders believe they should be aiming for 80% reduction by 2050? The IPCC said global emissions need to go down by at least 80% before that to significantly mitigate damage caused by changing climates. But unless you think no one in other countries will see rising standards of living over the next 42 years, that means U.S. emissions need to go down by about 96%, not 80%.
According to Envirozine (Environment Canada's on line magazine) a forest fire involving primarily conifers will produce approximately 13 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide for each hectacre (2.7 acres) burned.
About 1,420 fires were burning more than 356,134 acres (139,671 hectares), according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
So, that's (356,134 acres) x (13 million tons of CO2 / 2.7 acres) = 1,714,719 MILLION tons of carbon dioxide liberated into the environment.
Hmmmm.....now that's 1.7 TRILLION tons of harmful carbon dioxides injected into our precious environment by the rubes in California, who claim to want to stop global warming, IN JUST THIS CALIFORNIA WEEK ALONE.
One thing for sure, California is incapable of managing it's forests, which are an international resource, and is HARMING the environment by dumping carbon into the atmosphere.