The bills, which were opposed by most Republicans, extend the state’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction program to 2030 and require a reduction in carbon emissions to 40 percent below the level released in 1990.
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State Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, flanked by California Gov. It expands on California’s landmark 2006 law, which set the goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
In a statement, California Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Allan Zaremberg said, “Taken together, SB32 and AB197, impose severe caps on the emission of greenhouse gases in California, without requiring the regulatory agencies to give any consideration to the impacts on our economy, disruptions in everyone’s daily lives or the fact that California’s population will grow nearly 50 percent between 1990 and 2030”.
California, the most populous state in the U.S., is now on track to meet the original 2020 climate goal.
The legislation is a priority for Brown. Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, said he supports the idea of cleaner air, but said SB 32 gives too much power to the California Air Resources Board, which has “repeatedly failed to produce basic performance reviews of its climate change programs”.
Governor Brown signed the legislation from the Vista Hermosa Natural Park, a 10-acre urban wilderness project built atop an old oil field and the first public park built in more than 100 years in the densely populated western edge of downtown Los Angeles.
The law does little to change the state’s cap-and-trade emissions trading system. It pushes the state to take stronger steps to curb local pollution, rather than simply seeking a statewide reduction in emissions. That program allows companies to buy permits to pollute at auctions; the money is then spent to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That program is the subject of a legal challenge, but Brown has said he is confident the program will be upheld and improved.
“I hope it sends a message across the country”.
“Harmful emissions are going down, and the economy is going up”, said lawmaker Anthony Rendon.
The measures in the most populous US state would extend by 10 years California’s main greenhouse gas reduction program and beef up oversight of the state agency charged with implementing it. “It’s a success story”.
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