California
Sets Global Example With Historic Deal To Reduce Emissions
By Andrew Gumbel
01 September 2006
The
Independent
The
state of California is embarking on a ground-breaking effort to curb
global warming, following an agreement between Arnold Schwarzenegger,
the state's movie star Republican Governor, and the Democrat-dominated
state legislature, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by
2020.
The agreement, the result
of months of fractious negotiation and considerable bad blood between
Mr Schwarzenegger and his fellow Republicans, sets California far apart
from the Bush administration, which has rejected the Kyoto Protocol
and questioned the very existence of global warming.
It also opens the way to
an outpouring of technological advances in alternative energy in the
Golden State - from solar panels on homes and businesses to battery-powered
cars and biodiesel trucks.
Like others, Mr Schwarzenegger
argues that fighting global warming makes good business as well as environmental
sense.
"We can now move forward
with developing a market-based system that makes California a world
leader in the effort to reduce carbon emissions," the Governor
said in a statement. "The success of our system will be an example
for other states and nations to follow as the fight against climate
change continues. [This deal] strengthens our economy, cleans our environment
and once again, establishes California as the leader in environmental
protection."
Environmentalists and Democratic
leaders with whom Mr Schwarzenegger hashed out the deal on Wednesday
were equally ecstatic. California state assembly speaker Fabian Nunez
said the deal was "the most important day in my legislative career".
Bob Epstein, of the business lobbying group Environmental Entrepreneurs,
said: "This is the tipping point in the country's climate-change
debate."
The deal settled the final
wording of Assembly Bill 32, which is expected to sail across the Governor's
desk. Mr Schwarzenegger is also expected to sign a second bill from
the state Senate, prohibiting California from importing new energy sources
that did not meet strict emissions standards.
Perhaps the most intriguing
part of the legislation is the creation of a system of emissions credits.
If a company exceeds its targets on emissions reduction, it can sell
the excess to a company lagging behind, creating a financial incentive
for businesses to do their bit for the environment.
This was one of the talking
points when Mr Schwarzenegger and Mr Blair signed their UK-California
partnership agreement on global warming in Los Angeles at the end of
last month.
There are signs that the
idea may now be copied in other states, starting with Illinois, which
sent a delegation of lawmakers on a fact-finding trip to California
a few days ago.
The deal is a political coup
for Mr Schwarzenegger as he faces a race for re-election in November
and may emerge as the signature achievement of his first term. After
his popularity slumped to record lows by steering his administration
too far to the right last year, he has now gone in the other direction,
in part under the influence of his die-hard Democrat wife Maria Shriver,
a member of the Kennedy clan.
His environmental advisers
are not former energy industry lobbyists, like many of President Bush's
appointees, but are long-standing green activists. They have encouraged
him to offer incentives for Californians to build solar panels on their
roofs. He has also championed research into alternative energies, especially
hydrogen fuel cells, and pushed for cleaner car exhausts.
Such initiatives make eminent
good sense in an environmentally conscious state like California, which
is always at the forefront of regulations to curb pollution - not least
because of numerous smog crises suffered first in Los Angeles and, more
recently, in the agriculture-intensive Central Valley.
Mr Schwarzenegger has nevertheless
broken several rules of modern-day partisan politicking. The Republican
minority in the California legislature has opposed the greenhouse gas
initiative all the way and has not offered a single vote in favour of
either of the bills.
George Plescia, who leads
the Republican delegation in the California assembly, condemned the
deal almost immediately. "Adopting costly and unattainable regulations
will drive businesses and jobs out of California into other states,"
he said, "and even into other countries with no commitment to improve
air quality."
Industry lobbyists and their
political allies are unlikely to give up. History suggests they will
press to water down Assembly Bill 32, continuing all the way to 2012,
when the first emissions mandates kick in.
But there are also reasons
to suppose some business interests will continue to support the bill.
"Imposing environmental regulations and cleaning up the air clearly
hasn't hurt the Californian economy in the past," said Mark Bernstein,
a senior policy researcher specialising in energy and environmental
issues at the Rand Corporation.
"Now there's money to
be made on developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
California is where a lot of the research and development is going to
take place."
© 2006 Independent News
and Media Limited