Progress in California on curbing emissions

Its landmark plan to battle global warming, approved with fanfare a year ago, is moving forward.

from the November 7, 2007 edition

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Still, a major piece of California's plan to curb such emissions is contingent on action in the nation's capital. The state is waiting to hear whether the Environmental Protection Agency will allow it to require automakers to achieve fuel-efficiency standards for new-model vehicles sold in California that are higher than current federal standards. Named after Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, who wrote the 2002 bill that resulted in a standard of 43 miles per gallon by 2020, the Pavley Standards have since been adopted by 13 other states.

Collectively, the standards would cut greenhouse-gas emissions by 392 million metric tons by 2020 – the equivalent of taking 74 million cars off the road for one year, experts say. Nationally, nearly 26 percent of US greenhouse-gas emissions come from transportation.

"The administration's decision will either lead the issue of global warming or block us from reaching our goals," says NRDC's Mr. Hwang.

The California initiative has also created international ripples. On Oct. 29, California, New York, New Zealand, Norway, and several European countries and Canadian provinces formed an International Carbon Action Partnership to create a global cap-and-trade carbon market to build demand for low-carbon services and products.

In September, Governor Schwarzenegger joined more than 80 leaders at a United Nations summit on climate change, leading some to speculate that individual US states will ultimately push the federal government into taking a firmer stand against global warming.

"The governor plays a great role by being a cheerleader for global warming," says Jim Metropulos of the Sierra Club. "He's a Republican in the biggest state, and to say that ... we are going to do what we need to do to get these goals met has a big impact."

While it's hard to find an environmental group that doesn't like California's plan, some tax and consumer groups are grumbling because they feel that air polluters are not shouldering enough of the cost, leaving consumers with the burden. Drivers with new vehicles will have to pay a smog-abatement fee of $20, instead of $12, for six years. Annual vehicle registration costs will also increase $3.

But one year into the initiative, some still question whether a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gases 13 years from now will have any benefit.

"We have one example to compare this to, which is Europe's attempt to cut CO2 since the Kyoto accords in 1997," says Sterling Burnett of the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas. "They promised to ... implement all these programs with all this money, [but] their emissions have grown at a faster rate than [in] the US, despite our bigger population growth.... That is ... probably what we will see in California."

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