Governor takes action to cut greenhouse gases
ORDER SETS TARGETS FOR REDUCTION
By Paul Rogers
Mercury News
Leap-frogging the White House and nearly all U.S. states on actions to combat global warming, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday signed an executive order committing California to reduce greenhouse gases to specific targets in the coming years.
Some Democratic leaders said they would like to have the goals go further. But the announcement, made at San Francisco City Hall as part of the United Nations World Environment Day conference, largely drew praise from environmentalists and several top climate scientists.
``I say, the debate is over,'' said Schwarzenegger. ``We know the science. We see the threat, and we know the time for action is now.''
His order sets a statewide target of reducing the emissions of gases that cause global warming -- primarily heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels -- to 2000 levels by 2010. By 2020, emissions would be reduced to 1990 levels, and by 2050, they would be reduced 80 percent from current levels.
``Governor Schwarzenegger's speech today could be this generation's `we will put a man on the moon' commitment that inspires the world's top economies to take the lead in developing innovative solutions to our most serious environmental challenge -- global climate change,'' said Thomas Graff, California director for Environmental Defense.
Added Jason Mark, California director of the Union of Concerned Scientists: ``The targets are an excellent starting point, and now the heavy lifting of enacting policies to meet them must begin.''
Mandatory aspect
One of Schwarzenegger's challengers for the 2006 gubernatorial race, Democratic state Controller Steve Westly, said the governor should support a bill to make the rules mandatory and binding.
``The governor has missed a key opportunity to address this issue by putting forth a good idea without any type of enforcement to support it,'' Westly said.
With 36 million residents and more than 20 million vehicles, California is the world's 10th largest producer of greenhouse gases, releasing about 2 percent of the world's total -- an amount similar to the emissions of Italy and Great Britain, individually.
Wednesday's executive order also requires the California Environmental Protection Agency to report back to the Legislature and the governor by Jan. 1, 2006, with ways to achieve the targets. As part of that, the agency must study the feasibility of setting up a so-called state "cap and trade" system. Under such systems, the government would set a greenhouse gas emissions limit for each factory, power plant or other industrial facility in the state. Businesses below the limit could sell credits to other businesses exceeding the limit.
Such market-based systems, being set up in Europe as part of the Kyoto Protocol, have not been adopted into law by any state or the United States for greenhouse emissions. Several other states, mostly in New England, have set a general goal of reducing greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2025.
Two top global warming researchers, Stephen Schneider of Stanford University and Michael Hanemann of the University of California-Berkeley, said Wednesday that Schwarzenegger's 2010 target -- an 11 percent reduction compared with doing nothing between now and then -- could probably be reached simply by tightening existing state policies that promote energy efficiency. Those include modern building standards, a law requiring 20 percent of California's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2017, and a law requiring automakers to reduce greenhouse emissions from all new cars sold in California by 30 percent by 2016.
Further progress, however, will require a mandatory cap-and-trade program, they said, speaking at a briefing.
Hanemann said studies have shown already that Sierra snowpack is melting on average two weeks earlier now than a century ago. Faster melting means not as much water can be captured in reservoirs, which could lead to shortages in summer months during future droughts. Hotter weather also threatens agriculture, such as the state's wine grape industry, he said.
``The change is under way,'' said Hanemann, an economics professor and director of the California Climate Change Center at UC-Berkeley. ``The longer we delay, the more severe the effects going out into the future. There is no morning-after pill.''
Growing hotter
Most scientists believe global warming is occurring and caused in part by human activity. Since 1880, when measurements were first taken, the world's 10 hottest years have all been since 1990, according to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.
Around the world, glaciers are receding, wildlife migration patterns are changing, and scientific bodies from NASA to the World Meteorological Organization warn of increased droughts, coastal flooding, forest fires and tropical diseases in the decades ahead.
Last year, some of Silicon Valley's biggest businesses -- including Hewlett-Packard, Oracle and Calpine -- unveiled their own voluntary initiative to help cut Santa Clara County's greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2010.
Contact Paul Rogers at progers@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5045.
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