Let the carbon capping begin

California passes cap-and-trade bill 6

And let it begin with California.

California will become the first state in the country to require industries to lower greenhouse gas emissions under a deal struck Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats that could dramatically reshape the state's economy ...

By 2020, when industries would have to lower carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 25 percent, solar panels, alternative fuels, and electric cars could be commonplace, according to advocates of the legislation ...

The legislation will require all businesses, from automakers to cement manufacturers, to reduce emissions beginning as early as 2012 to meet the 2020 cap. The state's 11-member Air Resources Board, which is appointed by the governor, will be charged with developing targets for each industry and for seeing that those targets are met. The board now will embark on a years-long process to fully develop regulations. The board could impose fees on some industries to pay for new programs that could do everything from requiring truckers to use biodiesel fuels to forcing farmers to handle animal waste differently.

The board is likely to set up a trading system that will allow companies to buy and sell emission credits, which would allow a company that made more emission reductions than required to sell credits to another business that hasn't reached its emission goal.

Progress. Once again, state leadership is stepping into the vacuum left by the feds' suicidally blasé approach to global warming.

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  1. LegumeSam Posted 2:47 am
    31 Aug 2006

    this won't work, eitherEven nations which enforce the Kyoto Protocol can't seem to keep their capitalist businesses from their desire to burn every last drop of Earth's cheap oil.  

    http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/

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  2. sunflower's avatar

    sunflower Posted 3:39 am
    31 Aug 2006

    California SucceedsThis bill is not about the extinction of oil, its about the extinction of human civilization.  Its slows the extinction of oil and hopefully will block the expansion of coal.  It is about humanity.
    California (and NYC) have been leaders of North American culture, and industry.  This will give California a huge economic advantage when U.S. carbon caps become federal law.

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  3. miles44 Posted 4:33 am
    31 Aug 2006

    good timing!This news comes in especially stark contrast to the Bush administration's foot-dragging on wind power ...

    http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0824-11.htm

    http://thegreenmiles.blogspot.com

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  4. Bikechess's avatar

    Bikechess Posted 5:31 am
    31 Aug 2006

    It will be interesting to see this in actionThe big question to me is enforcement.  And this comes down to fees.  How much will businesses be charged if they don't meet their targets?  Will be it be framed in terms of dollars per ton of CO2 or a flat fee?

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  5. Tod Posted 7:30 am
    31 Aug 2006

    It's bullshitNo bill coming out of an agreement between Dems and Republicans is going to have any real teeth. Neither party is committed to doing anything real about climate change, at least not in a timely fashion. More smoke to ensure that Arnold gets a realistic shot at holding his office and that Democrats are seen as "tough on polluters."
    If you believe this is a big step, you likely believe that MoveOn has anything to do with moving the Democrats to the left.

    "Because the world doesn't matter if you don't have the strength to go ahead and choose something that's really true." - Julio Cortazar, Hopscotch

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  6. LegumeSam Posted 11:04 am
    31 Aug 2006

    It all boils down, once again, to...Jevons' Paradox...
    (especially the part where Foster argues:Insofar as Jevons' paradox continues to apply to us today--that is, insofar as technology by itself (given the present framework of production) offers no way out of our environmental dilemmas, which generally increase with the scale of the economy--we must either adopt Jevons' conclusion or pursue an alternative that Jevons never discussed and which doubtless never entered his mind: the transformation of the social relations of production in the direction of socialism, a society governed not by the search for profit but by peoples' genuine needs, and the requirements of socio-ecological sustainability.)

    http://ecosocialism.blogspot.com/

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