Environment California delivered over 2,500 public comments
to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) today as the state held a workshop
to discuss measures it will implement to begin reducing global warming
pollution pursuant to last year’s landmark law – AB 32.
“Concerned citizens want to see real reductions in global
warming pollution as soon as possible because they know that we have to act
quickly to solve this problem,” said Environment California Global Warming
Advocate Jason Barbose. “The science
says it will be harder and more expensive to solve global warming the longer we
wait.”
Last year, California
adopted the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32, Núñez/Pavley),
which commits the state to an economy-wide reduction in greenhouse gas
emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The
law assigns primary responsibility for meeting the statewide cap to CARB.
By June 30th, the state must establish a list of
“early-action measures” that can be implemented before the state designs and
adopts a comprehensive plan to ensure the 2020 emissions reduction target is
met. Today’s workshop was held to update
the public and stakeholders on the early-action measures the state is considering
and to provide an opportunity for public comments. CARB and the Climate Action Team each
released draft early-action proposals last week.
“Early-action is the state’s first deadline in implementing
AB 32. The state’s draft proposal is a
step in the right direction. It’s great
to see that they are including other state agencies and are looking at
early-action through a wide lens,” said Barbose. “They should continue to add to their proposal
because when it comes to solving global warming we need to be moving full steam
ahead.”
