Last week I had the opportunity to travel to a conference on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Regulations. I learned a lot, and I will share some of the more interesting tidbits here over several posts. For starters, I will not waste your time laying out too much of the background science, arguing about whether or not GHG's are accumulating in the atmosphere, or whether this is having an effect on the planet. They are, it is. Concentrations of CO2 have reached 400 ppm, the highest level in hundreds of thousands of years. Even if humans stop emitting all CO2 today, we have already made significant, long lasting changes in our atmosphere, in the Earth's natural cycles. The planet has warmed, it will warm further, and the consequences of this are far-reaching. Comment if you like to argue these points if need be, but this isn't about what you might choose to believe--it is about science, facts.
I'm going to assume that if you are reading this you're already know at least a little about this topic, so I may skip over some of the most basic elements. This piece is an overall introduction, and I'll also write several more specific posts. California has some of the most progressive laws in the country regulating GHGs. AB32 (CA Global Warming Solutions Act, 2006) and SB375 (Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, 2008) are the two primary laws in CA that address the issues. The brief summary is that these laws are designed to reduce GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and they do so by targeting many of the different sources of GHG emissions.
In California, the vast majority of GHGs are generated by 3 primary sources: the transportation sector (primarily cars & trucks), industry, and the electrical generation. Further, although there are several different GHGs, the primary concern centers on CO2 emissions, as they account for most of the GHGs. By regulating these three areas, California can do a lot of curb CO2 emissions.
California has therefore created a "cap and trade" system that limits the amount of CO2 various industries, electrical generators, etc. can emit per year. The goal is first to "cap" the total amount of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. Then, set a dollar value as to what a ton of CO2 is worth to an emitter. Emitting CO2 is tied to economic activity--the production of electricity, goods, services. Therefore, anyone electing to emit CO2 can price this into their economic model. By allowing would-be emitters to buy/trade these CO2 credits on an open market, cleaner/more efficient companies can elect to sell their credits to another company that is struggling to comply with the restrictions.
These restrictions get progressively tighter with time, forcing companies to adopt new cleaner technologies, pay more for the right to pollute, or ultimately go out of business if they cannot adapt. You can imagine that a power utility would turn away from coal, or even natural gas, in favor of cleaner sources of energy such as wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, etc. Cities can contribute as well, by redesigning streets to improve traffic flow, building more public transit, siting goods and services in retail hubs that may be walking distance from high density housing or public transportation, etc.
In the next few days I'll go deeper into the laws California has put in place to try and mitigate this harm as much as it can. Of course California is only one state, and California cannot solve this problem on its own. However California can help lead the nation, the world, in solving this problem.
