California and the Green Movement

I look forward to reading the latest issue of the Common Ground magazine, and this month's issue has a nice article about California. Combined with the recent article from the NRDC's magazine, the Golden State's initiatives may start influencing legislation in other parts of the U.S.

... In 2004, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) approved the nation’s first set of auto-emissions standards aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, calling for a 25 percent reduction by 2016. The legislature established an Ocean Protection Council to safeguard the coast from overfishing and other abuses, making California the first state to begin following the recommendations of two national ocean commissions — whose findings had been ignored by the White House. In 2005, CARB instituted new rules requiring ships to use cleaner fuel within 24 miles of shore, and Gov. Schwarzenegger signed legislation encouraging public agencies to retrofit their vehicles for biodiesel.

This year has already seen more milestones. Early in 2006, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved the largest solar energy initiative in the United States, providing $3.2 billion in consumer rebates — enough to help pay for 1 million home conversions. The Department of Toxic Substances Control banned households from tossing computers, VCRs, batteries and other electronic waste in landfills. CARB designated secondhand smoke as a “toxic air contaminant,” subject (in theory, at least) to the same restrictions as arsenic and benzene.

... California’s clout is not just legislative. “Being the sixth-largest economy in the world,” says Bernadette Del Chiaro, a clean-energy specialist for the nonprofit Environment California, “we can actually have an impact on the market.” The state’s emission standards have long entered into the calculations of automakers, who depend on California for 10 percent of their sales. Its incentives for hybrid owners, the most generous in the country, are helping to make that technology economically viable — fully one-third of all US hybrids sold in 2004 were bought in this state. California leads the nation in wind power, helping to make turbines the fastest-growing alternative energy source. The state is also No. 1 in gasoline consumption, with 30 million vehicles slurping up more than 40 million gallons a day; should we switch to hydrogen (as Gov. Schwarzenegger has decreed we should begin to do by 2010), OPEC might have to file for Chapter 11.

... A great deal remains to be done, of course. Last September, the Million Solar Roofs bill floundered amid partisan wrangling over non-union installers. But thanks to an outpouring of public support, on January 12, the governor oversaw the State Public Utility Commission’s approval of the $3.2-billion California Solar Initiative. The CSI will fund the installation of 3,000-MW of solar power — a 30-fold increase. Del Chiaro joined the band of jubilant environmentalists who trooped to Sacramento to praise the governor for keeping his campaign promise “that you would make our state a world leader in solar power.”