What's New
On December 11, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) officially adopted a plan for achieving California’s global warming goals per AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. The so-called Scoping Plan unanimously approved by the Board is the nation’s first comprehensive plan to reduce global warming pollution on an economy-wide basis. The plan charts a course toward a future in which California gets more of its energy from renewable resources, uses energy more efficiently, and ultimately requires polluters to pay for the right to pollute the air.
Read Environment California's news release, and then hear our staff talk about the issue on NPR's "The California Report":
Resources
Global Warming Solutions Fact Sheet: A one-page overview on why polluters should have to pay for their carbon permits in a cap and trade system.
Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter: Our report that makes the case for auctioning permits in a global warming cap and trade program
Polluter Profit Fact Sheet: You can also read a fact sheet showing the outrageous profits of the biggest oil companies in California that are trying to get the Schwarzenegger administration to repeat the mistakes of the European Union which gave away billions of dollar in permits to polluters for free.
Summary
The scientific consensus is in and public awareness is on the rise—it’s time to tackle global warming head on. From dangerous heat waves and shrinking snowpack, to intense winter storms and increased summer smog, California will suffer irreversible consequences unless we reduce the amount of global warming pollution we emit.
The simple truth is that solving global warming means kicking our dependence on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, the combustion of fossil fuels—oil, gas and coal—accounts for 88 percent of California’s global warming pollution. Furthermore, California is the 12th largest source of global warming pollution in the world.
With global warming threatening our future, energy prices surging, and war raging in the Middle East, we need to change course now and move beyond fossil fuels.
Investing in solutions to global warming
It’s time for California to make a large, long-term investment in clean energy technologies that will solve global warming. Solar power, high-speed trains, zero-energy homes—these are the technologies that will drive our transition to a clean energy economy and ultimately solve the climate crisis.
Environment California is working to get the Schwarzenegger Administration to create a $1+ billion-a-year Global Warming Solutions Fund to invest in solar, wind, energy efficiency and other technologies that will put California on a path to reducing global warming emissions by 25 percent by 2020.
Make Polluters Pay
As California leads the way on global warming, a big challenge is to decide how to pay for investments to replace our biggest sources of pollution. Environment California is supporting a plan to fund clean energy by making polluters pay for every ton of global warming pollution they emit, while continuing to push forward with strong policies to require increased production of clean, renewable electricity and energy efficiency.
As the Schwarzenegger Administration considers a “cap-and-trade” program to cut global warming pollution, Environment California is working to ensure that polluters pay for 100% of their emissions.
Making polluters pay is the cleanest, cheapest and smartest way to cut global warming pollution. After decades of government subsidies to fossil fuel industries, it’s time to level the playing field and reward clean technology.
Environment California supports using revenue from polluters to:
- Invest in clean energy research and development and the deployment of clean energy solutions such as public transportation, energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies.
- Reduce costs for consumers with investments in energy efficiency and annual rebates.
- Support development of “green collar” jobs through training and outreach programs.
- Support pollution reductions in California’s most polluted communities.
