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In January,
Environment California issued a statement in support of Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s joint letter with New York Gov. George E. Pataki
in opposition to rollbacks of the federal Clean Air Act. These rollbacks
by the Bush administration would prevent states from setting clean
air standards stronger than the federal government. Such a weakening
of the Clean Air Act would jeopardize California’s first-in-the-nation
efforts to restrict global warming pollution from cars. In September
2004, California adopted regulations to curb this pollution, thanks
in part to more than 100,000 public comments in support of the restrictions.
On January 26th,
Environment California Research & Policy Center released the report
“Pollution on the Rise: Local Trends in Power Plant Pollution,”
that examined Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on power
plant emissions in California and across the United States. The
report found that while California’s adoption of the nation’s first
restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions was a major step forward
in curbing global warming pollution, power plants continue to pose
a major threat to the state’s ability to make further progress.
According to the report, carbon dioxide emissions in California
increased 42 percent between 1995 and 2003. The report concluded
that to extend progress made in restricting global warming emissions
from cars to the industrial sector, mandatory limits on carbon dioxide
are necessary.
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