Tuesday, February 24, 2009
What the Fed Can Learn from California's Energy Policy
The chair of the Air Resources Board has some advice for the new administration.
By Katherine Bourzac
In 2006, the state of California passed landmark legislation
aimed at limiting green-house gas emissions. Under the Bush administration,
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected the state's request to regulate
vehicular emissions. Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced it
would reconsider this ruling--most likely in order to reverse it.
Mary D. Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, will
be responsible for implementing the state's climate change legislation. In a
speech at the Berkeley Energy and Resources
Collaborative annual Energy
Symposium yesterday, Nichols had some advice for a new presidential administration
with the will to act on climate change: follow California's lead on energy
efficiency because it's been an economic
boon for the state. Nichols mentioned a report by Next 10 that claims cutting
energy usage over the past 30 years has created 1.5 million jobs in California. (Still,
in a state characterized by suburban sprawl, carbon dioxide emissions are quite
high, at 11
tons per capita per year.)
Nichols said the federal government has three things to
learn from California's success in curbing emissions and increasing efficiency. First, emissions policies must support a mixed
bag of technologies and programs, from funding for public transportation to
implementing cap and trade of carbon dioxide.
Second, Nichols strongly
advocated that the fed let the states do much of the work. California and other
states have been doing well, and the government should keep encouraging this
while providing incentives to get other states going on clean-energy
initiatives. "The states want to retain the authority to step in if the federal
program doesn't work," she said.
Third, an important role for the federal
government, Nichols says, will be to provide a central repository for emissions
data. She points to the Clean Air Act as a successful state-federal
partnership. "It's not perfect, but it has worked effectively in a way that
engages local and state governments."
Comments
lasertekk
02/24/2009
Posts:77
kstauff
02/24/2009
Posts:89
lasertekk
02/24/2009
Posts:77
IF these standards really do improve the environment in a way that makes a difference to climate change, then eventually the world will have to catch up to California. This gives them a lead in a valuable technology that will reap long term gains.
BUT if not, then gains will only be short term until this is realized.
AND in the short term, some companies can simply move to other states to avoid compliance. If this becomes national, they can move to other countries. These short term consequences must be compared to the long term ones above, especially in a recession.
Politicians need to consider the depth and breadth of their policies. Failure to do so leads to . . . . real estate crashes, credit crunches, etc.
ergoprof
02/25/2009
Posts:2
To support the need for awareness, I searched a transcript of Mr. Obama address to add the number of times that he said the word reform on the “three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education.” The score was 0, 9 and 1, respectively. The reason for the zero score in energy is a BIG LIE that originated in the California electricity reform, as can be seen inside the EWPC article Shared Vision: Consumer Driven Electricity System Reform.
While the large number of green jobs created in the last 30 years could be correct, the costs to create those jobs have been a lot higher than necessary because of regulated programs inefficiencies. By including the cost effective consumer driven reform, while going “line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs,” the Obama administration should expect to identify another “trillion dollars in savings over the next decade,” as a result of the reform.
A lot of the saving will be in many of the energy efficiency programs in the budget itself without the suggested reform. To learn how to implement the reform, please consider also the EWPC article How to Increase the Leverage of Stimulus Bill to Global Green Energy.
javs
02/25/2009
Posts:89
The site shows working scale models of the propulsion system at work-
http://www.angelfire.com/clone2/projecthome2010
Josh
06/16/2009
Posts:1