As the new home of OSPIRG's environmental work, Environment Oregon can be contacted regarding this news release.
PORTLAND—Wednesday
night, in the final days of California’s legislative session, Governor
Schwarzenegger and the State Legislature reached an agreement on
California’s historic global warming bill, The Global Warming Solutions
Act. Once passed, the bill will make California the first state in the
nation to fight global warming by capping carbon dioxide and other
emissions and mandating emission reductions from the state’s largest
stationary sources.
“We
congratulate our colleagues at Environment California and their allies
for their hard work on this issue,” said Jeremiah Baumann of OSPIRG.
“Given the absence of action on this issue in Washington D.C, it is
critical that the states take matters into their own hands. Oregon’s
leaders can follow California’s example and take action in the 2007
session.”
At
a press conference on Wednesday, California Assembly Speaker Fabian
Nunez and Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, announced that the bill would pass
the Legislature by the end of session. At the same time, Governor
Schwarzenegger issued a statement announcing that he would sign the
bill when it reaches his desk. A few hours later, the bill passed the
California State Senate by a vote of 23-14. It is scheduled for a final
vote today in the Assembly and is expected to pass.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 will:
• Set the nation’s first state-wide cap on global warming pollution
setting the target of lowering emissions 25% by 2020 (a return to 1990
emission levels);
• Establish a mandatory reporting program for all major sources of pollution at the California Air Resources Board (CARB);
• Require CARB to adopt regulations for large polluters that could
begin as early as 2009 and no later than 2012. The regulations may
include both command and control regulatory measures as well as a cap
and trade program; and
• Give CARB the authority to enforce the regulations and go beyond the minimum reduction goals.
Oregon’s
Governor Kulongoski has been a long-time champion of addressing global
warming, and was an initiator of the West Coast Governors’ Global
Warming Initiative. His own Global Warming Advisory Group recommended
that Oregon adopt the Clean Cars program to cut global warming
pollution from cars and trucks, which Oregon has done. Governor
Kulongoski also appointed an advisory group to develop a policy
requiring electric utilities to participate in a cap-and-trade program
for their global warming pollution. That group has been meeting for 8
months.
“As
we’ve seen time and again, the states are the real leaders when it
comes to ground-breaking environmental policy,” said Bernadette Del
Chiaro, Environment California’s lead advocate on the bill. “Now that
we have taken this historic step here in California, we are really
hoping leaders in other states will join us in solving global warming
one state at a time.”
