 Regional, State, Local Climate Actions
California leads the way in climate-change rules, San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 2009. Californians find the federal climate and energy legislation passed by the House looks very familiar, since the state pioneered many of its provisions.
Gregoire orders state agencies to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, Seattle Times, May 22, 2009 and Washington governor orders cutbacks in emissions, Los Angeles Times, May 19, 2009. Governor Chris Gregoire sidesteps the state legislature's refusal to adopt a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases by signing an executive order to achieve similar reductions mainly by ratcheting back coal-fired electricity and automobile emissions. The order also calls for development of an even wider-ranging set of emission reduction strategies to achieve across-the-board greenhouse gas targets by 2020,
Washington creates sustainable energy trust fund and Governor Richardson signs renewable energy and green jobs bills, Department of Energy news releases, April 24 and April 13, 2009. Washington and New Mexico join the growing number of states who are enabling bonding programs to finance domestic clean energy improvement loans repaid through special property tax assessments.
Carbon tax proposal heats up, Portland Business Journal, March 27, 2009. Oregon legislators are drafting legislation that would require the state to meet a certain reduction in heat-trapping gas emissions and that would put the state on a trajectory to choose between a cap-and-trade system, a permanent carbon tax, or a cap-and-offset system to accomplish that requirement.
Arizona Governor Brewer OK with climate group, Arizona Republic, March 6, 2009. The new governor, who replaced former Governor Janet Napolitano when she became the Secretary of Homeland Defense, decides that the state will remain a member of the Western Climate Initiative, but may not entirely support the initiative’s regional cap-and-trade system currently under development.
Kulongoski presses ahead with green plan despite economic woes, AP, January 31, 2009. Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski pushes for legislative action on a package of 13 bills, including authorization to develop a state plan to participate in a cap-and-trade program amid many other actions to take on climate change.
Montana climate task-force advice languishes, Associated Press, January 26, 2009. Montana’s Climate Change Advisory Commission gave lawmakers 54 recommendations back in 2007, but only nine bills of relatively modest scope are brought forward by a legislative study council whose members could not agree on whether humans contribute to climate change.
Bad economy leads to slimmer climate change plan in Washington State, Climate Biz, December 30, 2008. Governor Gregoire’s budget proposal scales back on plans to implement a state task force’s recommendations.
California OKs tough plan to counter global warming, San Francisco Chronicle, December 12, 2008. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) gives final approval to a Scoping Plan implementing the nation’s most far-reaching requirements for state climate action. To meet the mandates of Assembly Bill 32, the 2006 state law requiring reduction of heat-trapping gases to 1990 levels by 2020 (about a 30 percent reduction), the plan’s main features include clean-car standards, a cap-and-trade program, a standard for electric utilities to produce 33 percent of their energy from renewable sources, increased building-efficiency standards, incentives to build housing near transit hubs, landfill methane control, and advanced recycling.
Western states pitch plan to reduce greenhouse emissions, Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2008. The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) releases its design recommendations for a cap and trade program among seven U.S. states and four Canadian provinces (covering about 20% of the U.S. economy and more than 70% of the Canadian economy). Slated to take effect in 2012, the program takes an economy-wide approach, covering all major greenhouse gas emission sources. Still to be established for each state or province are the actual quantified emission caps that will be ratcheted down over time and the allocations among industries for fixed numbers of permits to pollute under the cap. The design recommendations establish the framework for selling and trading the permits and for options to purchase offsets.
Official: Emissions plan less costly than critics suggest, Cronkite News Service, October 3, 2008. Reacting to speculation that the program will impose sharply higher costs on consumers, Steve Owens, a WCI co-chair and also head of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, says “I really do believe that . . . once this program is implemented, you're not going to see significant price increases. . . [T]he utilities and consumers and others are going to find much more cost-effective and cheaper ways to comply with this program.
California warms to greenhouse gas emissions plan, Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2008. The state Air Resources Board releases its economic analysis of the state's draft scoping plan to meet its legislatively required reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (a 30% reduction). The analysis shows that the plan’s clean energy and efficiency programs would boost the state's expected $2.6 trillion gross product by $4 billion, create 100,000 additional jobs, and increase per capita income by $200. Highly recommended!
The City of Boulder, Colorado, is in partnership with Xcel Energy to make it the first U.S. smart grid city. The home of the University of Colorado’s chancellor becomes the first to be equipped with the smart grid technology. Xcel debuts first ‘smart’ home in Boulder, Boulder Daily Camera, August 27, 2008.
Boulder County, Colorado, puts a referendum on the November ballot to help homeowners finance renewable energy installations through a $40 million bond to finance a loan program. Homeowners would then gradually pay for the installations through increases in their property taxes, to be passed on to the new homeowner if the home is sold. Loans for renewable energy to make fall ballot, Boulder Daily Camera, August 6, 2008. |
