A new bill, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which limits the state’s global warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, cleared a major milestone recently and is expected to pass in both houses of the California Legislature. This is the toughest legislation of its kind in the U.S.
Besides reducing emissions overall, Assembly Bill 32 would also institute a mandatory emissions reporting system to monitor compliance, as well as allowing for market mechanisms to provide incentives to businesses to reduce emissions while safeguarding local communities.
Today, California sends $30 billion out of state every year to buy fossil fuels. If passed and signed into law, the bill would protect the state's economy by making it more efficient and less dependent on fossil fuels.
A new University of California, Berkeley, study released on August 16, found that returning California’s global warming emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, as envisioned by AB 32, can boost the annual Gross State Product (GSP) by $74 billion and create 89,000 new jobs by 2020.
“There are increasingly visible impacts of global warming in California,” said Rafael Aguilera of Environmental Defense. “The threat of more wildfires, heat waves, and damage to our water supply is now well documented. We can’t delay on passage of AB 32. It is the right bill at the right time.”
