January 8, 2008
UNIT 5: EcologyStates Enact Regulations to Cut Greenhouse Emissions
The call to cut greenhouse gas emissions has not fallen on deaf ears at the state level. Due to a lack of initiative on the part of the federal government, states are dealing with regulating greenhouse gas emissions on their own. States are enacting laws that require lower greenhouse gas emissions, and are entering into agreements with one another to track and fight against further emissions.
California set the pace on greenhouse gas regulation back in 2002, when Governor Gray Davis signed a law curbing emissions from cars and trucks by 30% by 2016. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has since signed laws that limit industrial emissions and set up both an industrial emissions registry and a regional emissions cap-and-trade system.
Other states have followed suit. Fifteen other states, including Washington, Oregon, and almost all of the Northeast, have implemented California’s auto emissions standards. Thirty-one states have joined the voluntary Climate Registry to help measure emissions from industries and other sources in their states. Seventeen states have orders or laws that mandate a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Twenty-three states have minimum renewable energy standards that require power companies to produce electricity using renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power. In fact, Iowa has set, in the words of Governor Chet Culver, the “ambitious, yet attainable” goal of achieving energy independence from foreign sources of energy by the year 2025.
California has hit a snag with its tail-pipe emissions law. In December, 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency did not approve a Clean Air act waiver that would allow California to set stricter auto emission regulations; California and the fifteen other states that enacted similar laws have filed suit against the EPA to appeal its decision. Until the appeal is settled, the stricter auto emission standards won’t apply to the auto industry. In spite of that set-back, individual states are moving forward with local and regional standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions and curb their impact on our climate.