Posts Tagged: Air Resources Board

Opinion

California’s cap-and-trade program fails to hold polluters accountable

Industrial polluters, image by TR STOK

OPINION – It has long been an open secret that Cap-and-Trade, California’s so-called “landmark climate policy,” is failing to drive significant pollution reductions more than a decade after it was launched. Under the current framework, industrial polluters in our state have grown accustomed to getting special treatment and emissions in some sectors are up.

Podcast

ROADMAP 2035: The Impact on California’s Legacy Industries

ROADMAP 2035, Panel 3 – The Future vs. The Past: The Impact on California’s Legacy Industries. Panelists: Christopher Benjamin, Pacific Gas & Electric; Jon Costantino, Tradesman Advisors; Mark Nechodom, Western States Petroleum Association; Laura Renger, California Electric Transportation Coalition. Moderated by Brian Joseph of Capitol Weekly. Photo by Scott Duncan, Capitol Weekly

CAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s conference examining California’s climate goals: ROADMAP 2035: Cars, Carbon and Climate Change – How Do We Meet California’s Zero Emissions Goals? which was held in Sacramento at the California Endowment Conference Center on Thursday, May 25, 2023. This is Panel 3 – The Future vs. The Past: The Impact on California’s Legacy Industries.

News

From diesel big rigs to electricity: The costly transition begins

A pair of all-electric big-rig trucks, built by Tesla, are ready for the road. (Photo: Steve Jurvetson, via Wikipedia)

Never mind there are few on the market, or that keeping them moving requires a nonexistent network of chargers, California wants truckers to hurry up and replace diesel big rigs with versions that run on batteries or hydrogen. Regulations to achieve the transitions are not yet complete. The California Air Resources Board is gathering public opinion on the latest iteration and a subsequent draft is anticipated in the spring.

News

Amid pandemic, air quality remains critical environmental challenge

A nearly empty freeway interchange near downtown Los Angeles, photographed in April 2020. (Photo: Time Media)

In 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, California’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped by almost 9%, and the state’s smoggy skies briefly cleared. This was particularly true during the pandemic’s first months, when schools closed, offices went remote, and statewide shelter-in-place orders kept millions of Californians at home. That spring, clogged freeways went vacant. Fewer semis rattled down roads.

Opinion

For job growth, boost hydrogen infrastructure

A bus at UC Irvine powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. (Photo: Rhonda Roth

OPINION: As it helps draft a strategy for recovery, the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery should look to the role that hydrogen and fuel cell vehicles can play in achieving all that, just as other governments around the world are doing.

News

Note to industry: Electric trucks save lives

An electric big-rig tractor-trailer truck. (Photo: Union of Concerned Scientists)

OPINION: Polluters never miss an opportunity to exploit a crisis for financial gain — and the coronavirus crisis is no exception. As millions of Americans hunker down in their homes, sacrificing their incomes to save lives, truck manufacturers are endangering people in my community by lobbying for delays to the nation’s first electric truck standard, which would slash toxic air pollution from trucks.

Opinion

Air quality regulators must protect vulnerable communities

Unhealthy smoke covering San Jose in 2018, the result of wildfires. (Photo: 1000Photography, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The impact of California’s wildfires have left residents across the state with unhealthy air that residents in the Central and Inland Valley breathe throughout the year. The American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report shows that 11 California cities rank within the highest ozone levels or worst particulate contamination in the nation.

Opinion

How did the air fare in cap-and-trade?

Air pollution over Suisun Bay as seen from Briones Regional Park, Contra Costa County. (Photo: Sundry Photography, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The bills (AB 398 and AB 617) that Gov. Jerry Brown signed on July 25 and 26 represent the culmination of years of debate in the Capitol over global warming and air quality. Now that those bills have become law, what have we learned?

News

Cap-and-trade deal heading for showdown

A California power plant at dusk. (Photo David Crockett)

A hotly disputed agreement to extend California’s cap-and-trade program to 2030 reflects the power shift under way in the Legislature in which moderate, business-friendly Democrats are increasingly flexing their political muscle. It also shows the lobbying clout of the petroleum industry and divisions within the environmental community.

Opinion

The attack of the super-pollutants

A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)

OPINION: As Hollywood brings a new crop of super-hero movies to our theaters, state policymakers are considering action against a group of particularly nefarious villains known as “super-pollutants.” These contaminants, including black carbon and methane, are both rapidly warming our planet and also damaging human health.

Support for Capitol Weekly is Provided by: