An electric vehicle takes in juice at a charging station. (Photo: Tim Siegert-batcam, via Shutterstock)OPINION: In order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change we need to electrify our transportation system. According to the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) latest greenhouse gas inventory, transportation makes up over 41% of the state’s GHG pollution and cars make up a staggering 29%!
Longtime Clean Air activist Bill Magavern joins us to chat, and brings some welcome good news: with the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people out of their cars, many areas of California have seen a decrease in air pollution.
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.
A natural gas power plant near Ventura. (Photo: Richard Fitzer, via Shutterstock)OPINION: When California’s signature climate change program was nearing its expiration date, there was serious debate about whether to extend it. This program, called Cap-and-Trade, reduces carbon emissions but it also increases the costs of gas, electricity, and numerous other necessities. That’s a significant problem in a state known for high taxes, onerous regulations, and the worst small business climate in the country.
A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)OPINION: The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently released the latest quarterly allowance auction results for California’s cap-and-trade program. While demand rose compared to the previous auction in May, a majority of allowances still went unsold due to uncertainty over the program’s future past 2020 – suggesting policymakers should take action, not solace, from better August auction results.
A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)California is in the midst of multiple regulatory efforts to reduce methane emissions from natural gas and oil operations throughout the state. It’s a key opportunity to make a real dent in the state’s climate impact since methane, the primary component of natural gas, packs over 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released unburned.
California motorists in a traffic jam. (Photo: Shutterstock)Currently, fuel is about $4 per gallon and California burns about 14 billion gallons annually. Estimates of the magnitude of a potential hike vary widely, but most range from 15 to 20 cents per gallon, which would raise perhaps $2.1 billion to $2.8 billion annually. Efforts are under way in the Capitol, led by the petroleum industry, to exempt transportation fuels from the auctions until 2018.
With California continuing to face one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, citizen energy users were disappointed to read Susan Frank’s column in which she failed to offer any real solutions but focused almost exclusively on attacking California’s oil and gas industry.
Instead of demonizing people, why not have a more constructive
With time short before California rings the bell on its own carbon market, this is an appeal directly to our state’s regulatory leadership.
Stop.
Do what you said you would do if the evidence was clear that California’s “cap-and-trade” program is not ready to roll out later this month.
At minimum, slow