California’s state, regional and local governments spend roughly $28 billion each year on transportation infrastructure. But the majority of the funding goes to highways and other auto-oriented infrastructure, despite state laws requiring greenhouse gas reduction, promoting more compact real estate development, and encouraging more multimodal transportation options, such as walking and biking to reduce vehicle miles traveled.
California will need a strong and robust clean technology industry to develop the product and services needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But the growth of many clean technology companies is hindered by their lack of access to utility energy information, as well as customers' inability to access their usage statistics easily and comprehensively.
This report considers the potential effect of Proposition 26, which appears on the November 2, 2010 California ballot, on the state’s environmental and public health protections. With very little time remaining before the election, controversy rages over whether the passage of Proposition 26 would make it harder for the state to fund environmental protection programs and other public benefit programs.
On Oct. 21, 2010 at Korn Convocation Hall the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, KPCC Southern California Radio and the LA Times presented a public debate on Prop. 23, which would suspend AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act that requires reduced greenhouse gas emissions, until California's unemployment rate drops to 5.5% or below for four consecutive quarters.
This brochure presents background information on Proposition 23 and California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).
Sustainable development refers to resource-efficient land use where residents live within walking distance of key services and mass transit and where neighborhoods contain a compact mix of uses, such as housing, office, and retail. Residents in sustainable developments do not have to drive a car to get to jobs and run errands, and the compact footprint of these neighborhoods lessens development pressure on open space and farmland.
Sunshine and wind, even in California, are intermittent resources, while the state’s energy needs run twenty-fours hours of every day. As California seeks to expand solar and wind power, storage of that energy for use at any time, day or night, becomes critical. Energy storage performs key functions: it can even out the supply of electricity, ensure the stability and quality of electricity, and also help decrease reliance on power plants called “peakers” – often the dirtiest and most expensive – that exist solely to meet peak energy demand during the hottest hours of the hottest days.
Executive Summary
For the last several years, California has considered the idea of recognizing, within its green-house gas cap-and-trade program, offsets generated by foreign states and provinces through reduced tropical forest destruction and degradation and related conservation and sustainability efforts, known as REDD+. During their deliberations on the issue, state policymakers have heard arguments from stakeholders in favor of crediting REDD+ offsets, and those against.
As climate change threatens the state’s economy, resources, and quality of life, retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient is one of the easiest and most cost-effective steps that citizens can take to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Energy use from residential and commercial buildings releases 22 percent of the state’s total greenhouse gas emissions, as well as conventional air pollution in the form of smog and particulate matter.
Few business sectors in California have more to lose from the impacts of climate change than agriculture. Changed growing seasons, increased drought and limits on water supply, flooding, record temperature changes, invasive species, and pest infestations all threaten the industry’s future. But farmers and ranchers control part of their destiny: the agricultural sector is a contributor to the greenhouse gases (GHG) that cause climate change and possesses unique opportunities to reduce overall GHG emissions.
In California’s effort to combat climate change, few other sectors present as many opportunities as renewable energy. Transitioning from fossil-fuel based energy to renewable sources will result in significant greenhouse gas reductions and more jobs and economic growth. But climate change and the state’s aggressive renewable energy requirements (mandating that renewable energy sources constitute 20 percent of electrical power for the state by 2010 and 33 percent by 2020) require immediate action.