<\/div>\nThese can often seem like historic times: <\/span>economic dislocations, catastrophic weather events, spectacular bankruptcies. <\/span>The action taken Thursday, December 11th<\/sup> by the State Air Resources Board<\/a> fit right in: <\/span>CARB unanimously adopted the Climate Change Scoping Plan<\/font><\/a>, a document that creates a detailed and sweeping roadmap for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in this state.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The plan’s overall goal, for now, is to reduce the state’s emission levels to those of 1990 by 2020. <\/span>Longer term, regulators would like to see emissions reduced a further 20% from 1990 levels by 2050. <\/span>The current goal represents about a 30% reduction from “business as usual” levels expected in 2020 and about a 15% reduction from today’s levels.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n It’s hard to name business sectors and human activities that won’t be affected by this plan. <\/span>The largest chunk of emission reductions is supposed to come from a GHG emissions trading market that will include 85% of statewide emissions from large industrial sources such as power generation, refining, and manufacturing. <\/span>(California’s trading market will link with ones to be set up in six other Western states and four Canadian provinces under the Western Climate Initiative.) <\/span>Improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings and appliances are expected to produce another large portion of the reductions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The single largest producer of GHG in the state, transportation, will be expected to achieve emissions reductions through a combination of measures, including improving vehicle fuel efficiency, strategies to reduce driving, and a gradual transition away from carbon-based types of transportation energy. <\/span>The state’s utilities will be asked to boost the percentage of power that comes from renewable sources, considerably beyond the mandates already in state law. <\/span>So that electric car you’ll be plugging in a few years from now might not be depending on very much carbon at all to get its juice. <\/span>And numerous smaller sources of GHG emissions will also be expected to do their part to reduce.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n What good will these efforts do? <\/span>According to the Los Angeles Times, California’s GHG emissions amount to a mere 1.5% of the global total. <\/span>(Small, yes, but actually pretty impressive for just one state!) <\/span>Greenhouse gases shouldn’t be confused with local air pollutants: <\/span>their impacts stem from the way they trap heat near the earth’s surface once they rise into the upper atmosphere. <\/span>So a ton of GHG emitted in Europe or Asia has the same effect as one emitted in California. <\/span>And there’s no question that developing nations, following a technological path paved by the West, have been increasing their GHG emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n In acting on a small portion of the global problem, California regulators hope to set an example for neighboring states and to create a model for a national program. <\/span>President-Elect Obama has expressed his intent to move forward with greenhouse-gas regulation once he takes office, and our state law contains most if not all the elements that would make up a national effort. <\/span>Other regions of the U.S. are also developing their own trading markets.<\/span><\/p>\n