San Diego to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emmissions

Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32, 2006) calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. Since cars and light-duty trucks represent 46% of total greenhouse gas emissions, all we have to do is tell the automakers what emissions goals they need to reach, and that should solve the problem, right? Well, no. There’s a much better solution.
If we continue to assume that people will keep driving cars, and that the population is expected to increase, the carmakers alone are not going to be able to solve the problem.

What about changing the existing assumptions? What if people didn’t have to drive as far? What if they more of them took public transportation? Could a new approach like this, combined with more traditional efforts, reduce ghg’s even in the face of a population increase?

Enter Senate Bill 375 (SB 375, 2008), which requires a reduction of ghg’s to 1990 levels from new land development or redevelopment projects. Additionally, it calls for a technical advisory committee which will make recommendations to the California Air Resource Board (CARB) detailing how we are to reach the mandated goal.

So where does this committee come from? Who has the knowledge to make such a comprehensive ten-year plan? Twenty-one people have volunteered their time to make this happen. For the most part, they fall into two groups: organizations whose goal is to reduce emissions and organizations who want their cities and counties to thrive. While these goals may seem to be at odds, the job of the Regional Targets Advisory Committee (RTAC) is to make a plan to do both at the same time.

Who is representing our community’s varying interests? Ten committee members are involved in local government and city planning, five are involved in public transportation, five are from organizations that support environmental issues, and one from a California new home builder. They come from all of the major metropolitan areas as well as universities and state-wide organizations.
The RTAC report to the California Air Resources Board is due at the end of September. In the next two months, they will put together recommendations of actions and measurements that will enable each region to meet the required goals, taking into consideration the capabilities of each entity and current and projected economic factors. No small feat.

When they’re done, they’ll have accomplished something that could not have been done without a huge long-term commitment from a wide variety of organizations. Only an effort like this has the potential to significantly impact the amount of greenhouse gas emissions in California.

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