On June 26, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released its roadmap of regulations and market mechanisms necessary to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan is CARB’s first draft of the plan, to be voted on by its Board this November, to shave the state’s GHG emissions by 169 million metric tons over the next dozen years — a 30% cut from business as usual. The major new strategy in the plan is the creation of a carbon cap-and-trade program covering 85% of the state’s GHG emissions, to be developed in concert with the Western Climate Initiative. The plan also calls for raising, from 20% to 33%, the percentage of utilities’ generating capacity required to come renewable energy sources; expanding and strengthening the state’s world-leading appliance and building efficiency standards and energy efficiency programs; and fully implementing the California Clean Car law and the Low-Carbon Fuel Standard. The plan also foresees full deployment (3,000 MW) of the California Solar Initiative, development of a high-speed rail network, new water efficiency measures and regulations to reduce emissions from trucks and ships at California’s ports.

• Read CARB’s press release and the complete Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan, California Air Resources Board, June 26, 2008 (PDF, 690 KB)
• Audio: Listen to CARB Chairman Mary Nichols and UC Berkeley Professor Dan Kammen discuss the scoping plan on KQED’s “Forum” (6/27/08)
• Related: “CEC Adopts Recommendations to Reduce GHG Emissions” (e-Newswire, 4/02/08)
• Related: “Air Resources Board Releases List of Early Actions to Cut California’s GHG Emissions” (e-Newswire, 5/02/07)
• Energy efficiency resources for your home or business