John Boesel is the President and CEO of CALSTART, a non-profit organization that works to develop advanced transportation technologies. Karen Douglas is the legislative director for Environmental Defense, a national non-profit that co-sponsored of AB 32 and is working to find solutions to global warming. They write in California Progress Report that, “more than half of California’s global warming emissions come from the transportation sector when you include the emissions from drilling, pumping, transporting, and refining oil.”

So Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez introduced AB 118 to reduce transportation emissions. By increasing the cost of vehicle registration and smog checkups by a few dollars, the bill will generate more than $210 million dollars to put toward incentives to using lower carbon vehicles, and cleaner fuels; and to spur development of the next generation of clean vehicle technologies, energy storage systems, hybrids, fuel-cells, and alternative fuels like propane and natural gas.

Despite only one Republican vote, the bill was passed by the State Senate, and signed by the Governor in the last few hours of the legislative calendar before the midnight deadline on Sunday, Oct 14. Calling the bill “one of the most controversial bills of the year,” the Los Angeles Times on October 15th quoted a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman as saying, "AB 118 provides significant funding for air-quality improvements, and to further the goals of AB 32 and the low carbon fuel standard by investing in alternative fuels and technologies.” Critics, according to the Times, said the bill would charge motorists, and let big oil companies off the hook.

The bill would increase the annual smog abatement fee by up to $20, and the vehicle registration fee by $3. But even these minimal costs were enough to ensure that not a single Republican in the State Assembly, and only one in the Senate voted for the bill. But Schwarzenegger is siding with the Democrats on this one, though the Times reports that, “Even some Democratic lawmakers said a large share of the money could end up going to oil companies to fund pollution reduction measures already required by law, something the bill's proponents dispute.”

But if lawmakers, regulators, and innovative industries can do their job, AB 118 could be a significant step in the right direction, and  it could also lead the way for other government agencies to craft similar policies. One of the reasons California is respected as an innovative model is that the state has a record of using state-funded initiatives to spur cleaner technologies, and better environmental quality.

For example, note Douglas and Boesel, “the state’s investment in energy efficiency programs for the past 20 years has held the amount of electricity consumed per person to a constant level while it has increased steadily per person nationwide.” And the state has kept electricity levels down despite increased population, and a growing economy.

Bernadette Del Chiaro of Environment California , and a lead advocate of the successful Million Solar Roofs campaign, says the policies enacted in California become the ‘gold standard’ across the country, and have a ripple effect in the economy as well. “We (CA) have such a big market share, that we drive the market in a lot of ways, and politically too: it does make a difference when we step out and do something.”

She adds that government mandates play a key role in successful renewable energy policy. “Mandates are the only thing that have worked to put renewables on the ground.” Broad goals like those outlined in AB 32 are not enough without a road map and checkpoints along the way.  Del Chiaro calls AB 118 “a key stepping stone,” adding, “We have to get there to achieve our 2020 global warming goals.”

However successful the bill turns out to be in the fight against global warming, it will also improve California’s air quality, which in Southern California is among the nation’s worst. Speaker Nunez, the bill’s author, said in the Times that the governor's approval of the bill, "means we're closer to the day when fewer children will have to start their mornings by taking a hit from asthma inhalers."

But Ms. Del Chiaro says that despite excitement over the bills the Governor did sign, “The biggest story this year was what didn’t get passed. Next year will be much more exciting and politically active.”  

So what’s on the agenda for next year?

Cleaning up the Ports: The combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are responsible for 40% of all the shipping that comes into the country. The ports are the single largest source of air pollution in CA, and possibly the country. It’s like a giant smokestack, says Del Chiaro, with “ships from around the world burning diesel with no kind of emissions control like you’d have on any other smokestack or pollution source...We’ve been trying to get them to clean up for a long time, by assessing a fee on every ship that pulls in, to electrify the port to get off diesel." Spreading the blame around, she says, "The big companies who use the port killed it, and the governor wasn’t that helpful. But the Democrats - who control both houses - are the ones who didn’t get it passed.”

Zero-Emission Vehicle Program: Says Del Chiaro, “It was great, it’s what led to hybrids in the first place. But it needs to be scrapped and redrafted, or at least overhauled.” The mandate originally was that any car company who wanted to sell cars in California had to sell a certain percentage of zero emissions vehicles.  “But car companies said, ‘We’re stuck on the batteries, just give us a little more time,” so California relented, and the gun was taken off the manufacturers heads.” Instead, they developed Partially Zero Emissions Vehicles (PZEV), and Super Low Emissions Vehicles (SULEV), which were an improvement, but still skirted the original standard.  “There are tons of cars we can put on the road if we bring the engineers to the table, instead of the executives. We just need to put the policy drivers in place to get the vehicles out on the road.” That, says Del Chiaro, is the challenge for next year.

Bullet Train: Imagine a bullet train that would get you from LA to San Francisco in 2 and a half hours door to door, for around $50. Del Chiaro says the legislature is likely to put up a bond measure for the bullet train – and a big one. “It will be a lot of money - billions of dollars, for a train that runs from Sacramento to San Diego. It’s a great idea, but it won’t happen next year, we’re talking 2015 – 2020. But it’s pretty exciting.” She says, “People in California are into having cutting edge transportation, and everybody gets that we’ll have a mixture of public and private transportation.” If it takes less time than flying, and gets people out of their cars, it could be a very popular ride.

A survey issued by the Civil Society Institute last week shows that four out of five Americans want climate action now, and 88 percent agree with the idea that it is time to phase out fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable sources, including wind and solar, plus hybrid and clean diesel technology for cars.Three of four Americans also want tougher federal fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles.

Now it’s time for politicians to catch up.