The California Air Resources Board (CARB) made progress on two fronts this week which will clean up California's ports, and allow the state to move forward on its unprecedented Global Warming Solutions Act, AB 32, the nation's first law requiring reductions of greenhouse gases.

"In our final meeting of the year, we really took on some of the biggest issues in air pollution that California has dealt with in years," said Chairwoman Mary Nichols in the LA Times.

"You can only Manage what you Measure."
AB32 requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020. But determining what those emissions were has been a monumental effort, and dozens of economists, engineers, industry analysts, and state and federal officials have spent the last year looking at every aspect of the economy and making thousands of calculations, according to the LA Times:

The result? By unanimous vote, the board on Thursday agreed that 427 million metric tons of greenhouse gas were released over California in 1990. Chairwoman Mary Nichols said, "This was the crucial first step: Now California can lead the nation in the effort to slash greenhouse gases."

And the Board began doing exactly that by enacting the nation's first regulations requiring hundreds of large industrial plants to report their greenhouse gas emissions. "The 800 sources, covering 94% of the state's emissions, include electric generators and marketers, oil refineries and cement plants -- any industrial outlet that emits more than 25,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide and other gases each year," says the Times.

The Board also adopted an initiative to help cities and counties measure and reduce their local emissions. "You can only manage what you measure," said Devra Wang of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Speaking to the Times, she said, "These regulations are just a start." Though over a hundred cities in California have pledged to reduce greenhouse gases, without measuring current and previous emissions, there hasn't been a clear way to do so.

With the world looking to the US for action, and the Bush administration alternately fighting and stalling attempts at regulation, California's efforts are leading the way forward. Thus the Air Board's quiet vote on Thursday could well prove to be a important milestone in the fight against global warming.


Cleaning Up the Ports
The positive ripple effect of environmental regulations was also seen this week when the LA Harbor Commission's plan to reduce diesel emissions from trucks and idling ships was expanded by the Air Resources Board. The new measures, the first of their kind in the nation, will now be expanded to cover the rest of the ports in the state, and other states are expected to follow suit.

"Our goal is to green and grow the port at the same time," said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the port, "We've implemented a landmark Clean Air Action Plan with the Port of Long Beach to reduce air pollution by more than 45% over the next five years. This is the only port complex in the world with this kind of commitment and plan in place to reduce the air-emissions impact of operations."

But they will soon be joined by ports in San Diego, Oakland, and San Francisco. In addition to requiring all trucks to meet 2007 emissions standards within the next seven years, the new regulations require, "container, passenger and refrigerated vessels to reduce emissions while in port by either plugging into shore-side power grids or using alternative energy sources or fuels, such as liquefied natural gas, to run their lights, refrigeration, pumps and ventilation systems," says the LA Times.

"These port rules have been talked about, or hoped for, for many years," said Nichols. Expanding the Los Angeles plan to include all ports will prevent companies from simply moving their dirty trucks elsewhere, according to Art Wong, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.

Diesel emissions have been linked to increased risk of lung cancer, asthma and other respiratory illnesses, and experts estimate the regulations will prevent over 1,000 premature deaths in the next decade. But they will be a difficult for truckers, many of whom are independent contractors making $30,000 to $40,000 a year, and can't afford new trucks. Trucking and shipping companies also warned of increased costs to customers, and shipping delays as a result of the new regulations.

There will certainly be challenges involved in funding and adjusting to the new measures; and they will require creative solutions by industry, legislators, and port authorities. But anybody who has seen the smoggy haze over the LA basin knows that air quality is worth fighting for.



Image courtesy of Gulf Daily News