Air board's plan would have state breathing free

last updated: June 30, 2008 04:18:59 AM

California is on fire, and it's only June. Smoke turned the sky orange last week, foreshadowing the kinds of extreme weather the West will encounter as the Earth's thermostat continues to rise. Officials called the 1,100 fires burning across the state "unprecedented."

Against this backdrop, the California Air Resources Board released a long-awaited plan Thursday to reduce emissions tied to global warming. It's an ambitious plan, with auspicious timing, and it surely is being watched by policy-makers around the world.

Known as the "scoping plan," this draft document lays out a set of regulations and market mechanisms the state will pursue in reducing its greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by 2020 -- roughly a 30 percent cut.

Over the next 12 years, the plan will change the vehicles Californians drive, the fuels they use, their sources of electricity and the buildings in which they work. Undoubtedly, it will raise energy costs, hurting businesses that can't adapt and helping those that can. The air board now will analyze the full economic impact, a needed step for fine-tuning the final product.

Though it is trendy in some circles to dismiss the state's climate crusade as a political gimmick, an honest examination shows otherwise. California is preparing to implement a 2003 law requiring automakers to reduce emissions from the vehicle fleets they sell. Both contenders for president have pledged to issue a waiver for this law. When they do, cars sold across the country will become cleaner and more fuel-efficient.

That's not political symbolism. That's leadership.

The scoping also plans to marry reductions in carbon dioxide to cuts in pollution such as soot and smog-forming chemicals. Those cuts will have direct benefits to human health.

More worthy of scrutiny is a proposed regional system of capping and trading emissions that California hopes to organize. To date, few states have passed laws binding them to cut emissions. Without such caps, it's hard to imagine how a regional market can work. Other aspects of the scoping plan also are dubious.

Except for the long-delayed high-speed rail system, the report is fairly nebulous on what role the state should play, if any, in encouraging mass transit and alternatives to the automobile. The Building Industry Association has lobbied against such an approach, and it appears the air board has decided to dance around this issue.

That's not leadership.

Still, the air board's blueprint is courageous. It sets high thresholds for use of renewable energies (33 percent by 2020) and commits the entire state government to being a better steward of its resources. It also mentions the possibility of a carbon tax -- an option that deserves serious consideration.

More than any other government in the world, California is creating a template for tackling global warming, learning from the mistakes of the European Union and putting pressure on Congress to pass a federal law.

The state can't go it alone, but Gov. Schwarzenegger deserves credit for pushing this cause forward. So does his air board, which includes Dorene D'Adamo of Turlock. But they can't do it alone. Our part is to set aside carping from cynics and help turn this plan into action.

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