The Golden State is finding new ways to shine. Last week, California regulators banned the three largest utility companies from buying “dirty” power, potentially boosting Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plans for curbing the state’s impact on global warming.
Under the new rule, privately owned utilities cannot renew or enter into long-term contracts with highly polluting coal-burning power plants. While California has very few of these dirty plants, about 20 per cent of the state’s power comes from coal-burning sources in other areas of the western US.
“At the moment 20 per cent of the state’s power comes from coal-burning elsewhere”
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“It’s the leakage effect,” says Terry Tamminen, a policy advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger and former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. “We can set strict emissions caps in California, but if we are the reason greenhouse gases are emitted elsewhere, then we haven’t achieved savings.”
The regulations come in the wake of two bills signed by the governor last September, calling for drastic reductions in the state’s overall emissions. But while power generation is a significant source of CO2, it pales in comparison with the transportation sector, which produces half the state’s output of greenhouse gases. California hopes to tackle that by forcing car manufacturers to cut emissions in all new models from 2009. “The answer to solving climate change is going to be many little actions which collectively make a difference,” says Tamminen.
