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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law

California has led the charge in state climate action.[1] California legislation focusing specifically on climate change dates back to a 1988 law mandating an inventory of California greenhouse gas emissions. There have been a host of legislative initiatives since then designed to encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy while limiting carbon emissions.

California’s current suite of efforts began in 2006 when Governor Schwarzenegger signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act, usually referred to as Assembly Bill (AB) 32, which required California to reduce emissions to the 1990 level by 2020 (the law has since been updated to require a reduction to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030).[2] This law generated worldwide attention, including enthusiastic approval by the British Prime Minister at the time it was passed.[3] The California effort undoubtedly received additional attention because the Governor was an international celebrity and because it was such a stark contrast with the Bush Administration’s recalcitrance. But there were also more tangible international steps involving California, including an agreement between California and the United Kingdom to share best practices on market-based systems and to cooperate to investigate new technologies. California has also pursued discussion with government authorities in China.[4]

California has implemented AB 32 aggressively. The law itself is notably brief and gives the government enormous discretion about how to achieve its goals, though it does rule out a carbon tax. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) first developed nine “early action” measures, some of which focus on reducing emissions of non-carbon dioxide (CO2) greenhouse gases. One important early action was a low-carbon fuel standard, which requires a reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 10% by 2020. But CARB’s most notable action was to establish an emissions trading system, with a declining, statewide cap on greenhouse gas emission.[5] The cap-and-trade program originally covered about 600 electricity generation and industrial facilities, with other sources such as fuel distributors having been added to the program more recently.[6] Many allowances have been distributed free to firms, but an increasing percentage are auctioned each year. The auctions have already begun to generate significant amounts of revenue for the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation, energy and sustainability programs.[7] In 2017, the state extended the life of the trading system through 2030.[8]

California has adopted other important policies unrelated to AB 32 or emissions trading. In 2006, Governor Schwarzenegger also signed Senate Bill 107, requiring California’s three major utilities to deliver at least 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 (creating the state’s Renewables Portfolio Standard, or RPS). Then, in 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger directed CARB to adopt regulations increasing California’s RPS to 33% by 2020 and expand the RPS to apply not just to the three major utilities to include all power suppliers.[9] Governor Jerry Brown codified the 33% target in 2011, before the state set an even more aggressive goal in 2015 to require retail sellers and publicly owned utilities to procure 50% of their electricity from eligible renewables by 2030.[10]

A final, crucial component of California’s strategy stems from a quirk of federal pollution law. Under the Clean Air Act, states have broad latitude to go beyond federal law in controlling pollution from stationary sources like factories. But the federal government directly regulates vehicles and vehicle fuels, preempting state regulation on the subject. There is one exception to this preemption rule, however: California alone has the power to write its own regulations in this area by getting a federal preemption waiver.[11] When the Clean Air Act was passed, the California exemption was included partly due to the political power of the state’s congressional delegation and partly due to the fact that southern California would clearly require especially strict vehicle rules to address smog. A later amendment allowed other states to piggyback on California’s vehicle rules by adopting them without modification. Then-Assemblymember Fran Pavley’s 2002 legislation, Assembly Bill 1493, directed CARB to regulate carbon emissions from vehicles, and after some struggle California succeeded in getting a federal preemption waiver.[12] As a result, states that want to go beyond federal regulations in cutting carbon emissions from trucks and cars can copy the California standard. The state is now considering a new proposal, Assembly Bill 1745, that would ban the sale of new gasoline- and diesel-powered cars after 2040, though its prospects for becoming law are unclear.[13]

A natural question is what prompted California’s exceptional history of action on climate change. There are various possible explanations, all of which may be true to some extent. California is especially vulnerable to climate change because it combines a large coastline with an arid climate. Also, California has a long history of activism on environmental issues. One rationale for exempting California vehicle regulations from preemption was that, alone among the states, California had started regulation car emissions even prior to the federal Clean Air Act. Some additional contributing factors could be that CARB has accumulated a high level of regulatory expertise and public trust, and that California hopes to capture the economic benefits of pioneering new energy technologies. And finally, continuing to lead the effort on climate change may have been a politically appealing way for a solidly Democratic state to push back against George W. Bush, and now Donald Trump.

Obviously, it would be a mistake to give California all the credit for fighting climate change, when many states have undertaken renewable energy programs and a number have their own emissions trading programs. There are many dysfunctions in California’s governance, but this is one instance where it seems to have lived up to its self-image as a place where “the future happens first.”

 

  1. California’s climate change mitigation policies are documented on the website of the California Air Resources Board. https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cc.htm. A useful recent overview has been provided by the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, http://www.lao.ca.gov/handouts/resources/2017/Overview- California-Climate-Goals-Policies-061417.pdf.
  2. California Air Resources Board, “Assembly Bill 32 Overview,” https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ab32/ab32.htm.
  3. Mark Martin, “State’s War on Warming / Governor Signs Measure to Cap Greenhouse Gas Emissions—Sweeping Changes Predicted in Industries and Life in Cities,” SF Gate (September 28, 2006), http://www.sfgate.com/green/article/State-s-war-on-warming-Governor-signs-measure-2487887.php.
  4. Javier C. Hernandez and Adam Nagourney, “As Trump Steps Back, Jerry Brown Talks Climate Change in China,” New York Times (June 6, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-jerry-brown-california-climate.html.
  5. California Air Resources Board, “Cap-and-Trade Program,” https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm.
  6. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, “California Cap and Trade,” https://www.c2es.org/content/california-cap-and-trade/.
  7. California Air Resources Board, “Auction Proceeds Funded Programs and Events,” https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/auctionproceeds/ggrfprogrampage.htm.
  8. Assembly Bill 398 (E. Garcia, 2017).
  9. Executive Order S-21-09 (Schwarzenegger, 2009).
  10. Senate Bill 350 (De Leon, 2015); see California Energy Commission, “California Renewable Energy Overview and Programs,” http://www.energy.ca.gov/renewables/.
  11. 42 U.S.C. § 7453(b).
  12. California Air Resources Board, “Clean Car Standards – Pavley, Assembly Bill 1493,” https://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/ccms/ccms.htm.
  13. Erin Baldassari, “Proposed bill would ban new gas, diesel-powered cars in California by 2040,” San Jose Mercury News (January 10, 2018), https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/10/proposed-bill-would-ban-new-gas-diesel-powered-cars-in-california-by-2040/.