From Inhofe to Boxer...watch the climate change!

After the 2006 mid-term elections, Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, will succeed James Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, as chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Mr. Inhofe refused to consider regulations on carbon dioxide, calling global warming "the most media-hyped environmental issue of all time." Ms. Boxer, who believes "global warming could reshape the world as we know it," says she will introduce federal legislation that is similar to California's.

California's Air Resources Board, a semi-independent agency, has been given the job of drawing up the nation's first regulatory program intended to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by all sectors of the economy.

CARB, the nation's largest and most influential state environmental regulatory agency, has about 1,000 employees, including scientists and engineers who, working there in the 1960s, helped design the nation's pioneering antismog program.

CARB has been tasked by the legislature to figure out how to cap greenhouse-gas emissions, by preparing regulations by 2012. California's goal is to cut emissions by about 25% by 2020.

Dr. Robert Sawyer, head of CARB, was appointed by Gov. Schwarzenegger in December. He says he will push every approach that is cost-effective. He plans to send staff members to the United Kingdom and Japan to see how their pioneering regulatory programs work. He plans to hire 100 experts, including economists who will develop computer models of the state's past and future emissions. He is also looking for specialists who can design an emissions-trading program tailored to California's economy.

Having already removed the low hanging fruit of dirty coal-fired utilities air-pollution, CARB will have to focus on the transportation sector, which has roughly double the traffic of most states and produces 41% of the state's total emissions.

CARB could recommend taxes or other incentives to reduce gasoline consumption. On this subject, Mr. Ertel predicts, the agency will experience "some heavy-duty lobbying" before its program emerges.

The influence of coal-fired utilities, the coal-mining industry and car makers, he explains, is much stronger in Washington than in Sacramento, where the biggest players will include oil companies, the state Chamber of Commerce and agricultural interests.

Environmental groups are also stronger in California and have used successful state programs in the past to sell environmental proposals to Congress. As a result, California's antismog regulations and appliance-efficiency standards made it into national law.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
California Plots Greenhouse-Gas Strategy
State Board Responsible for Cutting Emissions
Hopes to Once Again Set a National Example
By JOHN J. FIALKA
November 17, 2006; Page A4