As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work,
Environment New Jersey can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release.
TRENTON—Wednesday
night, in the final days of California’s legislative session, Governor
Schwarzenegger and the state legislature reached an agreement on
California’s historic global warming bill, the Global Warming Solutions
Act, AB32 (Nunez/Pavley). Once passed, the bill will make California
the first state in the nation to fight global warming by capping carbon
dioxide and other emissions and mandating emission reductions from the
state’s largest stationary sources.
“We
congratulate our colleagues at Environment California and their allies
for their hard work on this issue,” said Suzanne Leta at New Jersey
Public Interest Research Group. “Given the absence of action on this
issue in Washington D.C, it is critical that the states take matters
into their own hands. Now Governor Corzine and the state legislature
can follow California’s example and take action here in New Jersey.”
At
a press conference on Wednesday, California Assembly Speaker Fabian
Nunez and Senate Pro Tem Don Perata, announced that the bill would pass
the Legislature by the end of session. At the same time, Governor
Schwarzenegger issued a statement announcing that he would sign the
bill when it reaches his desk. A few hours later, the bill passed the
California State Senate by a vote of 23-14. It is scheduled for a final
vote today in the Assembly and is expected to pass.
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 will do the following:
·
Set the nation’s first state-wide cap on global warming pollution
setting the target of lowering emissions 25% by 2020 (a return to 1990
emission levels);
· Establish a mandatory reporting program for all major sources of pollution at the California Air Resources Board (CARB);
·
Require CARB to adopt regulations for large polluters that could begin
as early as 2009 and no later than 2012. The regulations may include
both command and control regulatory measures as well as a cap and trade
program; and
· Give CARB the authority to enforce the regulations and go beyond the minimum reduction goals.
In New Jersey, Assemblywoman Linda Stender and Senator Barbara Buono have introduced the Global Warming Response Act (A3301/S2214) in the state legislature, directing the New Jersey Department of Environmental to monitor the state’s global warming emissions and to reduce those emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020. NJPIRG has been calling on Governor Corzine to support this legislation and pledge to reduce the state’s global warming emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and 70 percent by 2050. Scientific consensus is that to reverse the worst effects of global warming we must cut global warming emissions by 70 to 80 percent by the middle of this century.
Of
all the effects of global warming, sea level rise is the one that will
hit New Jersey the hardest. If nothing is done to reverse global
warming, sea levels could rise 2 to 4 feet in the next century, which
would submerge all of New Jersey’s beaches under water and cause
chronic flooding on 9% of New Jersey’s land, including the Meadowlands,
Atlantic City, Cape May, the Delaware Bay Shore and Long Beach Island.
“As
a heavily populated state, New Jersey’s commitment to tackling global
warming can have a big impact. New Jersey also has the brain power and
technological know-how to show other states and the nation that solving
global warming is more than possible. If we’re going to stop global
warming and protect future generations, we have to start here and now,”
said Leta.
“As
we’ve seen time and again, the states are the real leaders when it
comes to ground-breaking environmental policy,” said Bernadette Del
Chiaro, Environment California’s lead advocate on the bill. “Now that
we have taken this historic step here in California, we are really
hoping leaders in other states will join us in solving global warming
one state at a time.”
