A necessary collision

Abstract

"The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 20061 (Assembly Bill 32, or A.B. 32) represents the nation’s first sweeping effort to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The law sets an aggressive goal for reducing emissions, but leaves open the question of how to reach that goal. Therefore, A.B. 32 will only be a transformative piece of climate change legislation if it results in regulations as sweeping as the law itself. Since a regulatory regime of this scope will encompass the broadest possible spectrum of activities that generate emissions, A.B. 32’s implementation will inevitably collide with prior policymaking paradigms that fail to consider climate. One of the most difficult challenges will be the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. Political and economic factors, manifested through state and local laws and regulations, have left California with a system that deters density and promotes sprawl. The logic of land use has historically been dictated by selfinterest; individual cities and counties make decisions based on insular, local demands, which may or may not align with broader state goals. But because A.B. 32 does not explicitly equip CARB with preemptive authority to regulate local land use, it is unlikely that this landmark law will alone be capable of aligning land use decision-making with California’s push to mitigate the impacts of the climate crisis.(p. 1-2)