Excerpt below. Watch video here: http://www.kcra.com/news/local-news/news-sacramento/gov-brown-expected-to-sign-landmark-climate-change-law/41356086
KCRA TV 3’S TOM MILLER: THE PASSAGE OF THE TWO BILLS, S.B. 32 AND AB 197 FORCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION LEVELS TO BE LOWERED AN ADDITIONAL 40% BY 2030. THAT’S ON TOP OF EXISTING LAW WHICH REQUIRES A REDUCTION TO 1990 LEVEL EMISSIONS BY 2020
Miller: “UC DAVIS ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE SCHWARTZ APPLAUDS THE NEW REQUIREMENT. STUDIES PREDICT A 3-6 DEGREE TEMPERATURE RISE IN THE NEXT IN 75% OF CALIFORNIA’S ECOSYSTEMS.
UNDER THE NEW LAWS TEMPERATURES WOULD RISE SLOWER, JUST ONE TO TWO DEGREES.”
UC Davis Env. Prof. Mark Schwartz: “IN OTHER WORDS THE CLIMATE THAT THEY’RE LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE IN THAT FUTURE ISN’T REPRESENTATIVE OF ANY CLIMATE UNDER WHICH THAT ECOSYSTEM IS GROWING NOW.”
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California lawmakers voted Wednesday to extend the state’s landmark climate change law – the most aggressive in the nation – by another 10 years, resisting fierce opposition from oil companies and other business interests to keep the program alive at least through 2030.
Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, a strong advocate of the state’s climate initiatives, has said he’ll sign the bill when it comes to his desk.
The move keeps alive the legal framework that underpins California’s wide-ranging efforts to fight climate change, from a tax on pollution to zero-emission vehicle mandates and restrictions on the carbon content of gasoline and diesel fuel.
SB32 passed in the Senate on a 25-13 vote, a day after it won crucial support from business-minded Democratic lawmakers in the state Assembly with encouragement from the White House.
“This is a real commitment backed up by real power,” Brown said at a celebratory news conference after the vote.
In 2006, California set an ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, when the initial effort would end. SB32 sets a new goal to reduce emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. It is tied to the fate of another bill, AB197, to provide greater legislative oversight of the appointed Air Resources Board, which is responsible for executing the law.
