California GHG goals will be tough to reach: White House official

Washington (Platts)--11Oct2006

California's failure thus far to meet federal air quality standards for
soot and smog indicates the trouble the state is likely to have meeting goals
established in its recently enacted climate-change law, the chairman of the
White House Council on Environmental Quality said Wednesday.

In remarks to reporters after a presentation to the World Energy Forum in
Washington, James Connaughton said California has not clearly mapped out how
it will meet climate change goals and added that state policymakers should be
"forthright about how challenging this is."

Despite "Herculean efforts, California has still not met federal air
quality standards," Connaughton said. And the state has not figured out
exactly how it will implement its climate-change law.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last month signed into law
legislation that requires electricity generators, oil refineries and other
industries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to
1990 levels by 2020. That represents a cut of about 25% from the levels that
would exist under a so-called business-as-usual scenario.

Los Angeles and central California's San Joaquin Valley have some of the
worst air quality in the nation for both particulate matter and ozone. Neither
region has been able to meet the US Environmental Protection Agency's current
standards for soot or smog.

--Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com

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