Emission control support rising

 

Apr 25 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Ron Seely The Wisconsin State Journal

 

Passing strong climate change legislation at the state level makes good environmental and economic sense, according to the author of landmark emission control laws in California.

Fran Pavley, a public school teacher turned California assemblywoman, is scheduled to speak in Madison today on her efforts to guide her state toward becoming the first in the nation to pass tough emission control laws on utilities. Pavley is meeting here with policy-makers who have proposed similar legislation for Wisconsin.

Pavley, who is also proposing similar controls on auto emissions in California, said action by states is necessary because of inaction by the federal government in addressing climate change. The bill she helped pass in California requires the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions -- the gas many scientists blame for global warming -- to 1990 levels by 2020, a 25 percent reduction. The bill was signed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in September.

Wisconsin emission legislation has been introduced in the Wisconsin Legislature. Authored by Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, and Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, the bill would also require a 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The bill would have the greatest impact on utilities with coal-burning power plants, the largest single source of such emissions.

Pavley said she first became interested in controlling carbon dioxide emissions because of the many children she saw as a teacher who suffered from asthma. But the first-term Democratic assemblywoman also saw strong public support for such legislation.

Surveys by the Public Policy Institute of California showed three in four Californians surveyed agreed that climate change will have serious effects on the state's economy and quality of life.

"I think there is a lot of support from the public," Pavley said of state emission control legislation. "They're tired of paying more on their utility bills and of getting ripped off by the oil companies."

But Pavley said support for emission controls also came from some surprising sources in California, including the state's largest utility and from many of the state's largest corporations. She said many businesspeople realized that clean energy is a powerful economic force. Independent economic studies and state agency reports in California showed reducing greenhouse emissions is not only possible but will save California families and businesses billions of dollars as well as provide tens of thousands of new jobs by 2020, Pavley said.

"Now you hear this about this legislation also being in the best interests of the economy while five years ago it was thought of as just an environmental bill," Pavley said. "Now, businesses are concerned about the economic implications of not doing anything."