Comment Log Display

COMMENTS ON AB 32 DRAFT SCOPING PLAN,
CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD

 
Dear CARB,
 
Thank you VERY MUCH for your work on the Draft AB32 Scoping Plan
to reduce California's GHGs by 2020.  This is critical work,
especially setting goals for the State to increase renewable
energy and reduce vehicle miles traveled.
 
Please consider these recommendations on behalf of myself, Paula
Zerzan, for inclusion in the Final Scoping Plan:
- The State should auction 100% of permits under the cap.
Polluters should pay for their emissions, not be given free
permits that subsidize coal and prolong the transition to cleaner
energy.  Future generations must be protected!
- The Scoping Plan should specify that some auction revenues will
be used to provide a Dividend to compensate consumers. With food,
gasoline, natural gas, and electricity prices all increasing,
helping consumers deal with food, fuel and electricity costs is a
good use of auction revenues.
- I strongly support CARB's proposal for Carbon Fees on fossil
fuel companies to help fund CARB's implementation of AB32.
 
Carbon Fees should also provide funding sources for clean
technologies, green jobs, energy efficiency programs, and more.

Generally, I recommend the following eight crucial GHG actions for
CARB’s plan:

1) Make big polluters pay for all their emissions. Program
revenues should go toward clean technologies, green jobs, and
cost-cutting measures for low-income consumers. CARB also should
narrowly limit offsets.
2) Consider cap-and-auction just one tool among market mechanisms.
Other tools should be brought forward more robustly, including
feed-in tariffs and carbon fees in the Plan’s near-term action
agenda.
3) Give the 33-percent renewable electricity standard by 2020 the
force of law, either through legislation or regulatory action.
4) Promote and enable Community Choice Electricity Aggregation
(CCA) and its potentially powerful GHG reductions.
5) Give more specificity and amplitude to the goal of electrifying
transportation, especially greatly expanding ZEV numbers (plug-ins
and electric cars) beyond CARB's currently too low projected
levels.
6) Greatly strengthen the too-modest land use and agricultural
sections of Plan.
7) Bolster requirements for zero waste and recycling, as well as
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
8) Ensure that actions to reduce greenhouse gases also help,
whenever possible, to clean up California’s unhealthy air. 

The state of California is facing a public health crisis,
experiencing 14-24,000 premature deaths from air pollution yearly,
350,000 asthma attacks and 2 million missed school days from
children suffering asthma attacks, thousands of hospitalizations
and emergency room visits, and reduced lung function growth in
children.

I urge the California  Air Resources Board  to include a stronger
focus on measures to reduce emissions from driving  that
contribute the largest percentage of greenhouse gases  in
California.  The plan should include a much more aggressive
statewide goal for reducing vehicle trips and measures to promote
progressive action by local governments.  The plan should also
include additional strong regulatory measures on industrial
sources to reduce emissions form petroleum refineries, power
plants, cement manufacturers, and others sources.

It is vitally important the plan demonstrate that the variety of
proposed measures will  not only make rapid progress toward
reducing greenhouse gases, but will also  provide local benefits
to communities in terms of improved air quality and public health.


Thank you for your consideration of my concerns to strengthen
these key strategies in the AB 32 draft scoping plan.