Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez introduced legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, oil refineries and other industrial sources, a step he said would lead the nation in combating global warming while spurring the state's economy.
SACRAMENTO — Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez introduced legislation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, oil refineries and other industrial sources, a step he said would lead the nation in combating global warming while spurring the state's economy.
"(The bill) sends a loud and clear message to ... innovators and entrepreneurs here and abroad to develop and bring clean technologies into the California marketplace," Nunez said Monday.
Nunez announced the legislation on the same day Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration released a report calling for development of economic incentives that could include emission caps to cut greenhouse gases, chiefly carbon dioxide.
The two developments triggered praise from environmental groups but warnings from business leaders that limits could drive businesses out of the state.
Alan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce, said Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders should embrace a voluntary system that provides incentives to industry. An emissions cap would drive California power plants, refineries and other companies out of state, he said.
"This is a global problem and it requires a global solution," Zaremberg said. "If you shut down a facility here in California and that facility migrates somewhere else in the world, you haven't done anything to solve the problem."
Nunez introduced the bill with Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, the author of 2002 legislation that requires the state Air Resources Board to draft regulations curbing greenhouse gas emissions from autos.
The Nunez-Pavley bill is intended to cut emissions from commercial sources to 1990 levels by 2020. It would require the air board to determine which industries would be covered by the limit, but Richard Stapler, a spokesman for Nunez, said power plants and oil refineries would be included.
"It directs the ARB to implement these policies and collect research and data on which industries actually produce the most amounts," he said.
The bill also would allow the air board to grant exemptions to industries that had already lowered their carbon emissions, Stapler added.
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Associated Press Writer Samantha Young contributed to this report.
Source: Associated Press
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