[Water_news] 5. DWR's CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 11/21/2008

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

November 21, 2008

 

5.   Agencies, Programs, People –

 

State's goal is return to 1990 levels by 2020

San Diego Union Tribune

 

Waxman win boosts state's clout in Congress

San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau

 

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State's goal is return to 1990 levels by 2020

San Diego Union Tribune – 11/21/2008

By Michael Gardner

 

SACRAMENTO – A draft blueprint to stem global warming counts on businesses and everyday Californians to accept a mix of tough regulations and new fees, perhaps as much as $1.5 billion a year collected on targeted products and water bills.

 

The state Air Resources Board spent yesterday drawing praise and protest for its groundbreaking initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions linked to global warming.

 

Regulators now will refine the plan before they gather next month for a final vote on the blueprint, which would require a gradual rollback in emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, an approximately 25 percent cut.

 

Their vast proposals include allowing businesses to buy and sell emission credits, imposing fees on water use and requiring utilities to generate 33 percent of electricity from renewable sources. Vehicles are major targets: The plan lays out a framework for pursuing strict limits on tailpipe emissions.

 

Specifics, including detailed regulations, financial incentives and fees, will still need to be hammered out among regulators and lawmakers in time for a 2012 launch.

The air board hearing was just one in a string of developments over recent days that signal a willingness to confront the global warming threat even during a worldwide economic slump.

 

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., yesterday introduced legislation calling for the federal government to invest $15 billion annually in clean energy, a move she said would reduce reliance on oil and coal while stimulating job growth.

 

Boxer also proposed a national “cap and trade” program that would limit industry emissions. To encourage compliance and investment in clean technology, companies that come in under the cap would be provided pollution credits that then could be sold to other businesses. Those companies could use the newly bought credits to comply with emissions standards. California already is pushing that idea as part of the air board plan.

 

“By investing in clean energy technologies and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, we also have a recipe for economic recovery,” Boxer said in a statement.

Boxer's package is similar to proposals advanced by President-elect Barack Obama, who addressed world leaders gathered in Beverly Hills this week for a two-day global warming summit organized by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

 

In remarks delivered by video Tuesday, Obama unequivocally committed to pursuing remedies. “Now is the time to confront this challenge once and for all,” the Democrat said.

 

Schwarzenegger, a Republican who has gained international recognition for aggressively attacking global warming, said he's eager to join forces.

 

“We in California are ready to go and do everything that it takes in order to help his administration to follow through with his environmental vision,” the governor said.

Tops on California's agenda: obtaining federal permission to regulate vehicle tailpipe exhaust to limit greenhouse gas emissions. The Bush administration and automakers have resisted regulations, but officials in Sacramento are convinced Obama will act swiftly to grant authority to the state.

 

Adding to California's optimism is the ouster of an automaker ally, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Replacing him is Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, a staunch advocate of policies aimed at reducing global warming.

 

California estimates that about 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions can be traced to the automobile. Vehicle regulations over time would account for 18 percent of the reduction in emissions, according to one state analysis of the air board plan.

 

The air board's draft plan also refers to “feebate” strategies that could be implemented to further cut vehicle emissions. The proposal calls for rewarding buyers of fuel-efficient cars with rebates. To discourage taking home gas-guzzlers, fees would be added to the purchase of large vehicles.

 

Just how far and fast California goes remains a work in progress as the state board grapples with its broader plan while trying to answer complaints that it costs too much.

 

Without a comprehensive strategy, regulators say, even slight increases in temperatures could trigger catastrophic climatic disruptions that threaten crops, water supplies and the environment.

 

Critics this week were supplied some ammunition by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. Its analysis found that some of the air board's economic impact figures “are inconsistent and incomplete,” and it criticizes the air board for selecting strategies first and then doing the financial study “after the fact.”

 

Moreover, the air board has failed to lay out specifically how much compliance could cost and when businesses could expect to recoup those investments – an important consideration for companies struggling to adjust, the analysis pointed out.

 

Ron Roberts, an air board member and San Diego County supervisor, said gyrations over cost are premature, given that the board plans to work on cushioning the impact between now and 2012.

 

“We have a long way to go,” he said. “This really is a first step.”

 

Roberts said regulators must act even with the country in a slump.

 

“The economic meltdown is temporary,” he said. “What we're really confronted with is an environmental meltdown that cannot be ignored.”

 

But an array of business representatives fear higher costs passed on to them for electricity, gas and goods.

 

“It's going to really hurt us. This is the wrong time,” said Marco Polo Cortes, president of the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

 

The air board is studying a water fee to raise between $100 million and $500 million annually. The thinking is that it takes a lot of energy, thus high greenhouse gas emissions, to move water to farms, businesses and homes. Such a fee is not unprecedented. For example, the state collects 19 cents a month from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. customers, some of which is plowed back into programs to encourage conservation. The new water fee could be used to accomplish similar goals, regulators say.

 

An additional $300 million to $1 billion could be raised by taxing certain products associated with high emissions, such as refrigerants and insulation. A share of the money could go to a rebate plan to encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient appliances. Removing one old refrigerator could save the same amount of emissions generated by a car in a year, air board officials say.#

 

Waxman win boosts state's clout in Congress San Francisco Chronicle Washington Bureau – 11/21/2008 By Zachary Coile   Los Angeles Rep. Henry Waxman's stunning overthrow Thursday of legendary Michigan Rep. John Dingell to take over one of the House's most powerful committees may be bad news for Detroit and its struggling auto industry, but it's a clear sign of California's growing clout in Washington.   After years battling the Bush administration and Dingell over the state's efforts to set the nation's toughest limits on greenhouse gases, Californians now control both House and Senate committees that will be writing climate-change legislation. They will have key allies in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, and President-elect Barack Obama, who just this week pledged rapid action on global warming.   "It just signals the sea change we're facing," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, who plans to start moving climate-related bills in January. "It's a good sea change, it's momentous."   Waxman's victory as the new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee rocked Capitol Hill, upending the House's traditional seniority system by ousting the 82-year-old Dingell, the dean of the House, who was just months away from becoming the chamber's longest-serving chairman.   Over 28 years as the panel's top Democrat, Dingell racked up a long list of accomplishments, passing the Endangered Species Act and expanding health care for children. But critics saw him as too industry-friendly, accusing him of shielding automakers from stronger fuel-economy standards and opposing tougher air pollution limits on power plants.   Clashed with Dingell Waxman, 69, an avid environmentalist who has clashed with Dingell for three decades over issues from the Clean Air Act to climate change, saw an opening after Obama's victory this month. The committee has jurisdiction over three top elements of Obama's agenda - health care, energy and global warming - and Waxman made the case to his colleagues that Dingell would be a roadblock to enacting the new president's policies.   Lawmakers inside the Cannon caucus room, where Thursday's vote of the party caucus took place, said Dingell urged Democrats to remember his legislative accomplishments, while his allies urged members to respect seniority. Waxman responded by laying out his policy disagreements with Dingell over the years, casting himself as a change agent more in line with Obama.   "You could almost feel the votes move in the room" during Waxman's speech, said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who helped run his fellow Californian's bid for the job.   At the end of voting, Waxman had prevailed, 137-122.   Outside the hearing room, Waxman told a crowd of reporters, "The prevailing view in the caucus, and the argument we made, was that we needed a change for the committee. ... We have an opportunity that maybe only comes once in a generation."   Dingell was gracious in defeat, issuing a statement pledging to work closely with Waxman on the committee. "Well, this was clearly a change year, and I congratulate my colleague Henry Waxman on his success today," he said.   A major factor in Dingell's defeat was the sense among many Democrats, particularly the party's liberal wing, that he had been slow to address climate change. Dingell released a 461-page draft climate change bill last month, but many members believed Waxman would be more aggressive.   Dingell antagonized California lawmakers by floating a draft bill last year to prevent states from enforcing tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles - limits that were later blocked by President Bush's Environmental Protection Agency anyway. He also clashed with Pelosi over the creation of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming last year and over her push to raise fuel-economy standards, although Dingell ultimately backed the increase.   Pelosi was officially neutral in the race between Dingell and Waxman, but many of her top allies worked behind the scenes for Waxman, and lawmakers on both sides of the fight noted that she did nothing to discourage him from the challenge.   After the vote, Pelosi issued a statement calling Dingell a "giant of the Congress" while also predicting that Waxman would make progress on issues like energy independence, health care and global warming. She said the caucus "will move forward from this vote with unity."   Bitter race But the race was bitter, and there are certain to be hard feelings, especially among Dingell supporters. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., a senior member of the committee, called Waxman's challenge "highly inappropriate."   Capitol Hill watchers said Waxman's election may represent a new high-water mark for California's power in the Congress, rivaling the power Texas enjoyed starting in the mid-1990s, when former Republican Reps. Dick Armey and Tom DeLay were top House leaders and the state held several key chairmanships.   Besides Pelosi's position as speaker - arguably the second-most powerful job in Washington - Californians chair four House committees: Education and Labor (Miller); Foreign Affairs (Rep. Howard Berman, D-Los Angeles); Veterans Affairs (Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego) and now Energy and Commerce (Waxman). In addition to Boxer's committee post, Sen. Dianne Feinstein chairs the Senate Rules Committee and is a top Senate appropriator - and she is in line to possibly chair the Intelligence Committee.   Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research, said the state's clout is probably higher now than earlier this decade, when California had six Republican committee chairs in the House: Appropriations (Jerry Lewis of Redlands in San Bernardino County), Rules (David Dreier of San Dimas in Los Angeles County), Ways and Means (Bill Thomas of Bakersfield), Armed Services (Duncan Hunter of Alpine in San Diego County), Education and Workforce (Howard "Buck" McKeon of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County) and Resources (Richard Pombo of Tracy).   Waxman had to give up his chairmanship of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the House's top investigative panel, where he'd led high-profile probes into steroids use in sports and contractor abuses in Iraq. But Ransdell said Waxman had picked the right time to shift committees.   "Oversight is a committee whose job is largely to be a thorn in the side of the administration," he said. "He spent several years trying to uncover bad things that happened in a Republican administration. Now he doesn't have the task of doing that in a friendly administration." #

 

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