The California Assembly yesterday passed groundbreaking legislation that would require the state to cut back its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020—a reduction of approximately 25 percent.

The new bill, which was hammered out on Wednesday in a deal between the legislature’s Democratic majority and Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and approved by the state Senate the same day, passed in the Assembly by a vote of 47-31.

The bill authorizes the California Air Resources Board to measure the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions coming from various industries and facilities such as power plants and refineries. Government regulators would then set limits that businesses and industries would have to meet, enforce those restrictions with fines, and provide market-based incentives and an emissions trading program to motivate compliance. The regulations would take effect beginning in 2012.

Environmentalists are praising the new legislation, which establishes the toughest greenhouse gas requirements in the United States. If California were ranked alongside countries, it would be the 12th largest generator of carbon dioxide in the world.

But while environmentalists rejoice, businesses are worried that they may be unable to meet the new requirements, and they warn the restrictions may drive many companies and jobs out of California and into other states or nations where emission regulations are less strict. Many experts tend to agree, noting that the plan could be expensive for businesses and consumers and would do little to reduce global warming unless many other states and nations take similar actions and succeed in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

"My view is that in the end, this is going to be costly, but it's a cost that we have to be willing to pay because the alternative is potentially very bleak," said Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute in Berkeley, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.

If the plan succeeds, California would become the first state in the U.S. to meet the terms of the Kyoto Protocol. President Bush refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which seeks to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012. Governor Schwarzenegger, who has been critical of the president on environmental issues, has made global warming a key issue in his re-election campaign.

Media coverage:
Global Warming Plan Could Be Costly (Los Angeles Times)
Legislature passes minimium wage, emission caps (San Jose Mercury News)
Greenhouse gas bill passed in California legislature (Xinhua)