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PCL Insider: News from the Capitol
STATE AGENCY MAKES THE ROUNDS TO GATHER PUBLIC INPUT ON NEW CLIMATE PLAN; WEAK LAND USE MEASURES REMAIN A DOMINANT THEME
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been traveling up and down the state, collecting public comment on its Draft Scoping Plan for AB 32, California's landmark climate change legislation. AB 32 requires California to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and the Draft Scoping Plan is CARB's recommendation on how to do that. After releasing the draft on June 26th, CARB conducted all day meetings in Diamond Bar, Fresno, and Sacramento to gather input. Additional meetings will be held in San Jose on August 8th and in San Diego on August 15th.
A reoccurring theme at all three of the workshops was the need to improve the draft's treatment of land use policy, particularly calling for greater emission reductions through enforceable land use decision making.
PCL's Victoria Hassid participated in the Sacramento workshop, outlining how to improve the draft's strategies regarding land use, water, and economic incentives.
Hassid joined many of her colleagues in urging CARB to strengthen significantly and expand the draft's land use measures. She also identified enforceable measures such as an Indirect Source Rule that would address greenhouse gas emissions from new development, and called for policies that would reward local governments that comply with regional smart growth blueprints. She also stressed the importance of the "polluter pays" principle, calling for CARB to auction all pollution allowances and to reconsider their current proposal to grant allowances for free to current polluters.
CARB has requested public comments on its draft plan by Friday but has said it will accept comments after the deadline. To find out more, contact PCL's global warming program manger, Matt Vander Sluis.
California EstablishES NATION'S FIRST Green Building Standards - Environmentalists Continue to Push for Stronger Requirements
Earlier this month the California Building Standards Commission adopted the nation's first statewide green building standards to cut energy and water use. The plan, which is scheduled to take effect July 1st, 2009, and remain voluntary until 2010, requires new construction to reduce building water use by twenty percent of today's standard, water used for landscaping by fifty percent, and energy use by fifteen percent - a last minute provision added in response to concerns over the lax treatment of energy efficiency in the initial draft.
While the green building standards are a step in the right direction, California still has substantial room for improvement. Seventy-five cities and counties in California already have more stringent green building codes than those adopted by the Commission. And although these new standards are not meant to displace local building codes, there is concern that local governments may view the new standards as a sustainability ceiling rather than a floor upon which more ambitious local standards can be adopted. Furthermore, the new standards did not strengthen the state's weak rules on recycling, renewable energy, and the use of wood products.
The environmental community will continue to push to ensure that the new standards are strengthened before they become mandatory in 2010.
GOING GRAY: GOVERNOR GIVES GO-AHEAD TO GOOD WATER RE-USE BILL
Even amid contentious state budget talks, there's some good news to report from the State Capitol. Last week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB 1258 into law, which will increase the opportunities for using "graywater" in existing and new buildings.
Graywater includes wastewater from bathtubs, showers, bathroom washbasins, clothes washing machines, and laundry tubs, but does not include wastewater from kitchen sinks or dishwashers. Potential uses of graywater include using shower runoff for landscape irrigation and bathroom sink runoff for toilet flushing.
Currently, the limited number of approved uses of graywater in California inhibits builders and homeowners who are interested in installing graywater re-use systems.
SB 1258, introduced by Senator Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach, directs the Department of Housing and Community Development to develop a more wide-ranging set of standards for graywater systems for both indoor and outdoor uses. These new standards will then be recommended to the California Building Standards Commission for adoption.
PCL supported this bill as it moved through the Legislature, and we thank Senator Lowenthal for getting the ball rolling on graywater!
CALLING ALL EARLY BIRDS: SIERRA NEVADA ALLIANCE ANNUAL CONFERENCE IS COMING UP!
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