California’s 2006 law requiring the state to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 would help boost its economy and save residents more money in the long term than doing nothing, according to a report by the influential California Air Resources Board. The state’s draft plan for reducing emissions focuses on requiring utilities to generate one-third of their electricity from renewables, increasing the energy efficiency of state buildings, and (if it’s ever granted the waiver it needs from the U.S. EPA) requiring new vehicles sold in the state to significantly reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. By 2020, such measures would create some 100,000 new jobs, increase per-capita income by $200, and lower electricity bills by some 5 percent, according to the report. “These are good-news numbers,” said CARB’s Mary Nichols. Environmentalists largely agreed. “This is the green-light analysis that says we should keep pushing on this,” said James Fine of the Environmental Defense Fund. “It’s only going to help our economy, not hurt it.”
