Articles by Adam Browning

California passes cap-and-trade bill

And let it begin with California.

California will become the first state in the country to require industries to lower greenhouse gas emissions under a deal struck Wednesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democrats that could dramatically reshape the state's economy ...

By 2020, when industries would have to lower carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 25 percent, solar panels, alternative fuels, and electric cars could be commonplace, according to advocates of the legislation ...

The legislation will require all businesses, from automakers to cement manufacturers, to reduce emissions beginning as early as 2012 to meet the 2020 cap. The state's 11-member Air Resources Board, which is appointed by the governor, will be charged with developing targets for each industry and for seeing that those targets are met. The board now will embark on a years-long process to fully develop regulations. The board could impose fees on some industries to pay for new programs that could do everything from requiring truckers to use biodiesel fuels to forcing farmers to handle animal waste differently.

The board is likely to set up a trading system that will allow companies to buy and sell emission credits, which would allow a company that made more emission reductions than required to sell credits to another business that hasn't reached its emission goal.

Progress. Once again, state leadership is stepping into the vacuum left by the feds' suicidally blasé approach to global warming.

Jump on the plug-in hybrid bandwagon

Consider this an open invitation to get on the plug-in hybrid bandwagon. Plug-in hybrids, for those not in the know, are hybrids whose batteries can be recharged by the grid. By running in electric-only mode as much as possible, emissions are reduced and efficiencies gained.

The other week, I visited Prof. Andrew Frank at UC Davis, the popularly acclaimed father of the plug-in hybrid. Impressive stuff.

Among the many vehicles his students have built, he's got a Chevy Equinox -- a smallish SUV -- retrofitted with a 1.6L engine with a continuously variable drive transmission and a lithium ion battery pack that holds about 15 kWh of juice. It can go 60 miles on battery-only, and 100 mpg in all-day driving conditions. If you recharged every night, it could go across the country on one tank of gasoline (runs on e85). Performance? 320 horsepower, 0-60 in 6.5 seconds (vs 9.5 sec stock).

The benefits of plugging in are many.

California’s Million Solar Roofs bill signed into law

SB 1, California's Million Solar Roofs bill, was signed into law by Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday. For those new to the story, this bill -- which some have called humankind's last, best hope for surviving global warming -- failed to pass out of the legislature three years running, until the California Public Utilities Commission enacted the meat of the measure -- $3.2 billion in rebates for one million solar roofs -- through a regulatory process last January. This bill codifies that funding into legislation, and fills in several very important missing pieces. Namely:

Make ’em spend it all

The money is lining up against Prop 87 in California.

Prop 87 is a ballot initiative that would impose a small fee on oil drilling in the state. The fee is indexed to the price of oil, making it essentially a tax on oil company profits. Those wells that went in when oil was $25 a barrel? They still cost the same to run. If they were profitable then, they are goldmines now.

Over 10 years, Prop 87 will raise $4 billion. The money will go toward kicking our oil addiction.

<pSounds good. And it is good.