At a Long Beach ceremony, Gov. Jerry Brown Monday signed into law a bill imposing what he called the nation’s toughest restrictions on “super pollutants” such as black carbon, fluorinated gases and methane.
“Cutting black carbon and other super pollutants is the critical next step in our program to combat climate change,” Brown said at the event, held near a playground in the shadow of an oil refinery. “This bill curbs dangerous pollutants and thereby protects public health and slows climate change.”
SB 1383, authored by Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, mandates a 50 percent reduction in black carbon and 40 percent reduction in methane and hydrofluorocarbon from 2013 levels by 2030. The pollutants are generated by by sources including waste-disposal, petroleum-based fuel, agriculture and synthetic gases used in refrigeration, air conditioning and aerosol products.
Lara said the pollutants “are powerful climate forcers that have a profound effect on climate change and global warming.”
“They also have detrimental effects on public health,” he said. “This bill represents a unique opportunity to balance our global vision for the future with a much more local and immediate perspective. With these bold and ambitious goals, we’ll continue to set the standard for climate policy worldwide.”
The National Federation of Independent Business criticized the legislation, with the organization’s state director Tom Scott saying it creates an inconsistent policy that will “further increase the cost of doing business in California,” particularly for the agricultural industry.
The mandated reductions represent “a direct assault on California’s dairy industry and will hurt manufacturing by creating an arbitrary limit on natural gases which dissipate quickly,” he said.
–City News Service