(March 22, 2007) Business participation is an integral part of the process of developing the state’s market-based program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the chair of the advisory committee for the effort told the California Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

“Economic systems have to be part of the solution,” Winston Hickox, chair of the Market Advisory Committee and former secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), said at the March 9 meeting of the CalChamber Board.

Hickox said he is available and open to meet with business leaders about ways to implement the market-based measures to help reach the state’s goal of reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

The point of the advisory committee’s efforts, he noted, is to try to assure that it takes advantage of lessons learned by others.

The 14-member Market Advisory Committee was created by executive order of the Governor to outline steps the administration should take to implement the state’s landmark greenhouse gas reduction law, AB 32 (Núñez; D-Los Angeles; Chapter 488, Statutes of 2006). AB 32 requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The committee is to recommend to the state Air Resources Board (ARB) by June 30 a design for a market-based compliance program (see February 9 Alert).

Winston Hickox, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency during the administration of Governor Gray Davis and now chair of the Market Advisory Committee developing recommendations to help California reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourages businesses to make their views known. Economic systems have to be part of the solution, Hickox told members of the California Chamber Board of Directors at their March 9 meeting.

Hickox commented that the “command and control” focus of past rules designed to govern “point sources” of emissions won’t work with the multitude of “non-point” sources for greenhouse gases.

The most commonly-mentioned greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, a byproduct of everyday activities such as driving vehicles powered by fossil fuels, electricity generation and cement production.

Highlighting the importance of a broad-based approach to tackling climate change, Hickox cited the agreement signed recently by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the governors of four other Western states (Oregon, Washington, Arizona and New Mexico) to develop a regional target for reducing greenhouse gases.

Hickox said the advisory committee is drafting guiding principles for its market program. The principles, still in draft form, range from avoiding local, disproportionate impacts on low-income communities to making compliance simple to stimulating investment/rewarding innovation and inspiring other entities by serving as a robust, effective model.

More information on the activities of the ARB entities focusing on climate change is available at www.arb.ca.gov.

Staff Contact: Amisha Patel