If you would like to speak to the officials behind the proposed new climate law, here's how.
Meeting
The Air Resources Board meeting will be held Thursday, Dec. 16, from 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. Attend the meeting and deliver comments in person to the board.
California Environmental Protection Agency/Air Resources Board
1001 I St. (Byron Sher Auditorium)
Sacramento, CA 95814
See map, or get directions below:
Contact information
Here is a list of the Air Resources Board members and their individual contact information. You can watch or listen to the board’s meeting through a live webcast here.
Mary Nichols, chair
916-322-5840
mnichols@arb.ca.gov
Daniel Sperling, automotive related member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Ken Yeager, Bay Area Air Quality Management District member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Dorene D'Adamo, law member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Mrs. Barbara Riordan, Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District member
(no contact info available)
John R. Balmes, physician member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Lydia H. Kennard, public member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Sandra Berg, public member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Ron Roberts, San Diego Air Pollution Control District member
(no contact information available)
John G. Telles, San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Ronald O. Loveridge, South Coast Air Quality Management District member
916-327-6247
arbboard@arb.ca.gov
Is it too late to participate in the public comment process?
No. You can submit comments and questions to the Air Resources Board through their website until noon on December 15. Go to this site and fill out the form.
Read the ARB’s meeting agenda for that day here.
Frequently asked questions
- What is AB32?
- How do we achieve these emission limits?
- What is a carbon offset?
- Why can timber companies get carbon credits for cutting trees to make lumber?
- Where can I go to learn more about forest-offset projects?
- How are carbon credits measured?
- Who else can I contact about forest carbon offsets?
The California Legislature passed the Global Warming Solutions Act, known as Assembly Bill 32 (AB32), in 2006, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the measure into law later that year. This law aims to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions to 80 percent of what they were in 1990 – a standard similar to what was outlined in the Kyoto Protocol. In order to reach these goals, the state has increased fuel efficiency in motor vehicles, encouraged the advance of solar panels on businesses and homes and emphasized the importance of energy efficiency. The law charges the Air Resources Board (ARB), an arm of California’s Environmental Protection Agency, with implementing AB32.
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How do we achieve these emission limits?
The state of California has identified many ways to reduce greenhouse gas pollution.
- Improving energy efficiency in industrial operations
- Making cleaner burning fuels for vehicles
- Increasing recycling and composting
- Increasing renewable energy for the electric grid
- Capturing methane from animal manure on farms
- Improving water recycling and reuse
- Using forests to absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and offset pollution elsewhere
For many industries, it’s not easy to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses. A carbon offset is a promise by one entity to reduce greenhouse gas pollution in another location, to offset the pollution generated by a company that must meet emissions limits. This allows a polluter to meet its emission reductions by purchasing an offset from someone else. For-profit businesses and nonprofit groups work to create offset projects to sell to polluters, but a company can also purchase a carbon offset – like any other commodity – from a carbon broker at a financial firm or bank.
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Why can timber companies get carbon credits for cutting trees to make lumber?
Brian Nowicki, California climate policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity, explains the dynamic of the working group that developed the rules for the nonprofit Climate Action Reserve: “It became extremely abstract and technical very early on; rather than talking about perverse incentives, it was super technical: [for example] quantifying how much carbon is in wood. Rather than ‘What do we want, how do we maximize cobenefits?’ it became this weird, abstract discussion.”
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Where can I go to learn more about forest-offset projects?
The Center for Investigative Reporting has a project dedicated to tracking the emerging carbon market called Carbon Watch.
Learn the basics of international forest offset projects, called Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD):
Carbon Credits for Preserving Forests: How Does It Work?
Check out an interactive timeline: The Road to Climate Change Policy.
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Watch a short clip to learn how carbon credits are measured in a forest in Brazil
American companies are already speculating on forest offsets in other countries. In this excerpt from "The Carbon Hunters," produced by FRONTLINE/World and CIR, senior correspondent Mark Schapiro explains how forest offsets and the international carbon credit system work. To find out more, go to PBS’s website and watch the full Carbon Hunters documentary.
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Who else can I contact about forest carbon offsets?
These particular set of rules were developed by the Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit agency that is developing carbon offset projects for voluntary purposes, as well as for the AB32 market. You can go here to see the previous versions of the forest protocols the Reserve developed over the course of several years.
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