California's Initiative to cut Carbon Emissions

The day I opened the newspaper when Inlanded in California, this week, the headlines that greeted me were heart warming. The headline announced that California's Air Resources Board approved a first-in-the-world regulation to minimize the amount of Carbon in fuel...putting CA as the first region to promote alternative fuels in a bid to combat global warming.

Its intereting to note that the regulation is applicable to automotive fuel manufacturers and they are liable to a stringent penalty if the carbon content in their fuels do not match the presribed standards. The idea is to reduce the Carbon content by 10% by 2020...lowering the amount of GHGs (Green house gases) released for every unitof energy produced. This is amongst the first of such targets being sent in the US towards reducing GHGs and thus initiating action against global warming.

The regulation is framed not only to combat global warming, but to initiate innovation in fuel manufacturing, perhaps marking a shift towards alternative fuels. as with any other regulation, this regultion was supported and opposed by specific groups. For me, the opposing group was interesting, which decried the possibility of shifting to biofuels, which will endanger the food supplies or rather take over the land meant for food production in the state.

It was expressed that the cost of this regulation will be tremendous for CA, yet the regulation is worthy of appalause as it has set the tone for action against global warming! It will remain to be seen, if the car friendly, energy guzzling and emission loving (through their luxury lifestyles) Californians can become the first state in US to reduce their overall C emissions by 2020. 

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