BIOMASS HUB

California has been a pioneer in enacting aggressive environmental laws, including a first-of-its-kind Global Warming Law (AB32).  The law enables the state to take an aggressive approach towards regulating carbon, often setting the benchmark for other states to follow (see low carbon fuel standard).

Reuters reports that now the state’s approach as well as U.S.-wide climate policy is the center of debate in the race to replace Governor Schwarzenegger.  California has become a hub for cleantech, a key antidote to an ailing state economy, which could be at risk with a change in climate policy.

Former eBay chief Meg Whitman and Silicon Valley colleague Steve Poizner, the Republicans vying for the job, both would put the 2006 landmark air pollution law on hold.  State Attorney General Jerry Brown, the unofficial Democratic candidate, would defend it.

An initiative which has just begun gathering signatures to get on the November ballot would suspend the law until the state’s double-digit unemployment rate drops to 5.5 percent or less, which economists say will be years.

More on the story here.