CA's Climate Change Mandate Will Drive Smart Growth
In what may be the silver lining of the current economic climate, high fuel costs and carbon restrained economies may spell the end for unsustainable planning and development patterns in California, according to Rick Cole, City Manager of Ventura.
"we can’t possibly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 without reducing vehicle miles traveled. With transportation producing 40 percent of the problem, improved fuel efficiency will help—and so will switching to alternative fuels. But those gains are essentially wiped out by the offsetting increases in population and mileage that people are traveling. We can’t continue to replicate sprawl and comply with AB 32."
"Even if we adopted a universal program of smart growth across America tomorrow, it would be decades before we had repaired and reshaped our landscape and economy to a more sustainable model. In the meantime, there will be tremendous pressure to exploit existing and new energy sources to maintain the suburban model we live in. But we can’t ignore Stein’s Law. Herb Stein was the pragmatic economist who first observed, 'Things which can’t go on forever, don’t.'"
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maybe right, but not because of AB 32
When legislation seems to demand more than the political system is ready to give, it gets watered down - like Kyoto (which hasn't prevented greenhouse emissions from rising in Europe) and like urban growth boundaries in many cities (though not in Portland, where the political culture is a little greener).