California to regulate cow emissions

California Governor Jerry Brown [official website] on Monday signed Senate Bill 1383 [legislative materials], which sets new state goals for cutting pollutants like methane, hydrofluorocarbons and soot, also referred to as black carbons [LAT report].

Super pollutants like black carbon and methane trap more heat than carbon dioxide but stay in the atmosphere for a shorter time.

California has stoked a global reputation for its attempts to slow climate change through a combination of strict mandates against pollution and financial incentives for green technology. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, will require the state to reduce emissions of methane and hydrofluorocarbon gases to 40 percent below 2013 levels by 2030, and black carbon to 50 percent below 2013 levels by the same year. It's tied to $90 million in funding for the dairy industry and garbage collectors.

Brown said, "We've got to build our Ark, too, by stopping climate change, by stopping risky pollutants and doing it as soon as possible".

Republicans said the strict regulations will hurt agricultural businesses, despite concessions made to dairy farmers.

The money will help a handful of them buy dairy digesters, which use methane from manure to generate energy that's sold to electrical utilities.

The state's Air Resources Board can also now regulate bovine flatulence, as long as there are practical ways to reduce the cows' belching and breaking wind. Tom Scott, California director for the National Federation of Independent Business, said that the law will direct affect the California's dairy industry and would have a negative impact on manufacturing as well. Brown lobbied for the bill in the Legislature, emphasizing the health effects of black carbon after lawmakers rebuffed his proposal to reduce petroleum use in motor vehicles past year. Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens, nearly exclusively with Democratic support.

Composting also has to go up by 50 percent within four years to curb methane from organic waste.

Lara called the ambitious standards "attainable" in a press conference previous year, as well as an "opportunity to invest in infrastructure", stating that it underscored the action necessary to curb harmful pollutants in the air globally.

Some moderate Democrats, including from poor and heavily polluted areas of the state, had complained during the petroleum debate that California's climate change policies did too little for the environment in their districts. In fact, Brown has signed a new legislation in which California's carbon emissions will be reduced to 40% by 2030.