[GreenYes] Jerry Brown Laying down law on global warming

["Gary Liss" <gary@no.address>]

Apologies for Cross-Postings - Please forward to other
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Laying down law on global warming

Brown uses 1970 statute to insist projects assess climate-change impacts.

By Chris Bowman - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, July 27, 2007

The
first greenhouse gas-fighting mandates to pinch Californians won't be the
state's trend-setting new laws requiring low-carbon fuels and more fuel
efficiency.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown is the first to crack down, using a
California law enacted long before stranded polar bears became symbols of
global warming.

Squeezing the trigger on the 37- year-old California Environmental
Quality Act, Brown is pressuring high-growth cities and counties such as
Sacramento and Yuba to immediately include climate change -- alongside
traffic congestion, sewage treatment capacity and water supplies -- in
assessing environmental impacts of major proposed projects.

Brown's action comes as leading climate scientists warn that the world is
closer to the brink of a climate crisis than previously
realized.

"California can't wait," said Brown, who was the state's
Democratic governor from 1974 to 1982 and more recently Oakland's mayor.
"If we do nothing for the next several years, then the buildup of
these gases will require even more drastic reductions..."

For the rest of the article, go to:
http://www.sacbee.com/capolitics/v-print/story/294466.html

Gary Liss       
916-652-7850    
Fax: 916-652-0485
www.garyliss.com