SACRAMENTO — An ambitious effort to combat global warming in California comes before a state Senate committee today as the state's most powerful business groups step up their efforts to kill it.
At issue is a bill by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) that would require industries to report how much greenhouse gas -- currently an unregulated source of pollution -- they produce and accept caps on emissions beginning in 2012.
To Nunez and supporters, the bill is a boost for the state's environment and would make California a leader in grappling with global warming.
"This is a real threat to the sustainability of the planet," he said. "Unless you mandate the reduction of emissions, people are not going to do it."
But most business lobbies say putting caps on greenhouse gases would drive jobs to other states and countries by forcing industries to pay more for power and limiting their production.
"There's no way to get to the targets except by stopping the use of energy," said Dorothy Rothrock, vice president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Assn.
Last week, a coalition of the manufacturers association, the California Chamber of Commerce and more than 20 other trade organizations launched a statewide radio advertising campaign to persuade legislators to vote against Nunez's proposal.
It is expected to be the most controversial legislation of the year affecting business, and its prospects for passage are far from certain.
Opponents are expecting a major fight. Killing the bill "is at the top of the list of issues that we are most concerned about," Rothrock said.
But she concedes that the manufacturers and their allies, including oil refineries, carmakers and farmers, won't have an easy time getting lawmakers to reject an environmental initiative that already has been tentatively embraced by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Last year, Schwarzenegger signed an executive order setting targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions, which increase temperatures in the Earth's atmosphere, to 1990 levels over the next 15 years.
"I say the debate is over," Schwarzenegger said at an environmental conference last year. "We know the science. We see the threat. And we know the time for action is now."
On Thursday, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences backed the governor's assertion. The National Research Council released a report confirming that average temperatures have been rising for the last century, mainly due to human activities.
