It should come as no surprise that global warming is becoming a serious issue. After the unusually sweltering summer and, of course, the exposure of irrefutable scientific evidence corroborating the threat of global warming, there is little doubt in minds of most Americans that this problem is nothing to be sneezed at.
As recently as last Wednesday, our state legislature and governor decided to take action against this crisis and set a precedent as the first state in the United States to set limits on greenhouse gases emitted from electric power plants, refineries and other sources, according to an article in the Aug. 31 issue of the Los Angeles Times.
According to the article, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature vowed to reduce these gases by 25 percent by the year 2020, probably utilizing things like emission caps.
This action is not only beneficial in its limiting of hazardous fumes and environmental progressiveness, but is also one of the few recent pieces of legislation to call for corporate accountability and responsibility, killing two very large, ugly birds with one proverbial stone.
Fewer things have been as detrimental and annoying to Californians in the past few years as global warming and corrupt corporations. It was only a few years ago that Californians were plagued with regular black and brownouts because of the actions of ne’er-do-wells at Enron, who would frequently shutdown power plants in order to raise the price of energy.
This legislation is the first step in holding corporations responsible for their actions and keeping them from abusing the environment without consequence. Some big business advocates believe that this will result in the loss of jobs or somehow hurt the California economy. This could not be further from the truth.
This new environmental policy will give businesses a new market, encouraging them to create new environmentally friendly products. The biggest example of this is the emergence of the popular hybrid cars. They are in extremely high demand and are giving car companies plenty of business.
The only way this new legislation will hurt companies is by curbing their waste of these harmful gases and requiring that they put into effect some kinds of filters, which will ultimately cost them money. But our gratuitous abuse of the environment is something that must be stopped even if it means that companies will not make as much money as they did the year before.
Even President George W. Bush while in Maryland Monday followed suit, announcing that there should be more research into alternative fuels according to an article in the New York Times.
Hopefully, this trend will continue. Until then, Californians will be able to breathe a little more confidentially knowing that their air is gradually improving over time and their representatives are responsible for it.