Out of California:Market-Based Plan to Cap Emissions

An organization of California manufacturers voiced satisfaction with the way Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was implementing a market-based program to cap factory emissions of greenhouse gases to slow or halt global climate change. Schwarzenegger has ordered state agencies to develop a market-based program to comply with a new law. In a statement, he ordered state agencies to implement the program in the "most cost-effective and technologically feasible manner with the least impact on California consumers and business." Schwarzenegger earlier signed the measure despite opposition by the state's manufacturing sector. The measure is aimed at bringing factory emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases down by 25 percent, to 1990 levels, by 2020 and by an additional 80 percent by 2050. Dorothy Rothrock, the senior vice president of government relations for the California Manufacturers & Technology Association (CMTA), praised the governor's action, saying it was "good news that he is following through with his stated intention to seek market-based solutions" to the climate-change problem.