by Katie Grimes, E&E Legal Senior Media Fellow
As Appearing in Canada Free Press
With President Donald Trump reportedly pulling the United States out of the Paris climate accord, heads must be exploding in California’s Democratic supermajority State Capitol. However, Trump’s decision fulfills a very important campaign promise he made to “cancel” the accord.
California Gov. Jerry Brown issued an Executive Order in 2015 for a drastic new target for greenhouse gas emissions cuts, coinciding with the international Paris Climate Change Treaty. Brown said it was critical to address what he called “an ever-growing threat” posed by global warming to California’s economy and well-being. Brown’s order went even further than then-President Obama’s radical proposals, but aligned with the European Union and United Nations proposals.
Brown the lover-of-all-things-enviro, issued the stricter greenhouse gas reduction target for the state of 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Because apparently already achieving 1990 levels of greenhouse gas levels by 2020 (AB 32) was just too easy, thanks to automotive technology and an abundance of clean natural gas.
