Connecting the Dots Between Global Warming Bill and Health of Those Exposed to Carbon-Based Gases

The Global Warming Solutions Act is first-of-it’s-kind legislation in the United States.

It establishes regulations that will phase in a 25 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions from the state’s five largest emitters by 2020.

That cut will bring carbon emissions down to 1990 levels. That’s a strong start for California, since we are the world’s twelfth largest emitter of global warming causing greenhouse gases.

And it's one of the few times in my career I'll be proud of California going backward.

I'm excited to tell you leaders from all over the country what we’re doing here in California to slow climate change. Because I know our success means you can do it too.

And that not only means better health for our planet, it also means more jobs and opportunities in our communities as we develop the green technologies
to combat climate change.

If I can, I want to diverge a minute into some inside baseball -- which, to be fair, if you weren't really good at, you probably wouldn't be here today.

For a long time the image of an environmentalist in California was a stereotypical brie-eating Chardonnay sipping Volvo driving Marin county-ite.

The real people behind that stereotype made some huge differences. The Coastal Commission. The Endangered Species Act. CEQA.

But there were other issues that affected people who wouldn't commonly be known as environmentalists.

There aren't a lot of brownfields in Marin. There aren't a lot of polluting factories in Malibu. Kids in the Central Valley get asthma more than the kids on the central coast.

One of my strong hopes for AB 32, with the broad support that has come out behind this bill, is that we are witnessing if not the birth, the maturity of a coalition between Latino leaders and communities and environmental advocates and communities that will impact policy for years to come.

There’s a bumper sticker you've probably all seen: think globally. act locally.

If anything, AB 32 and the coalition we've built around it shows we can do both.

And I hope each of you will be part of that coalition and part of that change and part of the future our communities deserve.

Thank you again for the honor of speaking here today.