Law Commons^™

A Flaw In California's Cap-And-Trade Plan, Alan Ramo, Janet Redman

Publications

California has made clear its intention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But is it taking the right steps to do so? The state has set a goal of returning to 1990 emissions levels by 2020. It has adopted renewable energy standards, driven the national trend in controlling automobile emissions and instituted a cap-and-trade program aimed at curbing climate pollution from power plants, refineries and other "stationary sources" of emissions. But a low-profile bill scheduled for consideration by the Legislature next year has exposed that, at least as far as its cap-and-trade program is concerned, California may be off-track. As it …

Thirty Minutes Or Less: The Inelasticity Of Commuting, John Andrew Brunner-Brown

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment urges the legislature to manipulate travel time in order to reduce GHGE (greenhouse gas emissions). Specifically, the legislature must incentivize mass transit by creating easier, quicker transit systems while simultaneously disincentivizing personal automobiles by increasing automobile travel time. By manipulating the travel time for various modes of travel, the legislature can effectively reduce GHGE while increasing individuals’ quality of life by creating an infrastructure that costs less and provides transportation systems not dependent on the automobile.

This Comment explains why the Sustainable Communities Act will fail to significantly reduce vehicle emissions, and this Comment proposes legislative action to …