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Energy:
environment; greenhouse gases
Our Position: support
Bill Number: HB2530
Sponsor: Sinema
Legislative Session: 2007 Legislative Session
This bill establishes a greenhouse gas registry and requires a reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases in Arizona to 2000 levels by 2020 and 50% below 2000 levels by 2040.
Status
It was assigned, but never scheduled for a hearing.
Action Needed
Please ask your legislators to support measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This bill is dead for now, unfortunately.
More information
To read the full bill and see more about its status, go to http://www.azleg.state.az.us/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=HB2530
Contact
Sandy Bahr at 602-253-8633 or sandy.bahr@sierraclub.org
Background
The scientific community has concluded that burning fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas – to power our cars, homes, and businesses is causing global temperatures to rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projects that during our children’s lifetimes, global warming will raise the average temperatures on Earth within a range of 2.7 to 10.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The national science academies of the United States, England, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, Brazil, China, and India issued the following joint declaration: "The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action." The world's leading scientists ask us to "recognize that delayed action will increase the risk of adverse environmental effects and will likely incur a greater cost." [Source: "Joint Science Academies' Statement: Global Response to Climate Change," June 2005]
Between 1990 and 2005 Arizona’s greenhouse gas emissions increased by nearly 56% -- 59.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The scary part is the emissions are forecast to increase by 148% from 1990-2020. It comes as no surprise that transportation and electricity account for about 77% of those emissions (transportation is 39% and electricity 38%).
To begin to address this, Governor Napolitano appointed her Climate Change Advisory Group in June of 2005. The Group – composed of business interests, utility executives, farmers, environmentalists and many others – developed 49 recommendations which they sent to the Governor in September of 2006. They included a recommendation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Arizona to its 2000 emissions levels by 2020 and 50% below 2000 levels by 2040, and to establish a greenhouse gas emissions registry – both of these recommendations are contained in HB2530.
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