California Spearheads US Climate Action Efforts

California took a giant leap forward on Thursday, when it became the first state in the world to impose regulations on gasoline and other fuels, with the purpose of reducing the environmental impact that they had. The move will force the market to look for cleaner alternatives, and has the potential to encourage innovation in the field. The new bill is also the first that deals with the fuels themselves, and not with the cars and trucks they power.

Advocates of the measure have expressed their satisfaction with it, and say that it's a landmark piece of legislation that will most likely be emulated by other states in America, and around the world as well, Reuters reports. Following alarm signals raised by numerous studies that linked global warming to man-produced greenhouse gases, Californian authorities decided to step in and to ask for tighter regulations.

Depending on how the decisions will be implemented, we could witness a transformation of the century-long tradition of building cars and transport infrastructures around the internal combustion engine. Undoubtedly, all-electric and hybrid vehicles will soon appear in larger numbers on the streets, along with recharging stations and other appropriate facilities. San Francisco already has a few such terminals, and plans have already been set in motion to construct more similar facilities in the area.

“California's first-in-the-world low-carbon fuel standard will not only reduce global warming pollution, it will reward innovation, expand consumer choice and encourage the private investment we need to transform our energy infrastructure,” State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement. Currently, transportation-related pollution accounts for 40 percent of California's total emissions, and for 30 percent at a national level. The state is also the leading market for automobiles in the country.

Companies that manufacture and refine fuels will have to reduce the carbon dioxide-generating potential of their products by at least ten percent until 2020. After that, even larger cuts are slated to go into effect. They can do this by investing in cleaner fuels, or by buying carbon credits to offset their emissions. This would ensure that the biofuel and alternative fuel markets stay relatively isolated from the oil one, as well as from the latter's price fluctuations.