At Last, Greenhouse Gas Sense!

Paradoxically, it's always easier to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, through conservation and efficiency improvements, than to go through the rigamarole of calculating greenhouse gas emissions and thereby try to get some ostentatious public recognition of one's supposed good intentions and good works. This is true even though the calculations for CO2 emissions, for example, are simpler than for typical criteria air pollutant emissions.

Only the utilities seem very interested in the California Climate Action Registry, created two years ago by the state legislature, but that's because they fear regulation and need that crucial public recognition of their efforts. The City of Sacramento doesn't have the luxury of plunging into the numbers, though, as Joel Levin, the Registry's vice president of business development explains:

Levin said power suppliers are especially interested in grappling with their emissions voluntarily, fearing that if they don't, government mandates will follow.

"For a city that's completely strapped, they see this (registry) as more of an environmental reputation thing," Levin said. "They don't have the fear of God they'll be regulated."

As I've stated before, for green house gas reductions, I fear regulation will never work. Instead, the slogan for dealing with greenhouse gas emission reductions should be the one Nike uses: "Just Do It!" And cities all over the state are coming to the same conclusion. Hooray for common sense!