I once believed that carbon reduction and peak oil would be the defining issues of my generation, and that to be involved in land use was the opportunity and challenge of a lifetime. Instead I am now inclined to believe that the overleveraging of the American consumer debt economy, and its resultant exposure of our economic model as the emperor's new clothes of the capitalist economy of the west may be almost as big an issue, and one that will overshadow our economy and prospects for development here and abroad in the developed world for what is likely to be the remainder of my working life.
No longer will the United States be viewed as the gold standard for safe investment of the concentrations of capital accumulating in the multinational corporations, China, India and the oil producing countries, as a result of our capital disinvestment in our own country, and seemingly insatiable appetite for cheap oil and cheap consumer goods.
I am pleased to announce that I recently qualified for certification as a LEED Certified Professional and to use the designation "LEED-AP".
After nearly 30 years as a lawyer and planner, the last thing I really needed was more letters after my name - M.C.R.P (Master of City & Regional Planning), J.D. (Juris Doctor), A.I.C.P (American Institute of Certified Planners) and now LEED-AP to boot. The reason I joined the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), took the extra courses and studied for the exam is not to add to the alphabet soup, but to underscore my long-standing commitment to energy-efficient and environmentally-conscious design.
In the article recently published in the California Real Property Journal, Vol. 26 No. 4, (January 2009) I explain the problem of governance that combating global warming through more efficient land use and development practices poses for California. The California Constitution directly establishes the police power of cities and counties, and state statutes enshrines the principle of local control for all land use, planning and zoning issues. The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (better known by its bill number, AB 32) commits the state to reducing greenhouse gas emission levels equivalent to those as they existed in 1990 - a reduction of roughly 30% from the average in 2004-2006 -- by the year 2020. This puts local control of land use on a collision course with centralized state command & control regulatory regime that AB 32 creates to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction mandate.
AB 32 assigns the principle responsibility for developing an overall plan to accomplish the GhG reduction goal to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB has the authority to adopt regulations needed to meet it, and to impose fines and/or injunctions or other penalties for failure to comply. CARB is also to recommend measures to further reduce emissions by another 60- 80% by 2050, in line with the Kyoto Protocol and recommended by the vast majority of climate scientists as necessary to keep human induced climate change from spiraling out of control and causing hugely disruptive changes in the earth's climate and sea levels.
To: California Air Resources Board
Subject: Comments on Scoping Plan - Regional Transportation Target
National Business Institute is offering "Climate Change: Local Government Response" on December 12, 2008 at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, 1230 J Street in Sacramento.
The faculty for this seminar are land use and environmental attorneys Timothy D. Crimin of Meyers Nave, Eric W. Davis of Somach, Simmons & Dunn and Joel Ellinwood, AICP Lawyer-Planner. Topics include Planning, Land Use and Climate Change; Local Government Operations and Initiatives and CEQA and Climate Change. You will hear about the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field including a review of the AB 32 CARB Scoping Plan, SB 375 Regional transportation, land use, housing and greenhouse gas reduction coordinated planning, and the status of revisions to the CEQA Guidelines mandated by SB 97.
[first published in California Planning & Development Report on October 9, 2008]
One of my personal commitments during the last year or so to a more sustainable future is to take the train and transit whenever I travel if time and routes permit.
