America’s Oil Addiction
Oil Covered Pelican
The U.S. sends more than $1 billion overseas to pay for the nearly 20 million barrels of oil that we guzzle per day.
Petroleum products power 95% of American transportation and 28% of the carbon emissions in the U.S. are caused by burning gas. In California, nearly 40% of all GHG emissions are from Transportation.
Mitigation Efforts
In 2006, the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) was signed into law, requiring the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to create regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Two years later, California added SB 375 to the books, creating an implementation mechanism for the Global Warming Solutions Act.
In accordance with SB 375, CARB set regional GHG reduction targets for each of the 18 Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) in California in 2010 (Click here to view the targets). In the next few years, each MPO must create a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) aimed at reducing GHG emissions to reach CARB’s targets.
The SCS will be integrated into the MPO’s official Transportation Plan, the established framework for distributing state and federal transportation funds. Federal regulations require Regional Transportation Plans to be internally consistent—so the funding outlined in a plan must be consistent with the plan’s Sustainable Communities Strategy. That is, transportation funding will have to be designed to achieve GHG reduction goals.
By requiring regional planning commissions to combine land use planning and transportation planning to reduce GHG emissions from personal automobiles, SB 375 gives local governments a new tool to reach our GHG reduction goals and reduce the amount of miles Californians must drive.
Sierra Club California’s Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled Campaign is focused on encouraging people to get out of their cars, and encouraging our elected officials to provide funding and support to safe, convenient, and environmentally sound alternative transportation. SB 375 will encourage walkable, livable, and sustainable cities.
The SB 375 Process
The process for implementing SB 375 varies slightly from one MPO to another. The process began in January 2009, when Regional Targets Advisory Committees (RTACs) were formed. The RTACs recommended regional targets to CARB, which then reviewed the data and issued official target levels in September 2010.
Long Beach Blue Line
Once the target levels are decided, SB 375 requires the MPO’s to collect specific data to prepare the SCS. The MPO’s must map current land use, population density, and building intensity; project population and housing growth; specify transportation networks; gather scientific data on land use; and consider state housing goals.
The primary elements of the SCS include a 25-year forecast for land use, alternative transportation investment scenarios, and transportation prices and policies. Later this year, each MPO will submit their SCS to CARB for review. If CARB finds that the modeling shows that the SCS will not meet the regional targets, the MPO must adopt an Alternative Planning Strategy (APS) that does meet the target.
CARB is to update the regional targets every eight years until 2050. When CARB does this, the SCS or the APS must show that the new targets will be reached.
The Environment and SB 375
Protecting our natural environment means more than conserving wild places. Sierra Club California’s Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled campaign works to protect clean air, clean water, and open spaces by advocating for smart growth, green transportation options, sustainable land use, dense cities, and freedom from fossil fuels.
With Sierra Club California involvement, SB 375 has the potential to conserve wild places by encouraging infill projects rather than sprawl, keeping the city in the city and leaving wild places for wild things. This law is intended to reduce GHGs from transportation and decrease our dependency on oil by reducing the necessity of driving a car in California.
By decreasing our dependence on oil, this SB 375 would decrease the likelihood of another oil spill catastrophe and decrease the California’s vulnerability to oil shocks.
Sources:
- TransForm SB 375 Fact Sheet
- SB 375
- Sierra Club’s Beyond Oil and Green Transportation Campaigns
Bringing Localized Clean Energy to California Communities and Expanding the use of Renewable Distributed Generation