◼ California's pioneering climate-change law has a long reach, but that doesn't mean all its mandates will help stave off global warming. - LA TIMES
To meet the requirement that it cut carbon emissions, for example, Southern California Edison recently sold its stake in one of the West's largest coal-fired power plants, located hundreds of miles out of state.
But the Four Corners Generating Station in New Mexico still burns coal — only the power that Edison once delivered to California now goes to a different utility's customers in Arizona....
California power plant owners complain that they are competing at a disadvantage because out-of-state firms find ways to send in cheap, coal-generated energy without labeling it as such. State rules allow companies to avoid specifying which plants are shipping electricity. So the power could as easily be generated by coal from Wyoming as wind from Oregon.
California officials — and some environmentalists — argue such concerns will fade as the Obama administration executes its recently unveiled plan to force all states to lower power plant emissions. Others caution that the administration's plan will give states wide latitude to take their own approaches at their own pace and, as a result, won't force reductions as quickly as California's law would.
"A lot of people say: 'Don't worry about it, we will break a few eggs on the way to getting this done, but eventually all the other states will join California,'" Cullenward said.
"But from a practical, political perspective, there is almost no prospect for a state like Arizona adopting the kind of strict rules we have in California."
