On Sept. 27, 2006, California's then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Global Warming Solutions Act, or AB 32, which battled climate change through statewide programs designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The law tasked the California Air Resources Board with returning the state's greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a 25 percent statewide reduction, through broad regulations and market programs.
ALERT: Is Global Warming a Hoax? Vote Now
More than eight years later, California paces the U.S. in energy efficiency standards, innovations, and environmental protection.
Here are four successes of the Global Warming Solutions Act:
1. The Environmental Defense Fund has mapped the state to show the state's clean transportation future. By dispatching an army of energy-efficient vehicles along roads paved with charging stations, fuel-friendly stations.
In April 2014, the EDF released a "
Green Roads" map, which cited about 300 businesses in more than 400 locations across the state's clean transportation sector. The companies range from producers of alternative fuel to electric vehicle manufacturers, and are "proof that California's innovative clean transportation policies are contributing to the state's robust economy," according to a press release.
VOTE NOW: Are You Concerned About Global Warming?
2. The company Edeniq has found a better way to produce ethanol more efficiently using corn kernels. If Edeniq continues to make strides, the company may transform the transportation fuel industry, according to the
Renewable Fuels Association.
3. Three California-based companies — BYD America, Green Automotive, and Motiv Power Systems — are working to streamline the use of electric buses. BYD America and GA make the vehicles, while Motiv Power Systems builds the electric power supply units.
4. Another trio of companies, Clean Energy Renewable Fuels, Waste Management, Inc., and Linde North America, is combining their specific areas of expertise toward transforming the methane from the state's Altamont Landfill into liquefied natural gas, which can then be used as a low carbon transportation fuel, according to the
EDF.
URGENT: Do You Think Global Warming Is a Hoax? Vote Here Now!