Calif. joins others to battle climate change
By Paul Rogers, San Jose Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO — Saying that the West Coast must lead the way in battling climate change, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington, along with the premier of British Columbia, signed an agreement Monday committing the Canadian province and the three states to coordinate global-warming policies.
Each state and the Canadian province promised to take roughly a dozen actions, including streamlining permits for solar and wind projects, better integrating the electric power grid, supporting more research on ocean acidification and expanding government purchases of electric vehicles.
“You are witnessing a historic small-but-powerful first step,” Gov. Jerry Brown said during the event at Cisco’s San Francisco campus.
“It’s only the beginning. You just watch,” Brown said. “Next year and the year after and the year after that, this will spread until finally we get a real handle and grasp on what is the world’s greatest existential challenge — the stability of our climate, on which we all depend.”