Levels of mandate - voluntary/mandatory continued

The Fresno Bee (can that be a real name?): Two concurrent battles globally - levels of government (in this case, State and local) that are battling over jurisdiction and the voluntary/mandatory battle over emissions targets.

"This month, Fresno County political leaders expect to vote on proposed targets for cutting emissions of those climate-changing gases -- mainly carbon dioxide from burning gasoline and other fossil fuels. In the long term, making those cuts will change how cities grow and how their people move around.

The local effort is intended at least partly to head off more aggressive targets that could be imposed this year by the state Air Resources Board, which oversees California's climate-change program.

'We felt it was prudent for us to provide a recommendation rather than letting the ARB do it on their own,' said David Fey, deputy city planner in Clovis.

Whether that strategy will work is not clear. The state still reserves the right to set more aggressive targets and may need to do so, because it is counting on local land-use and transportation measures to cut large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

An initial plan from December 2008 estimated that 5 million metric tons per year of emissions could be cut that way. That's equivalent to taking 1 million cars and light trucks off the road completely.

Local governments jealously guard their longstanding control of local land use.

The law mandating the greenhouse gas targets -- Senate Bill 375 from 2008 -- doesn't change that. It does, however, call for the ARB to set emissions targets, which the locals will have to meet or risk loss of funding for transportation and other uses."