Opinion: California can fight climate change and reduce local pollution at the same time

To the editor: This editorial concludes with the right message: So far our state’s climate change program has worked well and should be extended. (“California may be leading on climate change, but that doesn’t mean it can ignore local pollution,” editorial, July 1)

The role of offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program is small but often misunderstood. Offset programs provide direct funding for healthy forests and wetland restoration, protection of open space and agricultural lands. These actions protect air quality and drinking water, provide wildlife habitat and create a more complete set of tools to fight global warming.

The state can do more to reduce localized air pollution that particularly impacts disadvantaged communities. Extending cap-and-trade and reducing local air pollution are not mutually exclusive. Hopefully, Sacramento leaders will seize this opportunity and pass legislation that achieves all of the above.

California must continue its global leadership and build on successes achieved in our cap-and-trade program. There is no viable alternative and we cannot afford to fail.

Louis Blumberg, San Francisco

The writer is climate change director for the Nature Conservancy in California.

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