"Cool Cars" - coming soon to California - Part 2

With "Cool Cars" window glazing 15-day comment period completed and the California Air Resources Board (ARB) staff now finalizing proposed regulations for car window glazing (http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/cool-cars/cool-cars.htm), this a good time to overview briefly the ARB regulatory process. The ealier "Cool Cars" post is here.

The regulatory process is the intersection of science, goals, industry, government and us - the public. Ultimately, what interests me are questions like:

- Why is California considered a leader in energy, automobile emissions, reducing GHG?

- What can we do insure this continues?

- Is the science being used to achieve maximum effect?

As always, the 'devil is in the details.' ARB's regulatory process seems straight foward. Roughly, after initial notice the ARB has 1 year to complete a 45-day comment period (plus public hearing), then modify the proposed regulation and finally allow a 15-day comment period before preparing final regulations. All of these are transparent process which allow public participation and comments.

Cool Cars is now at this final stage, preparing final regulations, in a timeline that officially began in May 2009, but was actually informally in public discussion before that. Cool Cars is one the ARB's Early Actions, under AB32.

To actually come into effect, a California regulation must go through two more steps. The California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has 30 days to check the rule. The California Secretary of State then prints the regulation in Code of Regulations and the rule goes into effect 1 year later. All of this is governed by the California Procedures Act. (More info here:

-http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/2009/coolcars09/coolcars09.htm -http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/how-to-participate.pdf)

The ARB group studying "Cool Cars" is headed by Dr. Marijke Bekken, who has been helpful in answering questions and pointing me in the right direction.

Of course, the primary responsibility of ARB is to regulate. But I can not help puzzle over what roles the following play:

• teach (or inform) us of the latest science and options
• focus our attention on problems requiring a solution
• provide a more independent complement to legislative process, i.e. political

Overview of the regulatory agency process and how to participate:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/html/decisions.htm

http://www.arb.ca.gov/regact/how-to-participate.pdf