When it was adopted four years ago, California's climate law was seen as revolutionary for the steps it took toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, the law, AB 32, requires reductions to 1990 levels by the year 2020 and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

This is a law to watch. For one thing, it's considered the toughest environmental law on U.S. books. For another, what happens in California rarely stays there: the state's immense size and electoral power extend its influence far beyond its borders.

Ed Rubin, Carnegie Mellon engineering and public policy professor (and Nobel laureate), says California is always out front on environmental legislation because it typically encounters or anticipates serious problems before other parts of the country. 

The state, as it works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions per AB 32, has formed a blue ribbon panel to advise state agencies on what policies and regulatory changes are needed for carbon capture and storage. Rubin is on the California Carbon Capture and Sequestration Panel, though he's not quite sure how he was chosen. But he admits his reputation has made him one of the go-to experts for removing CO2 from power plant emissions and storing it underground. 

He never thought of declining the invitation. "This is an extremely important panel," he says, pointing out why carbon capture and storage are so critical-half of all U.S. electricity is currently supplied by coal, the biggest emitter of CO2, and another 20 percent is generated by natural gas, also a significant source of CO2. 
-MiChelle Jones (HS'90)