Why should business pay attention to California’s AB 32, the climate change law mandating an economy-wide 25 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020?

How California goes, so goes the nation, particularly when it comes to the business of energy. State regulators are writing the rules for the nation’s first comprehensive program to limit carbon emissions. So far, the non-utility industries impacted include cars and trucks, refrigerators, landfills, docked ships, semiconductors, cement plants, fertilizers and auto tune-up and oil change shops.

And that’s just the beginning. The state Air Resources Board –in charge of drafting carbon reduction rules for the nation’s largest energy market – claims these early measures only get the state 1/10 of the way to the goal of cutting over 170 metric tons of carbon. To put that in perspective, that is the equivalent carbon spewing from 43 standard coal-fired power plants.