SACRAMENTO — California is poised to become the first state in the nation to enforce a comprehensive limit on the air pollution that causes global warming, under legislation announced Monday. The bill, which mirrors the goal set by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last summer, would limit greenhouse gas pollution to 1990 levels by the year 2020, and require the state’s Air Resources Board to establish a mandatory reporting system to track and monitor emission levels. If it becomes law, the limit means power plants, refineries and other large-scale consumers of gas, oil and coal would need to reduce use of those fuels, install costly equipment to prevent their byproducts from escaping into the air, or adopt cleaner, alternative energy technologies. Proponents say the limit would spur development of those technologies — possibly subsidized by a new fee on gasoline sales. And as happened with California’s pioneering limits on auto emissions, the goal is to inspire other states to impose stricter limits on all greenhouse pollutants. “We believe that if left unchecked, global warming threatens our air quality; it threatens our water supply; it threatens our coastlines, and our public health,” Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, a […]