SACRAMENTO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown today presented state counties at their annual conference a list of ways to avoid winding up like the state's largest county.

Brown today told county supervisors at the 113th annual meeting of the California State Association of Counties that state law obliges them to reduce state greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The meeting was held in Brown's hometown of Oakland, in Alameda County.

The AG delivered a laundry-list of ways that county development could proceed without adding to state GHG emissions. These included encouraging high-density housing and limits on parking to reduce car trips, stressing energy-efficient building designs and installing methane-recovery technology.

At the meeting Brown touted his recent GHG-emission agreement with San Bernardino County, the state's (and nation's) largest county. That pact included making inventories of the county's past, current and future emission sources and reduction targets to aim for.

Brown sued San Bernardino County last spring over charges that its growth blueprint did not adequately address the state's GHG-reduction mandate, LNL reported. The two reached agreement several months ago after a protracted dispute and threats by Brown to sue other California counties and municipalities.

Brown and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sued the EPA last week to allow the Golden State to begin enacting its stricter new emissions standards for vehicle-tailpipe GHGs.