California raises almost $300 million in its first cap-and-trade auction
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the results from its first auction of greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances today. It sold all of the approximately 23 million current allowances (2013 vintage) at $10.09. It sold 14% of the approximately 39.5 million advance allowances (2015 vintage) at $10.00. As I discussed last week, the unsold advance allowances will be held by CARB and offered for sale in either late 2014 or 2015 when that vintage becomes "current."...
CONTINUE READINGTake a Hike!
Walking is a sufficiently novel idea to be the subject of newspaper stories -- as if our ancestors hadn't been doing it since long before Homo sapiens evolved. Anyway, walking is the hot new thing in D.C., according to the Washington Post: “Walkable” is a feature sparking sales and energizing future development and redevelopment, according to a recent report by a George Washington University professor that calls the Washington area a national model for compact urba...
CONTINUE READINGCan “Social Risk Assessment” protect China’s environment?
I've just returned from a month in Qingdao, China, so this story in the New York Times caught my eye. China's new leadership has announced that it will require a social risk assessment before any major industrial project can be begun. The idea is to forestall the increasingly violent environmental protests that have caused the cancellation of several recent projects. The story encapsulates for me some key differences between environmental policy in the US and in China --...
CONTINUE READINGGoodbye, Dan Lungren, Goodbye
It looks like Dan Lungren has lost his reelection bid for the Sacramento-area House seat, at least according to AP. His lifetime rating from the League of Conservation Voters was 4% -- the only surprise being that he must have voted for something pro-environmental a couple of times in his career. (Oddly enough, he came out in favor of removing the dam and restoring the Hetch Hetchy valley. Some observers viewed this as a way of taking a swipe at San Francisco by ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate is a Security Issue
The National Research Council (NRC) has recently released a study called Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis. The security implications of climate change have been discussed in other, similar studies in the past, and this one is largely consistent with what has come before. The central message is that the changing climate will affect the United States, not only through weather and climate-related events in this country, but also through even...
CONTINUE READINGCap-and-Trade: Why Auctions are Better than Give-Aways
Earlier this week California began auctioning off greenhouse gas emissions allowances, and the sky has not fallen. But is an auction really the best way to distribute the allowances? The California Chamber of Commerce says no. Its lawsuit—discussed in recent posts by Ann, Rhead, and Sean—doesn’t challenge the State’s authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions, or the selling and buying of emissions allowances. It doesn’t challenge the “cap” or the ...
CONTINUE READINGBreakdown of the $4.5 Billion BP Criminal & Securities Settlements
As Richard noted in an earlier post, today, British oil company and deep water drilling giant, BP, announced that it had reached settlements of all federal criminal and securities claims related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The criminal plea agreement and securities violation resolution remain subject to federal court approval before they are fin...
CONTINUE READINGWhat happens if not all allowances are sold at the first cap-and-trade auction?
California held its first cap-and-trade auction for greenhouse gas (GHG) allowances yesterday. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will announce the results from that auction on Monday, Nov. 19. What happens if not all the allowances are purchased at the auction? The short answer is that unsold allowances will be withheld from the market and eventually offered for sale in a subsequent auction. And the "market clearing price" for the auction would likely be $...
CONTINUE READINGBP Agrees to Plead Guilty to Felony Charges Arising Out of Deepwater Horizon Disaster
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that British Petroleum has agreed to plead guilty to felony charges stemming from the Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and precipitated the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history. As part of the plea bargain, BP has agreed to pay the federal government $4.5 billion in penalties, including $1.26 billion in criminal fines. BP has reportedly agreed to plead guilty to 11 felony counts relating to the worker deaths abo...
CONTINUE READINGWhy California’s cap-and-trade auction is not a tax
Yesterday, Ann and Cara gave their initial reactions to the California Chamber of Commerce lawsuit against California's cap-and-trade auction. The main thrust of that lawsuit is that the auction (that happens today) is an unconstitutional tax because, according to the lawsuit, AB 32 gave the California Air Resources Board (CARB) no authority to withhold and sell the allowances at auction, as opposed to giving away allowances to industry for free. Ann's first reaction...
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