California Air Resources Board

Reflections on environmental justice and AB 32’s emissions trading program

I have a few thoughts on environmental justice and the new court decision halting implementation of the AB 32 scoping plan, inspired by my colleague Ann Carlson’s post, and the comments on that post.  Reflecting on the environmental justice community’s successful (at least temporarily) attack on greenhouse gas emissions trading in California – and on the …

CONTINUE READING

AB 32 Lawsuit: Assessing the Environmental Justice Arguments Against Cap and Trade

As Cara wrote yesterday, a California court has put AB 32 on hold temporarily on the grounds that in preparing its scoping plan, the California Air Resources Board failed to assess alternatives to its plan with appropriate detail.  In particular, the court took issue with CARB’s failure , under the California Environmental Quality Act, to …

CONTINUE READING

Three Obstacles To California Climate Progress

California’s AB 32  — the Global Warming Solutions Act — is the biggest and best thing going on the domestic climate change front.  The bill is sweeping in its application and the agency charged with implementing the Act, the California Air Resources Board, has moved aggressively to chart out the path the state will need …

CONTINUE READING

California Cap-and-Trade Math

In late October, California Air Resources Board (CARB) released their draft regulations for cap-and-trade under AB 32.  I looked at CARB’s proposed allocations: the cap, the offset percentage, the reserve percentage and the projected emissions level.  Running the numbers allows a few general observations: If covered emitters take full advantage of the 8% allowed offsets, …

CONTINUE READING

Prop 23 and What It Says (Or Doesn’t) About Californians’ View of Climate Change

What conclusion should we draw from the drubbing that California gave to Prop. 23, the ballot measure that would have overturned our landmark Global Warming Solutions Act?  Andrew Leonard at Salon applauds our voters for affirming “their commitment to tackling the challenge of climate change and our dependence on fossil fuels.”     But Sean, in his …

CONTINUE READING

Moving Forward With Cap-and-Trade in California

In 2006, the California Legislature enacted the Landmark Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which authorized–but did not compel–the California Air Resources Board to adopt a cap-and-trade program as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce state greenhouse gas emissions. A year ago, CARB adopted its AB 32 “Scoping Plan,” in which it commits to …

CONTINUE READING

California Air Resources Board releases draft cap-and-trade plan

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) today released the preliminary draft cap-and-trade regulation. CARB staff would like to have comments by January 11th of next year. A new proposal based on the comments will then be issued in Spring 2010. Some quick key points: 1) The proposal limits a covered entity’s use of offsets to …

CONTINUE READING

For Renewable Energy in California, It’s Not Clear Which Way the Wind is Blowing

If California’s governor sticks to the plan he announced last week, California’s leadership role in promoting domestic renewable energy development is in doubt.  As Cara Horowitz reported in a recent post, the governor announced his intention to veto recently-passed legislation that would have set a target of 33% renewable power by 2020.  Instead of signing …

CONTINUE READING

California Adopts Low-Carbon Fuel Standard

Good. The California Air Resources Board has adopted the nation’s first mandate to lower the carbon in fuel. As these things go, it’s pretty mild: a 10% reduction in carbon footprint by 2020. That hasn’t stopped the oil industry from complaining, of course, stating that CARB is “moving too fast.” When will it not be …

CONTINUE READING

TRENDING