The Western Climate Initiative (WCI) has quietly ended its nearly four-year experiment with a regional economy-wide cap and trade scheme. Arizona announced its formal withdrawal from the WCI, and five other states have done so informally. That leaves California as the only western state remaining in the WCI, along with four Canadian provinces – British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. The WCI’s website noted the transition… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Cap & Trade
Subscribe to Cap & Trade RSS FeedAustralia Adopts Carbon Tax, Why Can’t U.S.?
Posted in Cap & TradeThe Australia Senate’s passage November 8 of the Clean Energy Bill legislative package containing a carbon tax marked a significant step by a major industrial nation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, it received scant attention in the U.S. even though this was a major step the likes of which the U.S. has studiously avoided so far. Australia’s path to regulating carbon has been every bit… Continue Reading
California Passes Cap and Trade. Now What?
Posted in Cap & TradeWhen the eighth largest economy in the world, and one that happens to occupy a large portion of the western U.S. coastline, adopts a groundbreaking set of rules, you would think that would get a lot of attention. Yet, after the California Air Resources Board’s landmark decision on October 20 to adopt the first of its kind in the U.S. economy-wide… Continue Reading
Opinion Says U.S. and Canada Airlines Are Subject to EU Emissions Program
Posted in Cap & TradeU.S. and Canadian airlines can be required to surrender greenhouse gas emissions allowances for their flights into and out of Europe according to an October 6 opinion by the Advocate General for the European Court of Justice. The opinion concluded that international laws and treaties do not bar application of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (EU ETS)… Continue Reading
California Moves (Slightly) Closer to Cap-and-Trade
Posted in Cap & TradeCalifornia’s cap-and-trade program, targeted for startup on January 1, 2012, inched forward when the state Supreme Court on September 28th rejected the Association of Irritated Residents’ petition for review and application for stay of the Scoping Plan issued by California Air Resources Board (CARB). The Scoping Plan is CARB’s outline for implementing AB 32, the measure that requires reduction of California greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and… Continue Reading
EPA Messes with Texas, Congress Likely to Mess with EPA
Posted in Cap & TradeTwo days before Christmas the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency handed the state of Texas the regulatory equivalent of a lump of coal for its stocking. The agency announced that, effective January 2, 2011, it will follow through on the threat to take over issuance of air permits to industries in Texas. This is a first for EPA and was prompted by the refusal of Texas to… Continue Reading
First U.S. Economy-Wide Cap & Trade Coming to California
Posted in Cap & TradeWhen California regulators took the major step on December 16th of adopting cap and trade regulations (PDF) , they did what Congress has been unable to do, and appears unlikely anytime soon, at the federal level. At more than 3,000 pages in length, the regulations are the epitome of complex. Even so there still are a number of important issues to be determined. And while adoption might not have happened at… Continue Reading
California Releases Cap & Trade Design to An Uncertain Fate
Posted in Cap & TradeThe California Air Resources Board (ARB) has released its proposal for a cap-and-trade program (PDF) just as voters weigh the pros and cons of an initiative that, if passed, would put a hold on the statutory basis for the program. While the cap-and-trade design has been in the works for some time now, its fate hinges on the outcome of the November 2 election Program Design… Continue Reading
UK Carbon Allowance Rebate Scheme to Become a Carbon Tax
Posted in Cap & TradeThe U.K.’s nascent Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) Energy Efficient Scheme appears to be making a dramatic change from a rebate program to an outright tax. Before the first carbon allowances have even been sold, Britain’s efforts to reduce its budget deficits apparently are the driver for taking the CRC from a scheme that "recycles" carbon allowance revenues back to users and converting it to the government keeping that revenue to "support… Continue Reading
States Continue to Go It Alone on Cap & Trade — But For How Much Longer?
Posted in Cap & TradeThe demise of the climate bill in the U.S. Senate now leaves the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (“RGGI”) and the Western Climate Initiative (“WCI”) as the only cap-and-trade programs in the U.S. RGGI, which covers 10 northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, holds its ninth auction of emissions allowances in September; meanwhile the WCI, made up of seven U.S…. Continue Reading
Lawsuit Challenges WA Governor’s Climate Change Executive Order
Posted in Cap & TradeSix Washington state taxpayers have filed a lawsuit (PDF) to stop implementation of Gov. Christine Gregoire’s May 2009 Executive Order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The lawsuit claims the governor exceeded her constitutional authority and invaded the province of the legislature by issuing the order, but the challenge is a real stretch in light of existing state climate change law, the Governor’s… Continue Reading
Many UK Firms Likely to Miss Carbon Registration Deadline
Posted in Cap & TradeReuters reports that an environmental consulting firm has concluded about 40% of the British firms that are supposed to register for the UK’s new Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRCEES) don’t even know they have an obligation to do so and are likely to miss the September 30 registration deadline. The CRCEES launched on April 1… Continue Reading
Confidentiality & Carbon Reporting
Posted in Cap & TradeAs U.S. facilities collect their greenhouse gas emissions data this year to submit the first reports to the federal Environmental Protection Agency next March, one of the issues has been how the agency will treat information that a company considers confidential. Under the EPA’s proposed rule it appears that most of the data provided by facilities will be publicly available and not protected as confidential business information (CBI). Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule The… Continue Reading
California’s Climate of Confusion
Posted in Cap & TradeCalifornia is sending mixed signals on climate change issues these days. While the state has been a leader in adopting both cap-and-trade and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) as parallel strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, those two tracks seem to be diverging. An initiative, Prop. 23, seeks to roll back the state’s landmark cap and trade measure, but at the same time the state legislature is considering uping the… Continue Reading
New Climate Bill Bodes Ill for EPA Rules & Regional Cap & Trade
Posted in Cap & TradeThe 21-page summary (PDF) of the Kerry-Lieberman draft climate bill, known as the American Power Act, leaked a day ahead of the official release on Wednesday, May 12, and contains a lot for everyone. As indicated by various reports that surfaced throughout the on-again, off-again process, the bill also contains provisions that would preclude EPA and the states from… Continue Reading
The Iceland Volcano’s Lingering (Legal) Fallout on Aviation
Posted in Cap & TradeAlthough commercial aviation in Europe is up and running again after a several-day shutdown due to the Iceland volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, the eruption may have raised an issue that goes beyond passenger disruptions. Just as the aviation sector is fighting inclusion in the European Union’s Emissions Trading System ("EU-ETS"), the cancellation of more 100,000 flights in Europe due to concerns about volcanic ash highlighted that sector’s significant contribution… Continue Reading
Cloudy Forecast for Western Climate Initiative
Posted in Cap & TradeEfforts by Western states to forge a super-regional cap-and-trade program keep running into serious obstacles. The latest is a New Mexico judge’s ruling on April 13 granting a preliminary injunction to stop that state’s environmental agency from consideration of cap and trade regulations, The ruling is the latest in a series of blows to the Western Climate Initiative, which is beginning to look a lot… Continue Reading
Tokyo Launches Asia’s First Cap & Trade Program
Posted in Cap & TradeThe Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) on April 1 began a cap-and-trade program (PDF) that will cover approximately 1,400 industries, commercial buildings and large office buildings within the Tokyo Prefecture. The emissions trading program is Asia’s first and was rolled out at the same time that the UK also is expanding cap-and-trade to non-industrial businesses and government buildings. … Continue Reading
UK Rolls Out Carbon Trading for Businesses — Would the US Adopt It Too?
Posted in Cap & TradeWhile the U.S. Congress argues whether or not to adopt climate change legislation that includes cap and trade, the United Kingdom has rolled out a new mandatory carbon trading program sweeping in businesses that, up to now, have not been covered by the European Union’s Emissions Trading System. Under the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC), large… Continue Reading
Climate Change Regulation Before Legislation in U.S.
Posted in Cap & Trade, Climate ChangeSen. John Kerry’s announcement on Nov. 16 that the Senate’s version of climate change legislation, the Clean Energy & American Power Act (S. 1733), probably won’t be considered until "early spring" 2010 now makes it more likely that the first move by the U.S. will come from the Environmental Protection Agency rather than Congress. Sen…. Continue Reading
What’s Next for the Western Climate Initiative?
Posted in Cap & TradeGood AP piece in the Daily Olympian about the recently adjourned Washington legislative session that failed to adopt the Governor’s requested bill to implement the state’s part of the Western Climate Initiative cap-and-trade program. The combination of a very tough economy (a $9 billion budget hole to fill) and the potential for federal cap and… Continue Reading
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