Nation's First Cap & Trade Program Approved In CA

History was made at a contentious California Air Resources Board Meeting when the board unanimously approved the nation's first Cap & Trade program to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The program results from CA's 2006 landmark climate law, AB 32.

October 22, 2011, 9am PDT | Irvin Dawid

On Thursday, Oct. 20, "the air board met in Sacramento for more than eight hours in a packed hearing room. Board members listened to sometimes scathing comments from union workers fearful of losing their jobs and a parade of industry representatives who likewise characterized the regulations as anti-business."

"Cap-and-trade is a new tool that for the first time allows us to reward companies for doing the right thing," remarked Mary Nicholson, the chair of the board."

The program, technically a regulation, is a crucial element of the state's climate plan resulting from Assembly Bill 32: Global Warming Solutions Act.

"The complex market system for the first time puts a price on heat-trapping pollution by allowing California's dirtiest industries to trade carbon credits...A second phase of compliance begins in 2015 and is expected to include 85% of California's emissions sources."

The program was challenged unsuccessfully by the oil industry last Novemeber in a ballot measure known as Proposition 23.

Thanks to The Roundup

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California becomes first state to adopt cap-and-trade program

Published on Friday, October 21, 2011 in Los Angeles Times