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
