Environmental Law

California Officials Release Revised Climate Change Plan

By Dennis Pfaff and Kevin Livingston, Editors

California officials on Wednesday released a revised blueprint for meeting the state's ambitious greenhouse gas reductions required by its landmark anti-global warming law, AB 32.

Among other new elements, the plan revealed that officials are thinking about imposing some new fees on certain types of greenhouse gases, and on all water connections.

The document, which outlines a number of expansive measures, including participation in a regional emissions market, or cap-and-trade program, through the multi-state Western Climate Initiative, comes at a challenging economic moment for the state and the world. It's a fact that Mary Nichols (pictured), the chair of the California Air Resources Board, who laid out the plan for reporters, acknowledged:

"This is a program that we're rolling in at a time of significant economic distress in our state and in our country. We are not at this point suggesting anything other than measures that we think will be helpful in getting us on a track towards energy efficiency. We know that investments in energy efficiency and conservation pay off."

Officials just recently released assessments touting what they viewed as the economic benefits of the plan to reduce the state's greenhouse gas output. That theme was also echoed by a statement from the Natural Resources Defense Council, in which an official of the environmental group called the document "an economic stimulus plan."

The new "scoping plan" springboards off an earlier version that was unveiled this past summer. Some of its major elements are the same, including a call for the state's utilities to meet a renewable portfolio standard of 33 percent, meaning a full third of their power would come from renewable sources by 2020.

It also continued to avoid specifying what proportion of emissions credits would be initially auctioned under a cap-and-trade program initially, which has been an ongoing question. Such a trading program would cover about 85 percent of the state's emissions, from sectors such as electricity production, transportation and industry, according to the air board's information, including a press release announcing the new document.   

The plan proposed a "public goods charge" on water use that, according to appendices released along with the plan, would raise between $100 million and $500 million a year to raise funds for reducing greenhouse emissions from capturing, storing, conveying and disposing of water. It would be imposed on all water connections. The plan estimated that almost 19 percent of the state's electricity use is associated with water use.

Another new fee would raise up to $1 billion annually, by establishing a new charge on sales of some industrial gases that have high potential for contributing to global warming. Many of those substances, according to the documents unveiled Wednesday, are used in automobile air conditioning systems and as foam-blowing agents.

Other elements of the plan include expanding the state's energy efficiency programs; implementing California's emissions standards for motor vehicles, long tied up in a dispute with the federal government and implementing a low-carbon fuel standard.

Under the 2006 AB 32 law, California is obligated to reduce its emissions of heat-trapping gases to 1990 levels by 2020. That's equivalent to about a 15 percent cut from current levels, or about 30 percent below what might be expected if nothing were done.

The plan unveiled Wednesday is expected to go before the air board in December. Its provisions would formally kick in in 2012 but Nichols noted it includes some incentives for businesses to take steps earlier than that to reduce their carbon footprint.

--Dennis Pfaff of Thelen LLP

Photo: Courtesy, California Air Resources Board

Full post as published by Climate Law Update on October 15, 2008 (boomark / email).