Friday, April 25, 2014

Calif. Cuts Part of Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Exporting Them

How Do Regulated Entities Satisfy Their Compliance Obligations? (Credit: CARB, California Cap-and-Trade Regulation) Click to enlarge.
A California economist says that the state's landmark, economywide cap-and-trade system for reducing greenhouse gases has a fatal flaw that is now emerging.

Utilities, and even a state agency, are ending contracts for electricity from coal-fired power plants, which have high levels of carbon dioxide emissions. That would be no problem, and, in fact, good for the state's climate goals, but the electricity is still being generated and consumed out of state.

The issue is known as "resource shuffling" -- a thorny problem that stems from the basic fact that California has capped its carbon emissions before anyone else in the West. Reducing emissions within California does no good for the climate if the emissions simply resurface elsewhere.

Calif. Cuts Part of Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Exporting Them

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