California gives final OK to cap and trade

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

(10-20) 19:33 PDT Sacramento --

California's plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions and put a price on carbon is set to take effect on Jan. 1 after the Air Resources Board voted Thursday to make final adjustments in the regulation.

The state board first passed the cap-and-trade program last December. But the board, which normally allows its staff to finalize details, took the unusual step of personally tying up the loose ends of the nation's only comprehensive limit on greenhouse gases. It is the last major regulation the board considered to meet the requirements of AB32, California's greenhouse gas reduction law passed by the Legislature in 2006.

The law requires the state to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The cap-and-trade element covers about 20 percent of that goal, with the majority of the other reductions coming from limiting the amount of carbon in fuel and requiring more efficient vehicles, renewable energy mandates and energy efficiency requirements.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/20/BA901LK83V.DTL&ao=all

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Jerry Brown has returned California's ability to lead the nation.

Way to go Brown! Love that guy!

[Liberty Belle]

2. Go, Jerry, go! Now that's leadership. Jerry's been green since before it was fashionable.

Back in the day they called him Governor moonbeam for it, but he was forward thinking all along.

[Firebrand Gary]

3. Governor Moonbeam is back!

Every person that I talk to is beyond happy with his actions. Even when he vetoes legislation that many of us are behind, we get irritated with him, but we know where he is coming from.

[calimary]

4. Yes indeed. I'd rather have his mindset brought to bear on the issues of the day

than anyone else. At least it will be well thought out, whatever his decisions.

[No Elephants]

5. Respectfully, he was not called moonbeam for being Green.

[alp227]

10. The song Calif uber alles by dead kennwdys

Sorta conveys that msg

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Glad to be leading the pack on this --

With CA such a big market, this will influence the nation. :applause:

[slackmaster]

9. Even if the whole nation goes that way, it won't make a hoot of difference...

...until China, southern Asia, Europe, etc. do.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, alp.

[pampango]

8. NYT: A conservative political rebellion against cap and trade helped the Republican resurgence..."

California’s ambitions are in striking contrast to those of much of the rest of the nation. A conservative political rebellion against cap and trade helped the Republican resurgence in 2010. Attacking the plan as “cap and tax,” opponents argued that it would impose excessive costs on energy industries in a weak economy.

The board members seemed keenly aware that they were giving the state a policy prescription regarded as poison in some parts of the country. But in an interview before the vote, the board’s chairwoman, Mary D. Nichols, invoked the state’s history of national environmental leadership, suggesting that if California acted first, the rest of the country would eventually come around.

Yet skeptics of the program are not hard to come by. Steven F. Hayward, a specialist on environmental issues with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he doubted that the new program would have much of a future.

“In the absence of a national program or even regional programs getting much traction, I don’t think this will go far,” he said. “It will probably get off with a bang, with some big early trades capturing some low-hanging fruit. But then it will wither and die an ignominious death.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/business/energy-environment/california-adopts-cap-and-trade-system-to-limit-emissions.html

Kudos to California for taking the lead.