A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)California is in the midst of multiple regulatory efforts to reduce methane emissions from natural gas and oil operations throughout the state. It’s a key opportunity to make a real dent in the state’s climate impact since methane, the primary component of natural gas, packs over 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the first 20 years after it is released unburned.
California motorists in a traffic jam. (Photo: Shutterstock)Currently, fuel is about $4 per gallon and California burns about 14 billion gallons annually. Estimates of the magnitude of a potential hike vary widely, but most range from 15 to 20 cents per gallon, which would raise perhaps $2.1 billion to $2.8 billion annually. Efforts are under way in the Capitol, led by the petroleum industry, to exempt transportation fuels from the auctions until 2018.
With California continuing to face one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, citizen energy users were disappointed to read Susan Frank’s column in which she failed to offer any real solutions but focused almost exclusively on attacking California’s oil and gas industry.
Instead of demonizing people, why not have a more constructive
With time short before California rings the bell on its own carbon market, this is an appeal directly to our state’s regulatory leadership.
Stop.
Do what you said you would do if the evidence was clear that California’s “cap-and-trade” program is not ready to roll out later this month.
At minimum, slow