Posts Tagged: emission

Opinion

Air quality regulators must protect vulnerable communities

Unhealthy smoke covering San Jose in 2018, the result of wildfires. (Photo: 1000Photography, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The impact of California’s wildfires have left residents across the state with unhealthy air that residents in the Central and Inland Valley breathe throughout the year. The American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report shows that 11 California cities rank within the highest ozone levels or worst particulate contamination in the nation.

Opinion

SB 32 hits the pocketbook

A powerplant at sunset. (Photo: David Crockett)

OPINION: Last week, politicians congratulated themselves on passing SB 32 – the climate change bill that aggressively extends and expands greenhouse gas emission reductions for the next 13 years—until 2030. Unfortunately, for Californians like you and me, this bill will result in ever-increasing cost burdens on businesses and employees throughout the state.

Opinion

ZEV program running out of gas?

The state Capitol, Sacramento. (Photo: David Monniaux)

OPINION: With the clock ticking down to the end of this year’s legislative session, our leaders in Sacramento are debating initiatives that will put more clean cars on the road, boost air quality and innovation, and improve the health of our residents. We must take advantage of this brief window of opportunity to recalibrate the state’s primary mechanism for encouraging electric vehicle adoption – the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) credit system.

News

January looms, fuel fight heats up

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.

News

Californians want quick action on greenhouse gases

The Public Policy Institute of California

A record-high majority of Californians say state government should act right away to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rather than wait until the economy and job situation improve. This is among the key findings of a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC).

In PPIC’s

News

California’s second cap-and-trade auction today

California’s second cap-and-trade auction is being held today, with more than 23 million greenhouse gas emission credits on the block.

 

The credits, known as allowances, allow industries and other emitters of greenhouse gases to continue in operation as they gradually reduce emissions as required by state law. Several hundred entities are expected to participate

News

Base price up for emission allowances

The Feb. 19 auction  of emission allowances, a key piece of California’s law to curb climate-changing greenhouse gases, will carry a slightly higher reserve price than last November’s cap-and-trade auction, the state’s top air-quality regulator told lawmakers on Monday.

 

Mary Nichols, the chair of the California Air Resources Board, said the per-allowance reserve, or

News

State’s first cap-and-trade auction in the history books

It was kind of like eBay.

For three hours on Wednesday, millions of dollars worth of pollution credits were expected to be sold to scores of companies at California’s first auction under the state’s 2006 law to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

 

The auction, which went forward despite legal challenges, is unique among the states,

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