California Climate & Energy Collaborative

California’s carbon-credit market often pays for greenhouse gas reductions that would’ve happened anyway

Sarina Soor
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“On a dairy farm in California’s Central Valley, Wesley Patterson squinted under a dusty baseball cap as he explained, over the roar of its natural gas-burning engine, the advantages of installing a methane digester. He pointed to several football-field-sized ponds of cow manure covered in industrial-strength tarps. The methane coming off the animal waste is…

CARB awards $10 million in cap-and-trade funding to help communities curb air pollution

Sarina Soor
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“Furthering California’s effort to put billions of dollars of cap-and-trade auction proceeds to work improving quality of life, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) awarded $10 million in grants to help 25 community-groups and three Native American Tribes reduce air pollution in their neighborhoods. The grants will help communities identify areas with most harmful air…

The CO2 Content of Consumption Across U.S. Regions: A Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) Approach

Sarina Soor
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This paper presents two major findings. First, attributing emissions to states on a consumption basis leads to very different state-level emissions responsibilities than when attributed on a production basis; for example, California’s emissions are over 25 percent higher. Second, heterogeneity of emissions across trading partners significantly affects the indirect emissions intensity of consumption (kg of…

Cap-and-Trade and Innovation

Sarina Soor
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“Virtually all economists agree that one of the biggest selling points for pricing greenhouse gases (GHGs) – whether a carbon tax or cap-and-trade — is that it will boost innovation in low-carbon technologies. But will innovation return the favor in California’s cap-and-trade market by making it function more smoothly, saving it from the potential Achilles’…

2018 Cap-and-Trade Auction Proceeds Annual Report

Sarina Soor
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The Department of Finance and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) have released the 2018 Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments using Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds. CARB also released an updated interactive map including each implemented project in the State. Communities throughout the State are realizing a wide range of benefits, including more…

Analysts worry California climate change program is doing too well

Sarina Soor
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California is swimming in $1.5 billion in new money for clean energy programs and the high-speed rail project, after lawmakers extended the climate-change program, cap-and-trade. But analysts suggest the current boom could ultimately undermine the program’s purpose of cutting long-term emissions. Sales of cap-and-trade credits—which businesses must obtain in order to legally emit greenhouse gases—have…

Renewable energy drives California emissions reductions

Sarina Soor
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“Another trend identified in the Near Zero report is that California’s electricity sales declined, which it credits to a combination of energy efficiency and growth of solar PV and other behind-the-meter technologies. However, as greenhouse gas reductions from electricity plummeted, emissions from the state’s other sectors – most notably transportation and petroleum refining – increased…

Cap-and-trade key to green energy future

Sarina Soor
Since 2012, California’s economy has grown twice as fast and produced 50 percent more jobs than the rest of the nation, bolstered by clean energy companies and jobs. Cap-and-trade creates a level playing field, ensuring carbon pollution costs are factored into market decisions, playing an integral role conditioning the market for clean tech success, and helping…