first a little background
"Bay Area News Group - Friday December 17, 2010"
Paper edition
Its listed website "www.insiderbayarea.com"
Jpg of complete article - page 1, page 2.
CAP AND TRADE
California takes the lead on climate
By Jason Dearen
Associated Press
SACRAMENTO - California
Regulators on Thursday approved
the first system in the nation to
give polluting companies such as
utilities and refineries financial
incentives to emit fewer green-
house gases.
...
quite a bit of action needed
before it becomes operational."
California is trying to "fill
the vacuum created by the
failure of Congress to pass
any kind of climate or energy
legislation for many years
now," said Nichols.
...
Some businesses that
would fall under the new
rules say the system could
dampen California's already
flagging economy, complicate
lawmakers' efforts to close a
$28.1 billion revenue shortfall
and lead to an increase in the
price of electricity.
...
The state's landmark climate law had a Jan. 1, 2011,
deadline for devising and enacting the so-called cap-and-trade system.
Here's how it would
broadly work:
A company that produces
pollution buys a permit from
the state that allows it to send
a specified amount of carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse
gases into the air each year.
Those permits could then
be bought and sold by the polluters in a marketplace.
If a company in Fresno
is 15 percent under its pollution allowance, it can sell the
unused portion to a company
in Long Beach that has exceeded its quota. The Fresno
company gets to keep the
money.
Polluters can even make a
profit, if the marketplace sets
a price above the initial cost
of the permit.
A company that exceeds its allowance can also buy what are called "offsets." These can be bought by companies with forestry or other projects that reduce greenhouse gases. Those companies can sell those to polluters in the marketplace, also at a profit. Under the new California rules, regulators would enforce limits on heat-trapping gas emissions beginning in 2012, eventually including 85 percent of the state's worst polluters.
The amount of allowed
emissions would be reduced
over time, and the regulations would expand in 2015
to include refineries and fuel
distributors, such as oil companies. The lone dissenting
board member, John Telles,
said he had concerns that the
new market created by the
regulation was too vulnerable
to cheating.
"We're potentially vulnerable here to be manipulated,"
he said. "And I don't see
enough safeguards in the design of the market."
...
Al Gore to become the first carbon billionaire?
In case you ask ;-)) here is my opinion.
Krazyfornia (highest unemployment in the nation, state selling bonds to pay current
expenses, "budget" over-run some 11 billion to 28 billion - who knows?) is currently exchanging our standard of living conditions with
China and Mexico - which have few of our problems:
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