SAN FRANCISCO—The
Western Climate Initiative (WCI) today unveiled their proposed design for a regional
cap and trade program to spur reductions in carbon emissions that cause global
warming. The regional agreement is a
significant advancement for establishing science-based action on global warming. Unfortunately, the proposed design contains
flawed elements that must be resolved in order to help families with rising
energy costs and to drive investments in clean technologies.
“The WCI is an important step forward for cutting pollution
and fossil fuel dependence, but the proposed design includes major flaws that
must be fixed,” said Environment California Global Warming Advocate Jason
Barbose.
The most significant design defects are:
Failing
to commit to making polluters pay for their pollution permits, and using the
proceeds to help families with energy bills and invest in conservation and
clean energy;
Allowing
polluters to buy “offsets” for the majority of pollution reductions, which
means that energy companies could pay for projects such as tree-planting
in a foreign country instead of energy conservation or better transit in California.
In addition, the decision to avoid bringing oil companies
into the program until 2015 delays the time when the program starts offering
better transportation choices to Californians who are looking for ways to drive
less and reduce gas consumption.
“The final plan needs to prevent billions of dollars in
giveaways to oil and power companies, and it needs to make sure big polluters
are not allowed to outsource clean energy investments that should be happening
in California,”
said Barbose
The WCI partners are holding a major stakeholder workshop in
San Diego on
Tuesday, July 29th before crafting final design recommendations for
release in September. The WCI was
established in 2007 by the governors of California,
Oregon, Washington,
Arizona, and New Mexico.
Since then the states of UtahMontana and the Canadian provinces of British
Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec
have joined the initiative. and
“We encourage Governor Schwarzenegger to continue his
leadership in fostering strong, meaningful action on global warming and
ensuring California
is leading the transition to a new energy future,” concluded Barbose.
