Coalition outlines cap-and-trade strategy

7 Western states, 3 provinces aim to curb emissions

July 28, 2010|Jeff Barnard, Associated Press

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — A coalition of seven Western states and three Canadian provinces yesterday offered its most detailed strategy yet for controlling greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, saying they hope it will stand as a model for national systems in the United States and Canada.

At the core of the Western Climate Initiative is a cap-and-trade system that would go into effect in January 2012, gradually reducing emissions. The system, which gives financial incentives to reduce carbon emissions, would start with power plants, then extend to large industrial producers and transportation.

The goal is to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the next 10 years to levels 15 percent below those in the year 2005.

Building on a less detailed strategy issued two years ago, the plan was unveiled as Congress has been unable to produce a climate bill to address the same issues.

The document includes the first details of how the carbon auction would work, and it recommends that offsets from programs that store carbon would be limited to a fraction of total emissions. There would be a floor price on emissions, and the auction would be open to anyone.

The nation’s first mandatory regional effort to curb emissions from power plants was the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which includes Massachusetts.

Art Sasse, a spokesman for Pacificorp, which serves about 1.7 million electricity customers in the Northwest, said the utility had not seen enough specifics about the latest plan to comment.

So far, only two states — California and New Mexico — and three provinces — Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia — are writing regulations in anticipation of joining the Western regional carbon auction when it begins in 2012, said Michael Gibbs, California’s deputy secretary for climate change and cochairman of the initiative.

The two states and three provinces account for 70 percent of the emissions produced by the signers of the strategy, creating enough liquidity to get the cap-and-trade system up and running, said Robert Noel de Tilly, climate change adviser for Quebec’s Ministry for Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks.

An economic analysis estimated that fuel savings would offset the cost of investing in new, energy-efficient equipment to meet limits on carbon production, Gibbs said.

Not all of the states in the climate group are enthusiastic. The Utah Legislature has passed a resolution urging Governor Gary Herbert, a Republican, to pull out, and Arizona passed a law barring the state government from adopting a regional cap-and-trade without legislative approval.

The other states in the coalition are Montana, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.