Western Climate Initiative

0ct 2013

https://thinkprogress.org/california-oregon-washington-and-british-columbia-agree-to-cooperate-on-reducing-carbon-pollution-48751bf971ff#.6y87opgj6

53 million people living in what would be the world’s fifth-largest economy will now be participating in a “far-reaching strategic alignment to combat climate change and promote clean energy.”

On Monday afternoon in San Francisco, the leaders of California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia signaled they would not wait for the United States Congress or the Canadian Parliament to act to seriously address climate change. California Governor Jerry Brown, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and (via teleconference) British Columbia’s Premier Christy Clark signed the Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy.

The agreement is not legally binding and appropriates no money. The plan says it “is intended to spur finding new, smart ways for our governments, agencies and staff to work together,” by doing things like adding value and efficiency to climate initiatives through collaboration, while reducing “overlap and duplication of effort.” So what does it do?

The Action Plan that California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia’s leaders all signed agreed to:

1. Account for the cost of carbon, by linking existing carbon pricing programs and working to develop them in Oregon and Washington. Oregon agreed to “build on existing programs to set a price on carbon emissions,” while Washington would “set binding limits on carbon emissions and deploy market mechanisms to meet those limits.” That sounds like a carbon price and a cap-and-trade system, respectively. California has a cap-and-trade system which has sold out of all its allowances in each of the four auctions it’s held. British Columbia has had a carbon tax for five years, currently at $30/ton (Canadian). If Oregon and Washington’s plans pass and the programs successfully link, a larger market for the region’s carbon allowances would be a boon for business and economic efficiency. All four leaders said they would try to “harmonize” their greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2050 by developing mid-term targets. Washington already has a 2035 target, and the rest of the states will examine if this works for them. All states will establish the more long-term 2050 targets.

2. Implement low-carbon fuel standards in each jurisdiction, meaning again that California and British Columbia will maintain their standard and Washington and Oregon will move to implement them. Each jurisdiction hopes to merge the standards into an integrated West Coast market “that keeps energy dollars in the region, creates economic development opportunities for regional fuel production, and ensures predictability and consistency in the market.” The Action Plan agrees to work toward having 10 percent of all new vehicle purchases in public and private fleets be zero-emissions models by 2016. It also signaled support for high-speed rail infrastructure and innovation, as well as accelerating investment in other alternative fuels across the transportation section.

3. Embrace clean energy in a number of different ways. The four jurisdictions said they would promote ease of access to energy-efficient buildings, ensure climate-smart infrastructure investment, streamline approval for renewable energy projects, and work to expand the regional electric grids. Each state will also support EPA regulation of greenhouse gases from power plants, emphasizing the value of allowing state flexibility.

If they can do this, it will be an important part of getting the U.S., Canada, and the globe the right policy environment to create jobs and cut carbon pollution.

The three states and British Columbia make up a combined GDP of $2.8 trillion, which would make it the world’s 5th-largest economy. “The scientific community no longer disputes that climate change is happening and human-caused,” said Oregon Governor Kitzhaber. “But regardless of where you stand on this question, there’s another good reason to act: transitioning to a clean economy creates jobs.”

At the event, leaders from businesses like construction company Skanska USA, Cisco Systems, and Taylor Shellfish Farms spoke about how business was doing well as their state governments moved to tackle climate change.

The signatories agreed to “where appropriate and feasible, link programs to create consistency and predictability” to account for and reduce carbon pollution across the four jurisdictions. With an eye toward a global agreement in 2015, these heads of state saw commitments to reduce their own carbon emissions as a signal to national and sub-national governments that such an agreement was essential.

The Pacific Coast Collaborative was established in 2008 among the four signatory governments plus Alaska (which did not sign the Action Plan) to help them collaborate on challenges facing the North American West Coast — among them, emergency management, clean energy, and economic growth.

Ocean acidification, for example, affects everyone. But it particularly threatens the economies of coastal states. The Action Plan calls for the American and Canadian governments to work to research and monitor ocean acidification to “understand its causes and impacts.”

The Western Climate Initiative was a regional cap-and-trade agreement in 2007 between between California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and four Canadian provinces. It had been scheduled to go into effect in 2012, but with the midterm elections in the few years preceding the deadline that resulted in the losses of climate hawks, California’s AB 32 and British Columbia’s carbon tax were essentially the only two programs left standing when the dust cleared.

This new agreement could mean that efforts like this to lower carbon emissions are alive and well, depending on how each government implements the plan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Climate_Initiative

yet

Washington state

Washington lawmakers are considering a bill to increase penalties for people blocking highways and railways, acts that the bill's sponsor has characterized as “economic terrorism.”

see CA OR WA BC 2013 initiative http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/10/28/2850021/california-oregon-washington-british-columbia-agreement/

11/11

6 States Pull Out of Western Climate Initiative

SustainableBusiness.com News

After the Northeast carbon trading program **reported on its great success**last week, generating $1.6 billion for the region's economy, 6 states pulled out of a similar initiative planned for the western part of the US.

New Mexico, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Montana and Utah all formally declined to participate in the Western Climate Initiative,leaving only California and four Canadian provinces - British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Instead, the states say they will join a new national program, the North America 2050 Initiative, which they say gives states much wider choice as to how they will reduce emissions and deal with environmental issues.

British Columbia's Environment Minister Terry Lake told the Vancouver Sun that the continuing recession and the election of Republican governors in some of the states has lowered their priorities to address climate change.

California plans to participate in both programs in addition to its state-level cap-and-trade system, which begins next year.

"Whether through adopting California's Advanced Clean Cars program, or implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard, or requiring energy efficiency audits for major industrial polluters, or requiring electrical utilities to serve their customers with renewable energy, there are many opportunities for states and provinces to take real, measurable steps to cut carbon emissions and reduce petroleum dependency," says Mary Nichols, Chair of California's Air Resources Board, which is in charge of the cap-and-trade program.

Nichols says California will continue to work through the Western Climate Initiative to put in place a comprehensive cap-and-trade program. "After several years of study and deliberation, the National Academy of Sciences recommended pricing carbon emissions to drive major investments in energy efficiency and low-carbon technologies as part of a comprehensive strategy. We are confident that the successful track record and economic benefits of cap-and-trade programs will encourage additional states and provinces to join us in leading the clean energy economy."

British Columbia plans to stay in the Western initiative, but isn't sure if it will go ahead with cap-and-trade because it could interfere with its existing carbon tax, which is finding success.

It's also in the first phase of its own carbon market where the Pacific Carbon Trust buys carbon credits from industry and sells them to schools and hospitals. The province requires public institutions to be carbon neutral and last year, raised $18.2 million in carbon offsets.

wiki

Western Climate Initiative, or WCI, was started in February 2007 by the governors of five western states (AZ, CA, NM, OR, and WA) with the goal of developing a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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History

The Western Climate Initiative, or WCI, was started in February 2007 by the governors of five western states (AZ, CA, NM, OR, and WA)to evaluate and implement ways to reduce their states's emissions of greenhouse gases and achieve related co-benefits.^[1] These states and future participants in the initiative (collectively know as WCI "partners") also committed to set an overall regional goal to reduce emissions (set in August 2007 as 15 percent below 2005 emission levels by 2020),^[2] participate in a cross-border greenhouse gas registry to consistently measure and track emissions, and adopt clean tailpipe standards for passenger vehicles. By July 2008, the initiative had expanded to include two more states (MT and UT) and four Canadian provinces (BC, MB, ON, and QC). Together, these WCI partners comprised 20 percent of U.S. GDP and 76 percent of Canadian GDP.^[3]

Goals and design

The most ambitious and controversial objective of the WCI was to develop a multi-sector, market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Detailed design recommendations for a regional cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions were released by the WCI in September 2008 and July 2010.^[4] By December 2011, California and Quebec adopted regulations based on these recommendations. (The WCI has no regulatory authority of its own.) Key administrative aspects of the regional cap-and-trade program are being implemented in 2012. Power plants, refineries, and other large emitters must comply with the cap in 2013. Other greenhouse gas emission sources, such as suppliers of transportation fuels, must comply with the cap beginning in 2015. Among other things, the Western Climate Initiative lays the foundation for a North American cap-and-trade program, not only in its design and implementation, but in its potential acceptance of greenhouse gas emissions offsets from projects across North America.

Views of WCI

Some observers described the entire project as :{greenwash:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: designed to avoid committing to the :{Kyoto Protocol:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}:, and cited evidence that much more drastic cuts, up to 40%, could be achieved without affecting investment yield in equities, a good indicator that such cuts would not affect economic prospects in the economy as a whole.^[5]

Partners vs. observers

Several U.S. partners, although active participants in the design of the program, announced in 2010 that they would either delay or not implement the program in their jurisdictions. The partnership was therefore streamlined to include only California and the four Canadian provinces actively working to implement the program. As of January 2012, regulations have not been issued by British Columbia, Manitoba, or Ontario, although a carbon tax in British Columbia will be increasing to $30/tonne of CO~2 equivalents in July 2012.^[6] Several WCI partners also remain active in theInternational Carbon Action Partnership, an international coordinating body for several such regional carbon trading bodies.

Alberta and Saskatchewan object to cap-and-trade and in July 2008 called WCI's plan a "cash grab by some of Canada's resource-poor provinces."^[7] However, Alberta has legislated a small restricted carbon charge of its own. The objections seem to be more related to the reporting and disclosure requirements that would be much higher for a North American project than for one based strictly in Alberta. Monitoring of the carbon-intensive Tar Sands, for instance, is inadequate according even to Alberta's own government.^[8][9] Industry funding to other independent monitoring was also cut.^[10] Some of the states that withdrew by late 2011 also intended to develop oil shale, hydraulic fracturing of natural gas and coal resources that would have broad impacts beyond climate on water, including more ocean acidification.

Until late 2011, the initiative included two types of participants: partners and observers.^[11]

For several years, the partners were the U.S. states of California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec. All states except California withdrew in 2011. See below re membership.

The observers included at various times Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Wyoming, the province of Saskatchewan (which objects to WCI plans for a cap and trade system^[7]), and the Mexican states of Baja California,Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora and Tamaulipas.

Membership changes

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

26 February 2007: Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington form the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative.^[12]

24 April 2007: British Columbia joined with the five western states, turning the WCI into an international partnership.^[13]

21 May 2007: Utah became the sixth state to join the WCI when Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed the Initiative.^[14] Huntsman was the second Republican governor to join, after California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

13 June 2007: Manitoba said that it would be the second Canadian province to join the WCI.^[15]

24 September 2007: Alaska joined the WCI as an observer.^[16]

19 November 2007: The Governor of Montana announced that his state would also join.^[17]

January 2008: Montana officially joins the WCI.^[12]

18 April 2008: Quebec, previously an observer, became a partner.^[18]

18 July 2008: Ontario, previously an observer, became a partner.^[7]

2 February 2010: Arizona announces it will not implement a cap-and-trade program, particularly during the economic downturn, but maintains its membership in the WCI as a partner.^[19]

29 June 2011: California announces that enforcement of the cap will be delayed one year to allow the necessary elements of the program to be in place and fully functional. The stringency of the cap and expected amount of emission reductions, however, will remain unchanged.^[20]

6 July 2011: In order to maintain a coordinated approach to implementing the regional program, Quebec announces a one-year delay in enforcement of the cap^[21]

18 November 2011: Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington leave WCI formally.^[22][23] Participation by BC was cast into doubt also, where officials indicated satisfaction with the existing carbon tax approach and had not committed to implementing a cap and trade system to replace it.^[24]

As of December 2011, the remaining WCI members are California and the Canadian provinces British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec.