Experts Debate Economic Side Effects of California’s Cap and Trade Program – November 16, 2012

State holds first carbon auction as part of effort to stem global warming

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, California’s potentially revolutionary carbon cap-and-trade program launched in a humdrum fashion. Numbers began appearing on a secure Web site accessible to the biggest oil exploration companies, manufacturers, utilities, state regulators and independent monitors. No one outside of this select group got to see its inner workings.

Photo by Gord McKennaLarge electric utilities were among the first businesses to fall under California’s greenhouse gas
cap-and-trade program that kicked off on Wednesday.

But the event marked a new phase in the state’s pioneering effort to halt climate change: actual dollars traded for permits to emit carbon dioxide. 

For the first time in the… more

by: Barbara Grady

(0) Comments

View Posts by Date View Posts by Author