CARB Releases Draft Update of Climate Change Scoping Plan

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has released a discussion draft of the First Update of California’s Climate Change Scoping Plan for public review and comment. 

The California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) requires CARB to update the Scoping Plan every five years.  The updated Scoping Plan discusses progress toward meeting AB 32’s short-term target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, concluding that California is on track to meet that goal, and summarizes policy alternatives that would allow the State to achieve the long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.  (See Executive Order S-3-05.)

The Scoping Plan also states CARB’s intention to adopt an interim target for 2030 emissions, citing the United States’ pledge in the Copenhagen Accord to reduce emissions to 42% percent below 2005 levels (33% of 1990 levels) by 2030, and noting that “this level of reduction is achievable in California.”

With respect to the Cap and Trade Program that covers emissions from electric utilities, transportation fuels, and certain industrial sectors, the Scoping Plan notes that “CARB will develop post-2020 emissions caps to reflect the establishment of a 2030 midterm target,” and leaves open the possibility that the Cap and Trade Program “may need to include broader emissions scope” that would extend the Program to new industries. 

The Scoping Plan neither specifies the level of the midterm emissions reductions target nor does it identify the additional industrial sectors that may be covered under an expanded Cap and Trade Program.   These details are left for future legislation and regulatory activity and are sure to the subject of intense debate and lobbying efforts in Sacramento.

--Chris Jensen

For more information, contact Chris Jensen at (415) 228-5411, cdj@bcltlaw.com.