GOVERNMENT RELATIONS


in the United States on all topics regarding the environment. Be it legislative, regulatory or in political conversation, our state is setting the tone on how to address climate change. Global warming, the result of mankind’s greenhouse gas emissions, has been blamed for record heat waves, sea rise and droughts. Whether you believe in climate change or not, California’s recent legislative and gubernatorial leadership has embraced all that is environmental leadership. California’s first legislative efforts


to take on the issue of climate change began by setting a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for the generation of electricity. With little debate to be had


California’s Cap and Trade Program Extended T


By Felipe Fuentes


here is no question about it – California’s elected leadership prides itself as the premier leader


over the impacts of climate change – at least for Democrats who are the ruling party of the state – the first legislative policies have focused on the reduction of stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Coal, among the dirtiest of energy sources, has all but been elimi- nated in the state for the generation of electricity. Today, we have renewable energy goals to power our state with 50 percent clean energy sources like wind and solar by the year 2050. It’s largely expected that the legislature will move toward a 100 percent goal for RPS in short order. Of course, these changes do not come without a cost. While RPS sources of energy are not as expensive as they used to be, they still are not quite on par with the cost of natural gas.


Changing Environmental Goals Assembly Bill 32 (AB 32) continued


California’s response to climate change


and has been seen as a landmark approach to environmental policy. Passed in 2006, AB 32 created a market based system that set a “cap” on green- house gas emissions and allowed for emitters to manage this cap by allowing for the “trade” of pollution credits. With a set expiration of 2020, the cap and trade experiment has allowed policymakers and stakeholders to learn what has worked and what has not. Today’s climate goals, as a result of changes to AB 32 in 2016, are to reduce greenhouse gases by 40% from 1990 levels by the year 2030. Tis July, California legislators


passed Assembly Bill 398 which extended the Cap and Trade program to its new expiration date of 2031. While the creation of a marketplace for polluters has not been without policy and legal controversy, this new extension has provided industry


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