Cap-and-invest continues to be Washington’s best tool for cutting pollution and delivering investments to communities. As linking with the California-Quebec program comes closer to being a reality, the continued success of Washington’s program demonstrates how a larger, linked market will benefit all involved.
The program just completed its third auction of the year. Here are the results and what they mean:
As all California climate policy nerds know, things are heating up in Sacramento around the details for extending the state’s landmark cap-and-trade program. There are many ways in which the program can be strengthened to better align with the state’s emission reduction targets and address affordability challenges for working families, both of which are needed now more than ever.
However, a baffling new proposal would undermine the credibility of the program and abandon its track record of results by dramatically lowering the price ceiling for emissions allowances. If enacted, it would allow for unlimited emissions, make it a tossup if California meets its climate goals, and decimate the program’s ability to raise revenue for climate action. Let’s unpack why.
Photo by Sophia Wojkowski
Excitement around biochar is growing, as is interest in its role in the Voluntary Carbon Marketplace (VCM). Biochar is a carbon-rich form of charred biomass or other organic material. Its primary climate benefit is that it decomposes and releases carbon dioxide much more slowly than its parent material (also known as feedstock, the original biomass used to create the biochar).
Importantly, this climate benefit hinges on the feedstock’s other potential uses. If the feedstock has an alternative use with a greater climate mitigation potential (e.g., bioenergy, in certain contexts), then biochar production may not be the best use from a mitigation perspective. However, where the feedstock would have been left to decompose or ended up in landfills, climate mitigation via biochar may be the best end use.
Results were released today for the third auction of the year in the California-Quebec cap-and-trade market. This auction delivered slightly stronger results over the May auction, with all current allowances sold and settlement prices rising above the price floor. This bump in market demand potentially suggests renewed market confidence, though this confidence could be temporary if the Legislature doesn’t act urgently to reauthorize the program.
This blog was supported by Julia Young, an Andlinger fellow from Princeton University. This is the third in a blog series on the opportunities presented by the Pathways Initiative, focused on California.
California’s legislature is winding down to the last days of its session. A top priority should be finding ways to save families money on their utility bills without compromising the state’s clean electricity goals. A well-designed western electricity market does just that, according to a new analysis supported by EDF.
The difference between lawmakers getting the details right or wrong in Senate Bill 540 is significant. Getting it wrong jeopardizes the future of a unified western electricity market, costing Californians $350 million dollars a year. This affirms prior research about the need to get the details right since that would enable Californians to save more than a billion dollars each year in energy costs by developing a unified western market.
Image credit: Pexels
Colorado’s electric grid is under pressure. Extreme weather events, like last month’s heat wave, are causing more blackouts. At the same time, power demand is surging with data centers, buildings and vehicles all plugging into the grid.
Colorado needs to modernize its grid – fast. And it must do it in ways that don’t worsen climate change and air pollution, issues that are already bearing down on Coloradans. Building more electric transmission – long-range power lines that carry clean power from areas where it is plentiful to the areas that need it – will be a key part of the solution.
That’s why it’s welcome news that last month the Colorado Electric Transmission Authority (CETA), an independent agency tasked with facilitating expansion of critical electric transmission infrastructure, announced six transmission concepts to prioritize for development. Building these transmission projects will bring reliable, affordable, clean power to more Coloradans.
Now, CETA must move these projects forward quickly, so that they can help Colorado continue its clean energy progress and meet the state’s climate goals.
Here’s why electric transmission in Colorado matters and what’s next for those projects.
