Energy Exchange

Make no mistake, California is a leader when it comes to improving air quality and deploying unprecedented amounts of cleaner, low-carbon fuels. However, despite years of efforts to cut vehicle emissions and reduce fossil fuel consumption, California remains in the top spot nationally for gasoline use, and is home to the top five most polluted cities in the country.

In addition, as the state and surrounding region continues to cut petroleum usage and clean up the environment – yielding major climate benefits – economic growth in emerging markets across the world means that our efforts are being undercut by increases in use elsewhere.

For California to truly deliver in in the fight against climate change, we must not only cut fossil fuel use and deploy cleaner alternatives at home, but also create solutions that deliver benefits abroad. In other words, we should aim to export our best transportation policies abroad – the ones that have helped California reduce fossil fuel use yet still help foster economic opportunities and growth.

A range of current policies are helping drive new technologies that yield low carbon vehicles and fuels

Over the past 15 years, California has given birth to the some of the most ambitious and successful climate change related transportation policies imaginable. For example, in 2002 the legislature adopted the Pavley Clean Cars law (AB 1493) which set greenhouse gas standards for automobiles. This law eventually led to new national vehicle efficiency standards and the production of a new wave of more efficient and cleaner cars and trucks.

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These days there seems to be steady stream of stories coming from Washington D.C. that are of interest to California, from national standards on trucks to new regulations covering existing emissions sources under the Clean Power Plan. However, the story treadmill runs in reverse too, as evidenced by the attention being paid to California’s world-leading climate program, AB 32, which is being fully implemented during a time of strong economic recovery in the Golden State.

In February 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), The Climate Registry, the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, and the Association of Climate Change Officers will host the Climate Leadership Conference in Washington D.C and California’s AB 32 story and success will be on full display.

At the CLC in Pentagon City, taking place February 23^rd through 25^th, hundreds of policy makers, businesses, and advocates from across the nation will learn about and discuss efforts that are leading the way on climate solutions. As part of that discussion, the California story – from cap and trade to the Low Carbon Fuel Standard – will be showcased and broadcast in a multi-hour seminar, connecting state-level solutions to national decision makers.

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Just over two years ago, the California Manufacturers and Technology Association (CMTA) hired Andrew Chang and Company, LLC, a Sacramento-based economics consulting firm, to produce a report titled “The Fiscal and Economic Impact of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.” Though one might hope a report of this nature would deliver honest analytics and academic rigor, EDF economists found it to be an all-out attack on California’s AB32 law, thinly disguised as a credible analysis, and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of basic economic principles, misguided modeling assumptions, faulty calculations, and a willful disregard for the potential benefits of environmental regulation.

Fast forward to September 2014, and now the California Drivers Alliance, an organization organized and funded by a collection of oil producers known as the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), has taken a deceitful page out of CMTA’s playbook. This time though, the deceptive report comes from Andrew Chang’s former business partner, Justin L. Adams, now at Encina Advisors. The report – “Placing Fuels Under the Cap: The Economic Impact to California” – again concludes AB32 will be destructive to the economy, while ignoring the wage gains many Californians will receive from higher-paying jobs in California’s emerging clean energy economy.

While there are more holes in this latest report than in a block of Swiss cheese, here are three of the biggest ones: Read More »