Skip to Content
Streetsblog California home
Streetsblog California home
Log In
Cap-and-Trade

California Cap-and-Trade Is “Officially a Success”

2:54 PM PST on November 10, 2015

The California Air Resources Board says that the cap-and-trade program is a success. Next year's report will include the transportation and fuels sector. Image: Oil fields near Bakersfield. Melanie Curry.
The California Air Resources Board says that the cap-and-trade program is a success. Next year's report will include the transportation and fuels sector. Image: Oil fields near Bakersfield/by Melanie Curry.
Oil fields near Bakersfield. Photo by Melanie Curry.

Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) officially dubbed the state's cap-and-trade system “a success.”

Cap-and-trade, which began in January 2013, places a cap on emissions from industries in California, and then auctions off emission “credits” to companies that pollute, thus creating billions of dollars that can be invested in further greenhouse gases reductions. The data showing that cap-and-trade has cut climate pollution come from the state's Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which requires the largest polluters to report their emissions every year.

Jonathan Camuzeaux and Tim O'Connor of the Environmental Defense Fund report that total climate pollution in the first compliance period—2013 and 2014—decreased over three percent. This puts California's emissions levels well under its 2014 cap, and puts the state well on its way to achieving the 2020 emissions levels target set by AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.

At the same time, California's economy has prospered and employment has increased. Camuzeaux and O'Connor write:

California also experienced remarkable job growth during the same period. In 2013, California saw total employment increase by 2.1 percent, beating the national average. In 2014, job growth in the state reached an impressive 3.2 percent. As a comparison, the rest of the United States experienced only an average 2.2 percent growth in jobs that year.

The cap-and-trade system is a totally new idea, and whether it is workable or not is a question closely watched by the rest of the world. This early report shows that companies subject to the cap are figuring out how to comply with the rules, and incorporating them into their business practices.

But plenty of questions remain, including how truthful companies are in their reporting—a question not easily dismissed in view of the recent VW scandal. Another question is whether measuring, comparing, and reporting emissions on a per capita basis--something CARB and the legislature have chosen to do for a variety of good reasons—will let us off the hook in terms of the total emission reductions the state really needs.

But it's a really good start.

CARB's data [PDF] do not include all of the transportation sector, which came under the cap-and-trade system in January of 2015. Since transportation produces such a large portion of the state's greenhouse gas emissions-- almost forty percent—and fuel companies have resisted legislative efforts to control their emissions, next year's report should be interesting indeed.

For more information, see the EDF blog here.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog California

Guest Commentary: Traffic Engineers Must Put Safety Over Driver Throughput

No other field would tolerate this level of death and destruction. The tragedy of West Portal is more evidence that the traffic engineering profession is fundamentally broken

March 28, 2024

Why We Care About Some Transportation Tragedies More Than Others

Why do we respond to major transportation disasters with so much urgency — and why don't we count our collective car crash epidemic among them?

March 28, 2024

Thursday’s Headlines

Climate change is affecting the earth's rotation; Republicans in Congress are out to kill California transit "boondoggles"; Reducing driving is essential; Rethinking intersections for safety; More

March 28, 2024

Transportation Commission: Touting Active Transportation, Approving Highway Expansions

Despite public pleas to stop spending on highway expansion, pro-expansion forces still take the day.

March 28, 2024

Survey Says: American Walking Data Is Getting Worse

The National Household Travel Survey has never given a full picture of how often Americans get around on foot. But a recent change in methodology may have made made matters worse.

March 27, 2024
See all posts