AB 32

Subscribe to AB 32

Yesterday, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill (SB) 32 into law, extending and expanding California’s 10-year old greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions mandate under Assembly Bill (AB) 32.  SB 32 provides for a 40% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.  This builds on AB 32’s existing mandate to reduce statewide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.  In negotiations to pass SB 32 in the final weeks of the state legislative session, the bill was trimmed to add only one sentence to existing statute, to insert the 2030 target.  Left unaddressed was one question of the moment, can the cap and trade program authorized by AB 32 legally continue past 2020?  The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has its own answer to the question, the subject of this earlier post.  The courts will no doubt end up as the final arbiter.  Whether post-2020 GHG emissions reductions are met through a cap and trade program or other screws and hammers in ARB’s toolbox, the 2030 target is now written into law, rather than just Executive Order B-30-15.

The vital component of the compromise to pass SB 32 was companion bill AB 197.  AB 197 establishes legislative oversight of ARB’s actions to implement AB 32 and SB 32, by creating a Joint Legislative Committee on Climate Change Policies and adding two ex officio nonvoting members to the Board.  AB 197 also puts a new twist on ARB’s broad authority to adopt rules and regulations to achieve emissions reductions.  AB 32 requires ARB to achieve maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective emissions reductions from sources or categories of sources.  AB 197 further requires ARB to prioritize direct emissions reductions, including from large stationary sources and mobile sources, when adopting rules and regulations to achieve reductions.

In addition to headliner SB 32, the Legislature passed one additional bill with direct emissions reduction mandates, SB 1383.…

Continue Reading California Continues Ambitious Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Late Tuesday, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released draft amendments to California’s cap and trade regulation, including revisions to the current program in place through 2020, an extension of the program through 2030, and setting the stage for continued emissions reductions under the program through 2050. ARB’s proposed amendments come in the middle of a recent milieu of uncertainty:  pending litigation challenging the legality of the existing program, an opinion from the state Office of Legislative Counsel that ARB lacks authority under AB 32 to continue cap and trade past 2020, unprecedented weak demand at the most recent allowance auction, and legislation proposed in the California Senate to establish a statutory emissions reductions mandate for 2030 still in process this session.  With all of these balls in the air, ARB has doubled down and drafted regulations dropping the program’s emissions cap from 334.2 million metric tons (MMT) of CO2e in 2020 to 200.5 MMT in 2030, with major elements of the cap and trade regulation continuing in effect past 2020 to achieve the emissions reductions. …
Continue Reading What You Need to Know about the Proposed Revisions to California’s Cap and Trade Program

Last Friday, September 11, 2015 was the final day for California legislators to pass bills out of the Legislature and on to Governor Jerry Brown for consideration. This year’s crop of bills included something for both sides of the aisle on energy and climate change issues: from the proposed repeal of AB 32, the California law mandating greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, to bills to set a higher GHG reduction target for 2050 and cut petroleum use in half, and from a proposed leap in the state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 50% and incentives for geothermal, biomethane, and alternative fuels, to the repeal of solar water heating loan incentives. Some big ticket items passed, most failed to pass out of the Legislature before the deadline and can be considered in 2016 during for the second half of the two-year California legislative session. Time for the post-mortem.
…
Continue Reading California Legislative Session Wrap-up

Yesterday, California legislators publicly announced a suite of bills to push forward the state’s ambitious clean energy and carbon reduction goals.  California Climate Leadership, a coalition of state senators, including Kevin De León, Ben Hueso, Mark Leno, Fran Pavley, and Bob Wieckowski, discussed the legislation at a press conference shown here.  SB 350…

This week the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released a draft of its AB 32 Climate Change Scoping Plan Update. The original Scoping Plan was adopted in 2008 and must be updated every five years. The Scoping Plan serves as a blueprint for achieving AB 32’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The draft Update summarizes programs implemented over the last five years under AB 32 and outlines actions necessary to continue California’s progress toward the 2020 emissions reduction goal. The draft Update shows that California is on track to meet the 2020 emissions reduction goal and inventories the progress made across different economic sectors and programs like cap and trade. With the Update, ARB continues its strategy of achieving AB 32 goals through a mix of emissions reduction measures, including regulatory programs, incentives, and market-based approaches.…

Continue Reading California Air Resources Board Issues Draft Update to AB 32 Scoping Plan

A tentative ruling was issued yesterday in the related cases California Chamber of Commerce v. California Air Resources Board (ARB)  and  Morning Star Packing Co. v. ARB, pending before the Sacramento County Superior Court.  The cases challenge the legality of ARB’s cap and trade auctions under two theories:  (1) the cap and trade auctions…

Legal News Alert from Stoel Rives Environmental Law Group

March 23, 2011

San Francisco Superior Court has issued a final decision in Association of Irritated Residents v. California Air Resources Board.  For the moment, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is enjoined from further rulemaking to implement the California Global Warming Solutions Act (A.B. 32), including

…

After a full day of testimony and deliberation on December 16, 2010, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) adopted the state’s Cap-and-Trade Program on a 9-to-1 vote. The Program is promulgated under the California Global Warming Solutions Act (A.B. 32) as a market-based compliance mechanism to help achieve reduction of the state’s greenhouse gas (GHG)…