Earth Equity News

What the Western Climate Initiative Does Right... and Could Do Better. Posted by Eric de Place, Grist, July 24, 2008. "The proposal is basically pretty good. We should keep in mind that what WCI is doing... represents a big -- gigantic -- step in the right direction for the climate... But there's room for improvement... It appears that transportation fuels -- the region's largest source of carbon pollution -- will be delayed until 2015... It's critical that we included transportation fuels ASAP. Auctioning is in limbo. WCI appears to be punting on this hugely important question. In past communications they've said that states and provinces will be required to auction a minimum... of between 25 and 75% of their allowances. In today's draft... they say [the issue is still under discussion]... That's not wildly helpful. But in defense of WCI, they do include quite a bit of language about how the value of allowances are to be used... most of which are clearly good public interest goals... WCI is apparently considering allowing offsets in the amount of 10% of any regulated firm's allowances... [That's] probably much too high a figure. We shouldn't have so much confidence in offsets... Finally, there's some odd language sprinkled throughout the document that appears to nudge open the door for some states or provinces to avoid capping transportation fuels... That would be a mistake. Consistency and comprehensiveness are key."