WESTERN STATES ADVANCE CONTROVERSIAL PLAN TO LIMIT GHG OFFSETS

摘要

Western state officials devising a regional greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program are advancing a controversial new plan to limit the use of carbon offset projects by regulated facilities - a policy aimed at assuaging environmentalist concerns while still offering industries adequate, lower-cost compliance flexibility. State officials acknowledge that the proposal must be fleshed out and that key decisions must still be made, including how the new offsets limit translates to individual facilities. Cap-and-trade program design elements advanced by the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), which includes seven states and four Canadian provinces, are seen as potential models for other states and the federal government. Offsets are considered one of the most important design elements of cap-and-trade programs. WCI includes California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, and the Canadian provinces of Manitoba, British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario. WCI officials recently revised their proposal for a limit on offsets that can be purchased by regulated entities to comply with their GHG allowance burdens under the proposed cap-and-trade program. Offsets are GHG emission-reduction credits that are generated by off-site projects, such as forest preservation, that can be purchased by entities regulated by a climate change program to help them comply. Officials generally want to limit the use of offsets because they do not represent emission reductions from the regulated facilities that are the primary target of the cap-and-trade program.