State Lawmaker Proposes Carbon Tax On Motor Fuels Instead of Cap and Trade

摘要

California would impose a carbon tax that would reach $50 a ton by 2030 instead of including emissions from transportation fuels in the state's landmark greenhouse gas emission reduction program, under a proposal announced by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D). Stationary sources, including oil refineries and other energy production facilities, would remain under the cap-and-trade program run by the California Air Resources Board, but the program wouldn't expand in 2015 to include transportation fuels, Steinberg said. The carbon tax in place of cap-and-trade would be broader, more reliable, more stable and more flexible. "Nothing in my proposal will roll back, or otherwise weaken, any greenhouse gas reduction requirements, including the low-carbon fuel standard," Steinberg said at a Feb. 20 luncheon of the Sacramento Press Club.