State Issues Draft Emissions Trading Rules For 2012 With Most Allowances Given Away

摘要

The California Air Resources Board Oct. 29 unveiled draft regulations for a greenhouse gas emissions trading program it hopes to launch in 2012 that would give away most emissions allowances to power plants, cement plants, and other industrial facilities.rnIf adopted by the agency's governing board at its Dec. 16-17 meeting in Sacramento, the program would be the nation's first multi-sector greenhouse gas emissions cap-and-trade program.rnThe framework for the cap-and-trade strategy outlined in the document released by CARB for comment is largely consistent with the plan it released nearly a year ago, but this version fills in details regarding emissions allowance distribution and use of offsets that were left unaddressed in the earlier proposal (40 ER 2726, 11/27/09).