California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds
California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2
California Says It Will Review Cap-and-Trade Amid Growing Criticism
California's Top Air Regulator Is Scathing in Response to DOJ Climate Suit
What’s Bad for the Planet Is Bad for the Economy, Says New Analysis
Researchers Press California to Strengthen Landmark Climate Law
Newsom Catches Heat for Using Climate Funds on Drinking Water Plan
Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape
California Cap-and-Trade is Working — For Other States
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emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"New reporting from ProPublica questions the impact of a key component of one of California’s signature climate change policies, even as the state’s powerful Air Resource Board defends the program. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846571,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":24,"wordCount":1195},"headData":{"title":"California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds | KQED","description":"New reporting from ProPublica questions the impact of a key component of one of California’s signature climate change policies, even as the state’s powerful Air Resource Board defends the program. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Not Doing as Well as It Thinks in Reducing Carbon, Investigation Finds","datePublished":"2021-06-07T11:00:31.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:29:31.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Climate Change","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1975164/california-not-doing-as-well-as-it-thinks-in-reducing-carbon-investigation-finds","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In her latest investigation, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Lisa Song \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-climate-solution-actually-adding-millions-of-tons-of-co2-into-the-atmosphere\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">reports\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that millions of carbon credits generated by California’s cap-and-trade program do not represent real reductions in planet-warming gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Song writes that these “ghost credits” allowed the industry to emit unaccounted for emissions that are the equivalent of adding millions of cars to the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those ghost credits represent nearly one-in-three credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market,” Song writes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story, which was co-reported with James Temple of MIT Technology Review, relies on \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">data\u003c/span>\u003c/a> from the Bay Area nonprofit research group Carbon Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s calculations found that because of flaws in the rules, between 20 million and 39 million carbon credits awarded to landowners don’t achieve real climate benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, Carbon Plan’s director, told Song that California’s forest offsets program is increasing greenhouse gas emissions “despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse,” Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20705679-response-propublica-05102021-sy-final\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to the ProPublica story, the California Air Resources Board aggressively defended the program, writing that the carbon credits “represent real, quantifiable, permanent, verifiable, enforceable, and additional CO2 reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the board did not ask ProPublica for any corrections, as Song and Temple note in their \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/article/the-california-air-resources-board-challenges-our-carbon-credits-investigations-we-respond\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">response\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to CARB’s complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED’s Brian Watt on Thursday interviewed Song about the investigation. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First, let’s just do a quick review of how cap and trade and the carbon credits work.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\nCap and trade is one of the main programs that California has for reducing its carbon emissions. Every year there’s a statewide limit on the CO2 emissions allowed from major industry. Companies in those industries have to buy permits to emit a certain amount of CO2. Companies can trade those permits with each other or buy and sell them. There is flexibility company-to-company as part of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With carbon offsets, companies are allowed to pay somebody else, to reduce CO2 emissions somewhere else, instead of reducing the emissions themselves. There’s a limit to how many offsets each industry can buy per year. This is where the forest carbon offsets come in, because landowners anywhere in the country can start an offset project where they find ways to manage their forests to store or prevent carbon emissions and quantify the carbon savings from those projects. Then those polluters in California can buy those carbon offsets and use them, theoretically, to cancel out a ton of their real CO2 emissions.\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>\u003cbr>\nWhat part of this system is going wrong? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The problem is that the way the rules are written in how the state of California quantifies the carbon offsets, there are flaws that are allowing these projects to generate far more carbon savings than they deserve. So they’re generating a bunch of empty carbon credits that aren’t actually canceling out the real tons of emissions coming out of these polluters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>You write that it isn’t that companies are actually cheating the system, it’s flaws within the system.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The people who buy these carbon credits are major polluters in the state, like refineries and power plants. They are not the ones cheating the system. The problem is deeper and has to do with flaws in the rules as they were written.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What rules could have been written better to make this work?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This gets to some pretty complicated science. But essentially the way you earn credits is if you’re a landowner, you can say, here’s a forest that I have and I was going to cut it down. But now, in exchange for carbon credits, I will save the forest or reduce logging so that it is preserving more carbon than it otherwise would have. As a landowner, you calculate how much carbon per acre is stored in your forest and you compare that to the amount of carbon per acre stored in a forest that is typical — that is, one that is similar to your forest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of baseline forests are called regional averages, and the Air Resources Board calculates the regional averages for many different types of forests across the country. The problem is those regional average numbers are done using very coarse data that doesn’t take into account a lot of the nuances between different types of forests. And as a result, you are seeing a pattern where a lot of projects are being done in places where the trees hold so much more carbon than the regional average. It’s inflating the carbon savings generated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>State officials stand by the policy and do not agree with the conclusions of your report, noting that the research hasn’t been formally peer reviewed.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Knowing that the study was not peer reviewed, we put in place our own peer review system. When the first completed draft of the study was done, we took it from Carbon Plan and we sent it to several independent scientists in academia. These are all people who had not worked with Carbon Plan, who didn’t know Carbon Plan, and we were able to send them the studies and get their independent analysis to make sure the study was sound and the methodology was good. And only after we got that did we then fully take on the project and the story and fully confirm that we wanted to write this story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The state notes that its program has protected hundreds of millions of trees, and Native American tribes have used proceeds from the program to buy back traditional tribal forests. These are good things, right? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are unquestionably good things. And the study and our reporting doesn’t criticize any of that. I think it’s important to point out that with this forest offset program you are trying to achieve carbon savings and help the climate. But in the process of doing that, you are also creating good benefits for forest conservation and for many Native American tribes. The story isn’t about how you can only have one thing or the other. Our story goes into great detail about these conservation and cultural co-benefits. The real question is: Should we be more honest about the actual carbon savings coming out of these projects? We have some folks in the story quoted who are saying that it’s absolutely worthwhile to fund these conservation goals and absolutely worthwhile to bring more resources to tribes so they can do things like buy back their ancestral land. But should that be tied to a flawed program where we’re overpromising the carbon savings achieved?\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1975164/california-not-doing-as-well-as-it-thinks-in-reducing-carbon-investigation-finds","authors":["11608"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_121","science_194","science_4417","science_4414"],"featImg":"science_1975166","label":"source_science_1975164"},"science_1974389":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1974389","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1974389","score":null,"sort":[1620063016000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"californias-forest-climate-program-could-actually-be-increasing-co2","title":"California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2","publishDate":1620063016,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California’s Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2 | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>\u003cem>ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=reprint&placement=top-note\">The Big Story newsletter\u003c/a> to receive stories like this one in your inbox\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>Along the coast of Northern California near the Oregon border, the cool, moist air off the Pacific sustains a strip of temperate rainforests. Soaring redwoods and Douglas firs dominate these thick, wet woodlands, creating a canopy hundreds of feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you travel inland the mix of trees gradually shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings.[/pullquote]Beyond the crest of the Klamath Mountains, you descend into an evergreen medley of sugar pines, incense cedars and still more Douglas firs. As you continue into the Cascade Range, you pass through sparser forests dominated by Ponderosa pines. These tall, slender trees with prickly cones thrive in the hotter, drier conditions on the eastern side of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All trees consume carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen and storing the carbon in their trunks, branches and roots. Every ton of carbon sequestered in a living tree is a ton that isn’t contributing to climate change. And that thick coastal forest can easily store twice as much carbon per acre as the trees deeper inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This math is crucial to determining the success of California’s forest offset program, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by preserving trees. The state established the program a decade ago as part of its efforts to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ecology is messy. The boundaries between forest types are nebulous, and the actual amount of carbon on any given acre depends on local climate conditions, conservation efforts, logging history and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s top climate regulator, the Air Resources Board, glossed over much of this complexity in implementing the state’s program. The agency established fixed boundaries around giant regions, boiling down the carbon stored in a wide mix of tree species into simplified, regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decision has generated tens of millions of carbon credits with dubious climate value, according to \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new analysis\u003c/a> by CarbonPlan, a San Francisco nonprofit that analyzes the scientific integrity of carbon removal efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offset program allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth. Each credit represents one metric ton of CO2. Landowners can sell the credits to major polluters in California, typically oil companies and other businesses that want to emit more carbon than otherwise allowed under state law. Each extra ton of carbon emitted by industry is balanced out by an extra ton stored in the forest, allowing net emissions to stay within a cap set by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last fall, the program had produced some six dozen projects that had generated more than 130 million credits, worth $1.8 billion at recent prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While calculating the exact amount of carbon saved by preserving forests is complicated, California’s logic for awarding credits is relatively straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board establishes the average amount of carbon per acre stored in a few forest types spanning large regions of the United States. If you own land that contains more carbon than the regional average, based on a survey of trees on your site, you can get credits for the difference. For example, if your land holds the equivalent of 100 tons of CO2 per acre, and the regional average is 40 tons, you can earn credits for saving 60 tons per acre. (This story will refer to each ton of CO2-equivalent as a ton of “carbon.”) You must also commit to maintaining your forest’s high carbon storage for the next 100 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regional averages are meant to represent carbon levels in typical private forests. But the averages are determined from such large areas and such diverse forest types that they can differ dramatically from the carbon stored on lands selected for projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Project forests that significantly exceed these averages are frequently earning far more credits than the actual carbon benefits they deliver, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This design also incentivizes the developers who initiate and lead these projects to specifically look for forest tracts where carbon levels stand out above these averages — either due to the site’s location within a region, its combination of tree species, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the state’s program has generated between 20 million and 39 million credits that don’t achieve real climate benefits. They are, in effect, ghost credits that didn’t preserve additional carbon in forests but did allow polluters to emit far more CO2, equal to the annual emissions of 8.5 million cars at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those ghost credits represent nearly 1 in 3 credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our work shows that California’s forest offsets program increases greenhouse gas emissions, despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan. “The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board defended the program and disputed the central thesis of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We disagree with your statement that landowners or project developers are gaming the system or that there are inflated estimates” of greenhouse gas reductions, Dave Clegern, a spokesperson for the Air Resources Board, said in an email. Each version of the offset rules “went through our robust public regulatory review process,” with input from the forestry industry, academia, government agencies and nonprofits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s forest offset program is the largest in the country that is government regulated. Other forest offset programs are voluntary, allowing businesses or individuals to purchase credits to shrink their environmental footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan’s study comes days after the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/economics/after-a-decade-of-failures-washington-state-passes-a-cap-on-carbon-emissions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington\u003c/a> state legislature moved a cap-and-trade bill with an offset program to the governor’s desk for approval. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/carbonpolicy_climatechange.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> has also debated in recent months establishing a carbon market program that would emulate California’s policy. In Washington, D.C., the Biden administration has \u003ca href=\"https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signaled growing interest\u003c/a> in harnessing forests and soil to draw down CO2. Businesses, too, increasingly plan to rely heavily on trees to offset their emissions in lieu of the harder task of cutting corporate pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets have been criticized for a variety of problems, including the risks that the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/climate/this-oregon-forest-was-supposed-to-store-carbon-for-100-years-now-its-on-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carbon reductions will be short-lived\u003c/a>, that carbon savings will be wiped out \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/18/65883/californias-cap-and-trade-program-may-vastly-overestimate-emissions-cuts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by increased logging elsewhere\u003c/a>, and that the projects are preserving forests \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-nature-conservancy-carbon-offsets-trees/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">never in jeopardy of being chopped down\u003c/a>, producing credits that don’t reflect real-world changes in carbon levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But CarbonPlan’s analysis highlights a different issue, one interlinked with these other problems. Even if everything else about a project were perfect, developers would still be able to undermine the program by exploiting regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every time a polluter uses a credit that didn’t actually save a ton of carbon, the total amount of emissions goes up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from addressing climate change, California’s forest offsets appear to be adding tens of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere on balance, undermining progress on the state’s long-term emissions goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you strip away all the jargon, you’re left with a faulty set of assumptions that leave the door wide open to issuing meaningless offset credits,” said Grayson Badgley, a postdoctoral fellow at Black Rock Forest and Columbia University, and the lead researcher on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cherry-Picking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan provided ProPublica and MIT Technology Review full and exclusive access to their analysis as it was being finalized. As part of that process, the news organizations sent the report to independent experts for review. The organizations also interviewed landowners, industry players and scientists and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including the project plans submitted by developers. CarbonPlan collaborated on the study with academic experts from the UC Berkeley, Columbia University and other institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study itself wasn’t designed to assess whether developers or landowners are intentionally cherry-picking sites that stand out from regional averages, stating only that the system “allows for” developers to select such land. But the researchers themselves say that the level of excess crediting and the clustering of projects in certain areas suggest that industry players have gamed the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One form of cherry-picking identified by the researchers involves geographic boundaries. In the case of Northern California, the state’s offset program established a dividing line that separates that coastal strip of redwoods and Douglas firs from an inland region that spans more than 28,000 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s rules state that tall mixed-conifer forests in the coastal region store an average of 205 tons of carbon per acre. For the neighboring inland region, the agency set the corresponding regional average at 122 tons per acre. The figure is lower because it includes more trees with less carbon, such as Ponderosa pines, which dominate the eastern end of the inland region and are all but absent on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the two regions meet, the forest on either side is virtually identical in many places, storing similar amounts of carbon. That means a project developer can earn far more money by choosing a site just east of the border, simply because they can compare the carbon in their forest against a lower regional average. For instance, maintaining a 10,000-acre forest of coastal redwoods and Douglas firs with carbon levels of 200 tons per acre could earn zero credits west of the line, or 624,000 credits east of it. The choice is between no money and more than $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To claim the most credits possible, for the full difference between the carbon on their land and the regional averages, developers or landowners must show that it’s legally and financially feasible to log down to those regional averages. The averages are effectively a stand-in for the way that similar forests are typically managed in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A dozen projects are located in Northern California, almost entirely lined up along the western edge of the inland zone where the carbon-rich trees are juxtaposed against the lower regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is developers are taking advantage of the fact that the big stuff and the scrubby stuff have been averaged together,” Badgley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once an offset project developer and landowner decide to work together, the developer will generally shepherd them through the process in exchange for a fee or share of the sales of the credits generated — an arrangement that can be worth millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most prolific project developers in the California system is an Australia-based timberlands investment company called New Forests. The company and its affiliates have worked on eight projects located almost entirely along the advantageous side of the border, as well as six elsewhere. CarbonPlan, in a separate analysis done for the news organizations that wasn’t included in the study, found that nearly all earned dubious credits, adding up to as much as $176 million worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large share of those credits came from a single project outside California that profited from a glaring mistake in the rules. New Forests’ affiliate, Forest Carbon Partners, helped the Mescalero Apache Tribe develop a forest offset project in New Mexico. The project earned 3.7 million credits worth more than $50 million, largely because it was located in an area where the Air Resources Board had set an erroneously low regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another form of cherry-picking involves tree species: Developers can seek out tracts with particular trees that store far more carbon than the surrounding region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the study, one project in Alaska consists almost entirely of giant Sitka spruces, yet the local regional average was calculated from a wide mix of trees, including species like cottonwoods that store far less carbon. The project earned significantly more credits than it should have due to the flaws in the system, the study said. The project owner didn’t return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preserving especially carbon-rich forests is good for the climate, in and of itself. But when the trees in the project area bear little resemblance to the types of trees that went into calculating the regional average, it exaggerates the number of credits at stake, CarbonPlan’s study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Trexler, a former offsets developer who worked in earlier U.S. and European carbon markets, said the board should have anticipated the perverse incentives created by its program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people write offset rules, they always ignore the fact that there are 1,000 smart people next door that will try to game them,” he said. Since the board set up a system that “incentivizes people to find the areas that are high-density, or high-carbon, that’s what they’re going to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To estimate the extent of overcrediting in California’s program, CarbonPlan calculated its own version of regional averages for each project. The researchers drew on the same raw data used by the Air Resources Board, but only used data from tree species that more closely resemble the particular mix of trees in each project area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 74 such projects had been established as of September 2020, when CarbonPlan began its research. CarbonPlan was able to study 65 projects that had enough documentation to make analysis possible. All received credits for holding more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers found that the vast majority of projects were over-credited, but about a dozen would have received more credits under CarbonPlan’s formula. Those included two New Forests projects, which would have earned as much as an additional 165,000 credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organizations sent officials at the Air Resources Board a copy of the study and its detailed methodology weeks before publication. Clegern declined multiple requests to interview board staff and responded only in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He did not address CarbonPlan’s calculations. “We were not given sufficient time to fully analyze an unpublished study and are not commenting further on the authors’ alternative methodology,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outside scientists who reviewed the research on behalf of ProPublica and MIT Technology Review praised the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really analytically robust paper and it answers a really important policy question,” said Daniel Sanchez, who runs the Carbon Removal Laboratory at UC Berkeley. While close observers are well aware of numerous problems with California’s forest offset rules, “they’re revealing a deeper set of serious methodological flaws,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the reviewers pointed out any major technical or conceptual flaws with the paper, which has been submitted to a journal for peer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Significant New Commodity Market’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early 2015, an offsets nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/118731835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosted a webinar\u003c/a> highlighting how Native American tribes could participate in California’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One speaker was Brian Shillinglaw, a Stanford-trained lawyer and managing director at New Forests who \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/member/brian-shillinglaw/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">oversees\u003c/a> the company’s U.S. forestry programs. The company manages the sale of carbon credits, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/timber-products/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sells timber\u003c/a> and on behalf of investors manages \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/new-forests-announces-conversion-of-1-3-billion-australian-forestry-fund-to-long-term-mandate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 2 million\u003c/a> acres of forests globally, a portfolio it values at more than $4 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests also manages its affiliate, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Carbon Partners\u003c/a>, on behalf of an institutional investment client it declined to name. Forest Carbon Partners finances offset projects and \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shepherds landowners\u003c/a> through the process of applying for California’s offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the California carbon market has really created a significant new commodity market,” Shillinglaw said during his presentation. He said the program is something “many Native American tribes are very well situated to benefit from, in part due to past conservative stewardship of their forests, which can lead to significant credit yield in the near term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translation: Because many tribes have logged less aggressively than their neighbors, their carbon-rich forests were primed for big payouts of credits. Under Shillinglaw, New Forests or Forest Carbon Partners have helped to secure tens of millions of dollars’ worth of credits for native tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the 13 New Forests projects that CarbonPlan researchers were able to analyze, between 33% and 71% of the credits don’t represent real carbon reductions. That’s nearly 13 million credits at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we cannot prove that New Forests acted deliberately on the basis of our statistical analysis, in our judgment there is no reasonable explanation for these outcomes other than that New Forests knowingly engaged in cherry-picking behavior to take advantage of ecological shortcomings in the forest offset protocol,” said Badgley, the lead researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests managed the first official project in California’s program, registering 7,660 acres of forest land on or near the Yurok Reservation, which runs more than 40 miles along the Klamath River near the top of that West Coast cluster of projects. The state issued more than 700,000 credits to the project for its first year, worth $9.6 million at recent rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have pointed to the tribe’s participation as a triumph of the program. In 2014, the board released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbjmbqTdXN0&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a promotional video\u003c/a> that showed the meticulous work of measuring trees in the Yurok project. James Erler, the tribe’s then-forestry director, explained how offsets enabled the tribe to reduce logging. Near the end of the video, Shillinglaw appears in a sunlit forest, wearing a collared shirt and a New Forests-branded jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a beautiful watershed,” Shillinglaw said over footage of a running stream and an elk standing before a thicket of trees. “This is the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral homeland, and in part due to the carbon market will be managed through a conservation approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the project earned more than half a million ghost credits worth nearly $6.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why the researchers say it was over credited:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boundary dividing California’s coastal and inland regions runs through the middle of the reservation. The carbon-rich forests on either side of that line are similar, filled with large Douglas firs like most of the coastal region. But more than 99% of the forest designated for preservation falls within the inland zone, where average carbon levels are much lower. The fact that the project was located in the most carbon-rich area of that zone enabled the landowners to earn an exaggerated number of credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one person involved in the Yurok Tribe’s forest offset efforts was aware of how geographical choices swing the credits that can be earned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler said during a 2015 presentation at a National Indian Timber Symposium that the tribe had the “distinct pleasure” of having the boundary run through its territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can take the same inventory data and apply it to the California Coast” — the region to the west — “and it doesn’t come out with the same numbers as you do if you cross the street,” Erler said at the conference, captured in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=924&v=SlDrNcW_g3Q&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a YouTube video\u003c/a> posted to the Intertribal Timber Council’s channel. “Vegetation may be the same, but it changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Badgley said that while the researchers can’t speak to the intentions of any actors involved, it’s clear that this project “benefited from over-crediting and that the Yurok Tribe’s forester was aware how the specific aspects of the protocol rules our study criticizes led to beneficial outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler didn’t respond to a list of emailed questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Yurok spokesperson Matt Mais said that the property was the only land the tribe had available to enroll at the time and strongly denied the tribe engaged in any sort of gaming of the system. He didn’t respond before press time to a subsequent inquiry asking why the rest of the tribe’s land wasn’t available for the offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade or so, the tribe has slowly reacquired tens of thousands of acres of its ancestral territory, in and around the watershed of Blue Creek and other streams that sustain migrating salmon, from the Green Diamond Resource Co., a major Seattle-based timber business. The complex multistep land deals were done in partnership with the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy and financed through government grants, philanthropic donations and the sale of the tribe’s offset credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we have recovered additional forestlands, we have enrolled additional acreage in California’s climate programs in support of our Tribe’s strategic goals including protecting salmon habitat, sustaining the revitalization of our cultural lifeways, and facilitating economic self-sufficiency,” Mais wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insulting to claim that the Yurok Tribe has ‘gamed’ or ‘exploited’ California’s climate regulations,” he added. “Equally important, it’s concerning that elite institutions now criticize us for legally and ethically using a program that was created to protect mature forests and then using those funds to purchase and restore more forest land that was, at one point, ours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests defended its practices in emailed responses to questions, arguing its projects have preserved existing carbon stocks and removed CO2 from the atmosphere through subsequent tree growth “as confirmed via third-party verification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said it has worked on projects in numerous areas, not just along the program’s regional boundaries. The company said its projects “have protected and will enhance carbon storage on hundreds of thousands of acres of forests,” adding that one project with the Chugach Alaska Corp. \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2017/01/25/bering-river-coal-field-rights-retired/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enabled the permanent retirement\u003c/a> of a significant portion of the coal reserves in the Bering River Coal Field in southeastern Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests follows the board’s “scientifically-accepted regulations to both the spirit and letter of the program,” the company said in a subsequent statement. “New Forests is proud of the forest carbon projects we have developed under California’s climate programs — they have generated positive environmental impact and furthered the economic and cultural objectives of the family forest landowners and Native American tribes with whom we have worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests didn’t respond to numerous additional inquiries, including direct questions about whether it was gaming the rules of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response, CarbonPlan stressed that its paper criticizes the design of the program — not the Yurok Tribe or other landowners. Nor does it allege anyone has broken the rules. Its analysis doesn’t consider or depend on the intent of any forest owners, who can benefit from flaws in the rules whether they intended to or even know about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the injustices experienced by the Yurok Tribe, including the seizure of their historical lands by the United States government and its citizens,” the nonprofit stated. “We also recognize the Yurok Tribe’s legitimate interest in securing resources to repurchase lands that previously belonged to the Tribe and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Open Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, an environmental studies professor at Stanford University, was co-author of a 2017 study that found California’s program was helping to prevent emissions on balance by reducing logging. About 64% of the 39 projects studied were “being actively logged at or prior to project inception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said the state program is “relatively well-designed to address key issues,” but said it can and should be improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that there are firm limits on the role that offsets can play in California. From now through 2025, state polluters can only buy offsets to cover as much as 4% of their carbon emissions; from 2026 to 2030, that ceiling rises to 6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those numbers understate the critical role of offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program, viewed by some as a model for market-based climate policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that program, California sells permits that allow certain industries to emit greenhouse gases, with each permit worth one metric ton of CO2. The state also regularly gives away a certain number of permits to various regulated companies. The total number of permits, called a “cap,” declines over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polluters can also purchase permits from other companies with extras to spare, which constitutes the “trade.” Or they can buy carbon offset credits, which cost slightly less than permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To participate in the offset program, landowners must hire technicians to survey the trees on their land, then take data such as tree type, height and diameter and plug it into equations to estimate the carbon stored per acre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the credits are distributed during the initial stages of a project, which can help to repay setup costs. Projects can also earn additional credits over time as the trees grow and absorb CO2, but those credits accrue slowly, and are dwarfed by the initial credits given to forests with more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The type of forest projects that CarbonPlan analyzed account for 68% of all credits issued by the Air Resources Board since the program’s launch, far eclipsing other types of offsets like capturing methane from dairy farms \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/26/133261/whoops-californias-carbon-offsets-program-could-extend-the-life-of-coal-mines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or coal mines\u003c/a>, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is designed to slash the state’s carbon footprint by 236 million tons of CO2 over the next decade, about a third of the cumulative reductions needed to meet the state’s emissions targets over that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Haya, who leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at UC-Berkeley and is a co-author of the CarbonPlan study, calculated that up to half of those cap-and-trade emissions cuts could come via offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haya said these cherry-picking practices have been an open secret. The study is “revealing to everyone what a lot of people in the industry understand,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservation vs. the Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of forest offsets say no system is perfect, and that focusing solely on the carbon math overlooks the incentives offsets create for protecting forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said offset systems should balance two goals: ensuring real emissions cuts, and creating ways to fund forest conservation. If CarbonPlan’s study shows projects are gravitating toward high-carbon forests, then those are exactly the types of trees you’d want to save “if you have a conservation agenda,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cody Desautel, president of the Intertribal Timber Council, a Portland-based nonprofit consortium of native tribes, said that offset programs have provided critical financial flexibility for tribes. They’ve allowed them to buy back historic land, build needed infrastructure, create jobs for members or simply save up money for financial security. But above all, they’ve created incentives to manage forests in sustainable ways, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribes are very conservation-minded,” said Desautel, who is also the natural resources director for Washington’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/project/confederated-tribes-colville-reservation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">operate an offset project\u003c/a> under California’s system. “Their practices are largely based on what’s best for the ecosystem, not what makes the most sense economically. And there’s never been any value to that management approach in the past. These carbon projects provide an opportunity to value that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “If there’s no value to owning forest land, it probably won’t be forest land long into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s offset projects have clearly helped in these sorts of ways, even if they didn’t provide the full promised carbon benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe \u003ca href=\"https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/aug/14/yurok-tribe-acquires-50000-acres-green-diamond-lan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has said\u003c/a> it is using the acquired land and funds to restore its old-growth forests, produce traditional foods and basket-weaving materials, create a salmon sanctuary and improve habitat for endangered or culturally important species like the coho salmon, northern spotted owl, blacktailed deer and Roosevelt elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with New Forests will provide the Tribe with the means to boost biodiversity, accelerate watershed restoration, and increase the abundance of important cultural resources like acorns, huckleberry and hundreds of medicinal plants that thrive in a fully functioning forest ecosystem,” Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., then-chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140211005853/en/New-Forests-and-Yurok-Tribe-Register-First-Compliance-Forest-Carbon-Offset-Project-for-California-Carbon-Market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the societal goal is preserving forests, it would be simpler and more effective to describe it accurately and fund it directly, said Haya, the UC Berkeley expert. As soon as these forests get tied up in an offset program, the carbon math does matter, because every additional ton purportedly preserved in trees enables polluters to purchase the right to generate an additional ton of CO2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets appeal to the public partly because of what academics call “\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02653-1?ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue_20200806&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue&wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charismatic carbon\u003c/a>” — they offer a feel-good story of environmental and social good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any good conservation advocate would tell you there’s a desperate need for more funding, and we agree entirely,” CarbonPlan’s Cullenward said in an email. The “problem isn’t that conservation is bad, it’s that the system of carbon offsets channels these real needs and sincere hopes into a system that grinds it all up and spits out garbage on the other side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Best Bang for the Buck’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Air Resources Board approved the forest offset program’s official rules in 2011, after years of discussions with dozens of experts, including government scientists and staff from conservation groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In adopting it, the agency relied heavily on Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that created programs with voluntary offset credits. The nonprofit, which continues to advise the agency, led an effort to calculate regional carbon averages as part of an initiative to update its voluntary offset rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do so, the nonprofit used data from the U.S. Forest Service, which surveys tens of thousands of forest plots nationwide. The nonprofit grouped data from different tree species and combined data from various geographic zones into larger regional areas called supersections. This simplification allowed the Climate Action Reserve to create a set of common baselines that estimated the amount of carbon stored in typical privately owned forests. The baselines take into account such forest uses as logging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the use of these broad averages obscured real differences on the ground. Some industry insiders and researchers began to notice that landowners and developers routinely located their projects in areas where the specific tract of forest differed greatly from the regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zack Parisa, chief executive of the carbon offsets company SilviaTerra, previously consulted for project developers and landowners enrolling forests in California’s system. But he said he stopped out of frustration, after seeing the ways it was regularly being gamed, including the cherry-picking techniques CarbonPlan highlighted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parisa said he doesn’t blame landowners or project developers, who are acting out of rational self-interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone shows up and is offering a contract to buy carbon and it doesn’t require them to change anything about how they manage the forests, that’s free money and they’d be stupid not to take it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hunting for a villain here,” Parisa added. “Of course they look for the best bang for the buck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to New Forests, other developers also worked on projects where favorable boundaries and forest types boosted the credits that could be earned, according to CarbonPlan. Those include Bluesource and Finite Carbon, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/2020/12/16/bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BP purchased a majority stake in\u003c/a> late last year. The researchers found that those two developers’ projects, taken together, generated up to 24 million credits that don’t represent actual carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Forests,\u003c/a> Finite Carbon, Bluesource and other subjects of this article were provided the full study and an accompanying paper describing its methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finite Carbon declined to address detailed questions, but stressed that the Air Resources Board and an independent auditor found that their projects were in compliance with the rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said there were “unanswered questions” about the CarbonPlan study’s methodology, adding, “however we cannot comment further on it as the underlying raw data is not currently available for public review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Six, the marketing and communications manager for Bluesource, denied the company had gamed the rules in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Six said California’s program actually undercounts the carbon preserved through projects by not crediting the amount stored in other parts of the forest like soil, shrubs and foliage. She also stressed that without offsets, some landowners could have chopped down their forests to carbon levels well below the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deliberately overstating climate benefits would run counter to our very purpose for existence,” she wrote. “Bluesource exists to improve the world by improving the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts who wrote the original offset rules relied on the only national forest dataset available, from the U.S. Forest Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, said\u003c/a> Constance Best, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust. The conservation nonprofit was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/pacific-forest-trust-honored-by-climate-action-reserve-for-advancing-forests-in-climate-policy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely involved\u003c/a> in the creation of the early program and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/selling-carbon-offsets/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">participated in it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best said it was necessary to create carbon averages for larger regions and forest types because there wasn’t enough fine-grained data to ensure accuracy at highly local levels. She disputed CarbonPlan’s claim that its researchers had created a better way of calculating regional averages, since their method required relying on a smaller number of forest plots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason some super sections are large is to assure the data is more accurate,” Best said in an email. “So their solution creates more problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate note, she said: “The paper you shared has a strong editorial bias that undermines its findings and makes me question their data and analysis. It deliberately exaggerates what they present as smoking gun over-credited projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, CarbonPlan acknowledges that using fewer forest plots entails some uncertainty. But the researchers stressed they clearly accounted for it by providing a range of results, and maintained their findings are more accurate because they considered the specific mix of tree species in each project. CarbonPlan also shot back at the allegation of bias: “Having done our work on the basis of extensive public program records, and with fully reproducible methods, data, and code, we are confident that other researchers are capable of judging our paper on its merits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the board has updated regional averages based on more recent forest data, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/tangri_neil_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critics say\u003c/a> efforts to address more fundamental problems \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/nowicki_brian_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have been thwarted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and activists also worry about the close ties between the Air Resources Board and the groups that now profit from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, whenever a landowner wants to enroll a forest tract in California’s program, they open an account at Climate Action Reserve or two other nonprofits that have received the board’s blessing to review the documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project clears the Climate Action Reserve’s review and a subsequent audit by the state board, the nonprofit charges 19 cents for every credit issued. For one of the largest projects in the program, for instance, that would have added up to more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It “strikes me as a massive conflict of interest for an organization — whether nonprofit or not — that designed the system to have a financial stake in its operation,” David Victor, a professor at the UC San Diego, who has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/read/13023/chapter/21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely studied international offset systems\u003c/a>, said in an email. (Victor recently co-authored the book “Making Climate Policy Work” with Cullenward.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In any other market, putting the market players in charge of key elements of its design would lead to ‘hollers’” over the conflicts of interest, Victor said. With the forest offset program, “everyone seems fine or even happy about the arrangement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate Action Reserve didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Too Good to Be True’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hardy, drought-tolerant softwoods like junipers and pinyon pines dominate in the hot, dry landscape of central New Mexico, with smatterings of taller Douglas firs and spruces in the cooler, higher reaches of the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under the initial rules of California’s program, those forests were considered to contain no carbon whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The error stemmed from the fact that there was no available Forest Service data in that part of New Mexico when the Climate Action Reserve calculated regional averages, said Olaf Kuegler, a Forest Service statistician who provided technical assistance to the nonprofit on the federal database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, the Climate Action Reserve set the regional average for an area stretching nearly 34,000 square miles at zero, which meant anyone who owned a few dozen trees could earn carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kuegler said he wasn’t aware of the mistake until early or mid-2014, when Air Resources Board employee Barbara Bamberger asked him about it. Bamberger, who leads the board’s work on forest offsets, later highlighted the error during an October 2014 \u003ca href=\"https://americancarbonregistry.org/news-events/events/review-of-us-forestry-compliance-offset-protocol-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">webinar\u003c/a> on offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation, Bamberger said the board was updating the regional averages in ways that could lead to major changes in certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This may be due to the fact that no data existed for some years in the original span from years 2002 to 2006,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2400&v=n92ZsQNKPk4&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she explained\u003c/a>. “For example, in New Mexico data wasn’t collected until the end of that period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost exactly one year after Bamberger’s presentation, New Forests’ affiliate filed the paperwork for a nearly 222,000-acre project in New Mexico, stretching across the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s nearly half-million-acre reservation about ninety minutes west of Roswell. More than a third of the project’s trees were carbon-rich Douglas firs, according to the project’s paperwork. Shillinglaw signed the forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erroneously low carbon calculation allowed the developer to claim they could have heavily logged the forest, boosting the amount of credits they could earn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project earned 3.7 million credits for its first year, worth more than $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the California board’s updated rules went into effect two weeks later, it set a far higher regional average for most of the project area. If that standard had been in place earlier, it would have eliminated nearly every credit the project earned, CarbonPlan found. The project generated more ghost credits than any other in the nonprofit’s study, based on its more conservative calculations of regional carbon averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s president at the time, Danny Breuninger Sr., said the tribe welcomed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of us had heard about the carbon credit program, and in a way it sounded too good to be true,” he said. “But it was a great deal. It worked out great for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breuninger referred further questions to the tribe’s current president, Gabe Aguilar. Neither Aguilar nor the tribe’s attorney, Nelva Cervantes, responded to repeated inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the Air Resources Board said the project met all the requirements of the program at that time. The fact that the board was in the process of developing new regional averages using data that didn’t previously exist didn’t make the earlier figures “invalid or erroneous,” it added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Second Wave of Colonization’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghost credits matter because they allow other companies to purchase the right to continue emitting real greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Credits from the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s project were sold to PG&E, Chevron and a company that drills for oil in Kern County, California, according to the latest figures available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s 7,660-acre project generated credits that were obtained by a variety of energy companies like Calpine, PG&E and Shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some tribal members are \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-carbon-trading-became-a-way-of-life-for-californias-yurok-tribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deeply uncomfortable\u003c/a> with the idea of selling offsets to companies like this even if they are legitimate, fearing they’re effectively profiting from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offsets, by definition, allow California companies to continue producing more CO2 than otherwise allowed — as well as the toxic pollutants like soot and heavy metals that frequently accompany such emissions — often near poor neighborhoods. Communities near refineries, cement kilns and power plants have frequently opposed offset programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas Joseph, an activist and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California, said offset developers target tribal projects because tribes are in “dire need of revenue” and own vast tracts of mostly intact forest. He said his tribe has resisted multiple pitches from developers. “For us to use this as a means to allow corporations to continue to pollute,” he said, goes “against our cultural values.” He added, “I see it as a second wave of colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desautel, the Intertribal Timber Council president, sees it differently. When the issue comes up among tribal members, he explains that polluters under cap and trade need to pay either the state for permission to pollute, or landowners through carbon offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The check is getting written one way or the other,” he said. “It’s just a question of where it goes and what’s being accomplished with that funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SilviaTerra’s Parisa said that landowners and project developers will continue to respond to the incentives created in the program, in ways that overstate climate progress, until the program itself changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better rules,” he said. “Let’s make sure the dollars we spend actually change things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forests really can be a part of the solution for the climate, but we haven’t gotten it right yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\">http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846632,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":165,"wordCount":7195},"headData":{"title":"California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2 | KQED","description":"New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings. But companies can buy these forest offsets to justify polluting more anyway.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California's Forest Climate Program Could Actually Be Increasing CO2","datePublished":"2021-05-03T17:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:30:32.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"ProPublica","sticky":false,"nprByline":"Lisa Song, ProPublica, and James Temple, MIT Technology Review","path":"/science/1974389/californias-forest-climate-program-could-actually-be-increasing-co2","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for \u003ca href=\"https://www.propublica.org/newsletters/the-big-story?source=reprint&placement=top-note\">The Big Story newsletter\u003c/a> to receive stories like this one in your inbox\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>Along the coast of Northern California near the Oregon border, the cool, moist air off the Pacific sustains a strip of temperate rainforests. Soaring redwoods and Douglas firs dominate these thick, wet woodlands, creating a canopy hundreds of feet high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if you travel inland the mix of trees gradually shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"New research shows that California’s climate policy created up to 39 million carbon credits that aren’t achieving real carbon savings.","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Beyond the crest of the Klamath Mountains, you descend into an evergreen medley of sugar pines, incense cedars and still more Douglas firs. As you continue into the Cascade Range, you pass through sparser forests dominated by Ponderosa pines. These tall, slender trees with prickly cones thrive in the hotter, drier conditions on the eastern side of the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All trees consume carbon dioxide, releasing the oxygen and storing the carbon in their trunks, branches and roots. Every ton of carbon sequestered in a living tree is a ton that isn’t contributing to climate change. And that thick coastal forest can easily store twice as much carbon per acre as the trees deeper inland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This math is crucial to determining the success of California’s forest offset program, which seeks to reduce carbon emissions by preserving trees. The state established the program a decade ago as part of its efforts to combat climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ecology is messy. The boundaries between forest types are nebulous, and the actual amount of carbon on any given acre depends on local climate conditions, conservation efforts, logging history and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s top climate regulator, the Air Resources Board, glossed over much of this complexity in implementing the state’s program. The agency established fixed boundaries around giant regions, boiling down the carbon stored in a wide mix of tree species into simplified, regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That decision has generated tens of millions of carbon credits with dubious climate value, according to \u003ca href=\"https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-explainer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new analysis\u003c/a> by CarbonPlan, a San Francisco nonprofit that analyzes the scientific integrity of carbon removal efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offset program allows forest owners across the country to earn credits for taking care of their land in ways that store or absorb more carbon, such as reducing logging or thinning out smaller trees and brush to allow for increased overall growth. Each credit represents one metric ton of CO2. Landowners can sell the credits to major polluters in California, typically oil companies and other businesses that want to emit more carbon than otherwise allowed under state law. Each extra ton of carbon emitted by industry is balanced out by an extra ton stored in the forest, allowing net emissions to stay within a cap set by the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of last fall, the program had produced some six dozen projects that had generated more than 130 million credits, worth $1.8 billion at recent prices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While calculating the exact amount of carbon saved by preserving forests is complicated, California’s logic for awarding credits is relatively straightforward.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board establishes the average amount of carbon per acre stored in a few forest types spanning large regions of the United States. If you own land that contains more carbon than the regional average, based on a survey of trees on your site, you can get credits for the difference. For example, if your land holds the equivalent of 100 tons of CO2 per acre, and the regional average is 40 tons, you can earn credits for saving 60 tons per acre. (This story will refer to each ton of CO2-equivalent as a ton of “carbon.”) You must also commit to maintaining your forest’s high carbon storage for the next 100 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These regional averages are meant to represent carbon levels in typical private forests. But the averages are determined from such large areas and such diverse forest types that they can differ dramatically from the carbon stored on lands selected for projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Project forests that significantly exceed these averages are frequently earning far more credits than the actual carbon benefits they deliver, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This design also incentivizes the developers who initiate and lead these projects to specifically look for forest tracts where carbon levels stand out above these averages — either due to the site’s location within a region, its combination of tree species, or both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the state’s program has generated between 20 million and 39 million credits that don’t achieve real climate benefits. They are, in effect, ghost credits that didn’t preserve additional carbon in forests but did allow polluters to emit far more CO2, equal to the annual emissions of 8.5 million cars at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those ghost credits represent nearly 1 in 3 credits issued through California’s primary forest offset program, highlighting systemic flaws in the rules and suggesting widespread gaming of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our work shows that California’s forest offsets program increases greenhouse gas emissions, despite being a large part of the state’s strategy for reducing climate pollution,” said Danny Cullenward, the policy director at CarbonPlan. “The program creates the false appearance of progress when in fact it makes the climate problem worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Air Resources Board defended the program and disputed the central thesis of the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We disagree with your statement that landowners or project developers are gaming the system or that there are inflated estimates” of greenhouse gas reductions, Dave Clegern, a spokesperson for the Air Resources Board, said in an email. Each version of the offset rules “went through our robust public regulatory review process,” with input from the forestry industry, academia, government agencies and nonprofits, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s forest offset program is the largest in the country that is government regulated. Other forest offset programs are voluntary, allowing businesses or individuals to purchase credits to shrink their environmental footprint.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan’s study comes days after the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/economics/after-a-decade-of-failures-washington-state-passes-a-cap-on-carbon-emissions/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington\u003c/a> state legislature moved a cap-and-trade bill with an offset program to the governor’s desk for approval. \u003ca href=\"https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/carbonpolicy_climatechange.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oregon\u003c/a> has also debated in recent months establishing a carbon market program that would emulate California’s policy. In Washington, D.C., the Biden administration has \u003ca href=\"https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">signaled growing interest\u003c/a> in harnessing forests and soil to draw down CO2. Businesses, too, increasingly plan to rely heavily on trees to offset their emissions in lieu of the harder task of cutting corporate pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets have been criticized for a variety of problems, including the risks that the \u003ca href=\"https://grist.org/climate/this-oregon-forest-was-supposed-to-store-carbon-for-100-years-now-its-on-fire/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carbon reductions will be short-lived\u003c/a>, that carbon savings will be wiped out \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/04/18/65883/californias-cap-and-trade-program-may-vastly-overestimate-emissions-cuts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by increased logging elsewhere\u003c/a>, and that the projects are preserving forests \u003ca href=\"https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-nature-conservancy-carbon-offsets-trees/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">never in jeopardy of being chopped down\u003c/a>, producing credits that don’t reflect real-world changes in carbon levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But CarbonPlan’s analysis highlights a different issue, one interlinked with these other problems. Even if everything else about a project were perfect, developers would still be able to undermine the program by exploiting regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every time a polluter uses a credit that didn’t actually save a ton of carbon, the total amount of emissions goes up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Far from addressing climate change, California’s forest offsets appear to be adding tens of millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere on balance, undermining progress on the state’s long-term emissions goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you strip away all the jargon, you’re left with a faulty set of assumptions that leave the door wide open to issuing meaningless offset credits,” said Grayson Badgley, a postdoctoral fellow at Black Rock Forest and Columbia University, and the lead researcher on the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cherry-Picking\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan provided ProPublica and MIT Technology Review full and exclusive access to their analysis as it was being finalized. As part of that process, the news organizations sent the report to independent experts for review. The organizations also interviewed landowners, industry players and scientists and reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, including the project plans submitted by developers. CarbonPlan collaborated on the study with academic experts from the UC Berkeley, Columbia University and other institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study itself wasn’t designed to assess whether developers or landowners are intentionally cherry-picking sites that stand out from regional averages, stating only that the system “allows for” developers to select such land. But the researchers themselves say that the level of excess crediting and the clustering of projects in certain areas suggest that industry players have gamed the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One form of cherry-picking identified by the researchers involves geographic boundaries. In the case of Northern California, the state’s offset program established a dividing line that separates that coastal strip of redwoods and Douglas firs from an inland region that spans more than 28,000 square miles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board’s rules state that tall mixed-conifer forests in the coastal region store an average of 205 tons of carbon per acre. For the neighboring inland region, the agency set the corresponding regional average at 122 tons per acre. The figure is lower because it includes more trees with less carbon, such as Ponderosa pines, which dominate the eastern end of the inland region and are all but absent on the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But where the two regions meet, the forest on either side is virtually identical in many places, storing similar amounts of carbon. That means a project developer can earn far more money by choosing a site just east of the border, simply because they can compare the carbon in their forest against a lower regional average. For instance, maintaining a 10,000-acre forest of coastal redwoods and Douglas firs with carbon levels of 200 tons per acre could earn zero credits west of the line, or 624,000 credits east of it. The choice is between no money and more than $8 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To claim the most credits possible, for the full difference between the carbon on their land and the regional averages, developers or landowners must show that it’s legally and financially feasible to log down to those regional averages. The averages are effectively a stand-in for the way that similar forests are typically managed in an area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A dozen projects are located in Northern California, almost entirely lined up along the western edge of the inland zone where the carbon-rich trees are juxtaposed against the lower regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we’re seeing is developers are taking advantage of the fact that the big stuff and the scrubby stuff have been averaged together,” Badgley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once an offset project developer and landowner decide to work together, the developer will generally shepherd them through the process in exchange for a fee or share of the sales of the credits generated — an arrangement that can be worth millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most prolific project developers in the California system is an Australia-based timberlands investment company called New Forests. The company and its affiliates have worked on eight projects located almost entirely along the advantageous side of the border, as well as six elsewhere. CarbonPlan, in a separate analysis done for the news organizations that wasn’t included in the study, found that nearly all earned dubious credits, adding up to as much as $176 million worth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A large share of those credits came from a single project outside California that profited from a glaring mistake in the rules. New Forests’ affiliate, Forest Carbon Partners, helped the Mescalero Apache Tribe develop a forest offset project in New Mexico. The project earned 3.7 million credits worth more than $50 million, largely because it was located in an area where the Air Resources Board had set an erroneously low regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another form of cherry-picking involves tree species: Developers can seek out tracts with particular trees that store far more carbon than the surrounding region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the study, one project in Alaska consists almost entirely of giant Sitka spruces, yet the local regional average was calculated from a wide mix of trees, including species like cottonwoods that store far less carbon. The project earned significantly more credits than it should have due to the flaws in the system, the study said. The project owner didn’t return requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Preserving especially carbon-rich forests is good for the climate, in and of itself. But when the trees in the project area bear little resemblance to the types of trees that went into calculating the regional average, it exaggerates the number of credits at stake, CarbonPlan’s study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mark Trexler, a former offsets developer who worked in earlier U.S. and European carbon markets, said the board should have anticipated the perverse incentives created by its program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people write offset rules, they always ignore the fact that there are 1,000 smart people next door that will try to game them,” he said. Since the board set up a system that “incentivizes people to find the areas that are high-density, or high-carbon, that’s what they’re going to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To estimate the extent of overcrediting in California’s program, CarbonPlan calculated its own version of regional averages for each project. The researchers drew on the same raw data used by the Air Resources Board, but only used data from tree species that more closely resemble the particular mix of trees in each project area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In total, 74 such projects had been established as of September 2020, when CarbonPlan began its research. CarbonPlan was able to study 65 projects that had enough documentation to make analysis possible. All received credits for holding more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers found that the vast majority of projects were over-credited, but about a dozen would have received more credits under CarbonPlan’s formula. Those included two New Forests projects, which would have earned as much as an additional 165,000 credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The news organizations sent officials at the Air Resources Board a copy of the study and its detailed methodology weeks before publication. Clegern declined multiple requests to interview board staff and responded only in writing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He did not address CarbonPlan’s calculations. “We were not given sufficient time to fully analyze an unpublished study and are not commenting further on the authors’ alternative methodology,” he wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The outside scientists who reviewed the research on behalf of ProPublica and MIT Technology Review praised the study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a really analytically robust paper and it answers a really important policy question,” said Daniel Sanchez, who runs the Carbon Removal Laboratory at UC Berkeley. While close observers are well aware of numerous problems with California’s forest offset rules, “they’re revealing a deeper set of serious methodological flaws,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the reviewers pointed out any major technical or conceptual flaws with the paper, which has been submitted to a journal for peer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Significant New Commodity Market’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early 2015, an offsets nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://vimeo.com/118731835\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">hosted a webinar\u003c/a> highlighting how Native American tribes could participate in California’s program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One speaker was Brian Shillinglaw, a Stanford-trained lawyer and managing director at New Forests who \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/member/brian-shillinglaw/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">oversees\u003c/a> the company’s U.S. forestry programs. The company manages the sale of carbon credits, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/timber-products/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sells timber\u003c/a> and on behalf of investors manages \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/new-forests-announces-conversion-of-1-3-billion-australian-forestry-fund-to-long-term-mandate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">more than 2 million\u003c/a> acres of forests globally, a portfolio it values at more than $4 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests also manages its affiliate, \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Carbon Partners\u003c/a>, on behalf of an institutional investment client it declined to name. Forest Carbon Partners finances offset projects and \u003ca href=\"https://newforests.com.au/forests-carbon-partners/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">shepherds landowners\u003c/a> through the process of applying for California’s offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bottom line is the California carbon market has really created a significant new commodity market,” Shillinglaw said during his presentation. He said the program is something “many Native American tribes are very well situated to benefit from, in part due to past conservative stewardship of their forests, which can lead to significant credit yield in the near term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Translation: Because many tribes have logged less aggressively than their neighbors, their carbon-rich forests were primed for big payouts of credits. Under Shillinglaw, New Forests or Forest Carbon Partners have helped to secure tens of millions of dollars’ worth of credits for native tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the 13 New Forests projects that CarbonPlan researchers were able to analyze, between 33% and 71% of the credits don’t represent real carbon reductions. That’s nearly 13 million credits at the high end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Although we cannot prove that New Forests acted deliberately on the basis of our statistical analysis, in our judgment there is no reasonable explanation for these outcomes other than that New Forests knowingly engaged in cherry-picking behavior to take advantage of ecological shortcomings in the forest offset protocol,” said Badgley, the lead researcher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests managed the first official project in California’s program, registering 7,660 acres of forest land on or near the Yurok Reservation, which runs more than 40 miles along the Klamath River near the top of that West Coast cluster of projects. The state issued more than 700,000 credits to the project for its first year, worth $9.6 million at recent rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State officials have pointed to the tribe’s participation as a triumph of the program. In 2014, the board released \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbjmbqTdXN0&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a promotional video\u003c/a> that showed the meticulous work of measuring trees in the Yurok project. James Erler, the tribe’s then-forestry director, explained how offsets enabled the tribe to reduce logging. Near the end of the video, Shillinglaw appears in a sunlit forest, wearing a collared shirt and a New Forests-branded jacket.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a beautiful watershed,” Shillinglaw said over footage of a running stream and an elk standing before a thicket of trees. “This is the Yurok Tribe’s ancestral homeland, and in part due to the carbon market will be managed through a conservation approach.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CarbonPlan estimates the project earned more than half a million ghost credits worth nearly $6.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s why the researchers say it was over credited:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The boundary dividing California’s coastal and inland regions runs through the middle of the reservation. The carbon-rich forests on either side of that line are similar, filled with large Douglas firs like most of the coastal region. But more than 99% of the forest designated for preservation falls within the inland zone, where average carbon levels are much lower. The fact that the project was located in the most carbon-rich area of that zone enabled the landowners to earn an exaggerated number of credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one person involved in the Yurok Tribe’s forest offset efforts was aware of how geographical choices swing the credits that can be earned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler said during a 2015 presentation at a National Indian Timber Symposium that the tribe had the “distinct pleasure” of having the boundary run through its territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can take the same inventory data and apply it to the California Coast” — the region to the west — “and it doesn’t come out with the same numbers as you do if you cross the street,” Erler said at the conference, captured in \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=924&v=SlDrNcW_g3Q&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a YouTube video\u003c/a> posted to the Intertribal Timber Council’s channel. “Vegetation may be the same, but it changes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Badgley said that while the researchers can’t speak to the intentions of any actors involved, it’s clear that this project “benefited from over-crediting and that the Yurok Tribe’s forester was aware how the specific aspects of the protocol rules our study criticizes led to beneficial outcomes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erler didn’t respond to a list of emailed questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, Yurok spokesperson Matt Mais said that the property was the only land the tribe had available to enroll at the time and strongly denied the tribe engaged in any sort of gaming of the system. He didn’t respond before press time to a subsequent inquiry asking why the rest of the tribe’s land wasn’t available for the offset program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the last decade or so, the tribe has slowly reacquired tens of thousands of acres of its ancestral territory, in and around the watershed of Blue Creek and other streams that sustain migrating salmon, from the Green Diamond Resource Co., a major Seattle-based timber business. The complex multistep land deals were done in partnership with the nonprofit Western Rivers Conservancy and financed through government grants, philanthropic donations and the sale of the tribe’s offset credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As we have recovered additional forestlands, we have enrolled additional acreage in California’s climate programs in support of our Tribe’s strategic goals including protecting salmon habitat, sustaining the revitalization of our cultural lifeways, and facilitating economic self-sufficiency,” Mais wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s insulting to claim that the Yurok Tribe has ‘gamed’ or ‘exploited’ California’s climate regulations,” he added. “Equally important, it’s concerning that elite institutions now criticize us for legally and ethically using a program that was created to protect mature forests and then using those funds to purchase and restore more forest land that was, at one point, ours.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests defended its practices in emailed responses to questions, arguing its projects have preserved existing carbon stocks and removed CO2 from the atmosphere through subsequent tree growth “as confirmed via third-party verification.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said it has worked on projects in numerous areas, not just along the program’s regional boundaries. The company said its projects “have protected and will enhance carbon storage on hundreds of thousands of acres of forests,” adding that one project with the Chugach Alaska Corp. \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecordovatimes.com/2017/01/25/bering-river-coal-field-rights-retired/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enabled the permanent retirement\u003c/a> of a significant portion of the coal reserves in the Bering River Coal Field in southeastern Alaska.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests follows the board’s “scientifically-accepted regulations to both the spirit and letter of the program,” the company said in a subsequent statement. “New Forests is proud of the forest carbon projects we have developed under California’s climate programs — they have generated positive environmental impact and furthered the economic and cultural objectives of the family forest landowners and Native American tribes with whom we have worked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New Forests didn’t respond to numerous additional inquiries, including direct questions about whether it was gaming the rules of the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response, CarbonPlan stressed that its paper criticizes the design of the program — not the Yurok Tribe or other landowners. Nor does it allege anyone has broken the rules. Its analysis doesn’t consider or depend on the intent of any forest owners, who can benefit from flaws in the rules whether they intended to or even know about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We recognize the injustices experienced by the Yurok Tribe, including the seizure of their historical lands by the United States government and its citizens,” the nonprofit stated. “We also recognize the Yurok Tribe’s legitimate interest in securing resources to repurchase lands that previously belonged to the Tribe and its people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>An Open Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Field, an environmental studies professor at Stanford University, was co-author of a 2017 study that found California’s program was helping to prevent emissions on balance by reducing logging. About 64% of the 39 projects studied were “being actively logged at or prior to project inception.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said the state program is “relatively well-designed to address key issues,” but said it can and should be improved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that there are firm limits on the role that offsets can play in California. From now through 2025, state polluters can only buy offsets to cover as much as 4% of their carbon emissions; from 2026 to 2030, that ceiling rises to 6%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But those numbers understate the critical role of offsets in California’s cap-and-trade program, viewed by some as a model for market-based climate policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under that program, California sells permits that allow certain industries to emit greenhouse gases, with each permit worth one metric ton of CO2. The state also regularly gives away a certain number of permits to various regulated companies. The total number of permits, called a “cap,” declines over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polluters can also purchase permits from other companies with extras to spare, which constitutes the “trade.” Or they can buy carbon offset credits, which cost slightly less than permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To participate in the offset program, landowners must hire technicians to survey the trees on their land, then take data such as tree type, height and diameter and plug it into equations to estimate the carbon stored per acre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the credits are distributed during the initial stages of a project, which can help to repay setup costs. Projects can also earn additional credits over time as the trees grow and absorb CO2, but those credits accrue slowly, and are dwarfed by the initial credits given to forests with more carbon than the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The type of forest projects that CarbonPlan analyzed account for 68% of all credits issued by the Air Resources Board since the program’s launch, far eclipsing other types of offsets like capturing methane from dairy farms \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/26/133261/whoops-californias-carbon-offsets-program-could-extend-the-life-of-coal-mines/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">or coal mines\u003c/a>, CarbonPlan found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cap and trade is designed to slash the state’s carbon footprint by 236 million tons of CO2 over the next decade, about a third of the cumulative reductions needed to meet the state’s emissions targets over that time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Haya, who leads the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at UC-Berkeley and is a co-author of the CarbonPlan study, calculated that up to half of those cap-and-trade emissions cuts could come via offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haya said these cherry-picking practices have been an open secret. The study is “revealing to everyone what a lot of people in the industry understand,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Conservation vs. the Climate\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters of forest offsets say no system is perfect, and that focusing solely on the carbon math overlooks the incentives offsets create for protecting forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Field said offset systems should balance two goals: ensuring real emissions cuts, and creating ways to fund forest conservation. If CarbonPlan’s study shows projects are gravitating toward high-carbon forests, then those are exactly the types of trees you’d want to save “if you have a conservation agenda,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cody Desautel, president of the Intertribal Timber Council, a Portland-based nonprofit consortium of native tribes, said that offset programs have provided critical financial flexibility for tribes. They’ve allowed them to buy back historic land, build needed infrastructure, create jobs for members or simply save up money for financial security. But above all, they’ve created incentives to manage forests in sustainable ways, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Tribes are very conservation-minded,” said Desautel, who is also the natural resources director for Washington’s Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/project/confederated-tribes-colville-reservation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">operate an offset project\u003c/a> under California’s system. “Their practices are largely based on what’s best for the ecosystem, not what makes the most sense economically. And there’s never been any value to that management approach in the past. These carbon projects provide an opportunity to value that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, “If there’s no value to owning forest land, it probably won’t be forest land long into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s offset projects have clearly helped in these sorts of ways, even if they didn’t provide the full promised carbon benefit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tribe \u003ca href=\"https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2019/aug/14/yurok-tribe-acquires-50000-acres-green-diamond-lan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has said\u003c/a> it is using the acquired land and funds to restore its old-growth forests, produce traditional foods and basket-weaving materials, create a salmon sanctuary and improve habitat for endangered or culturally important species like the coho salmon, northern spotted owl, blacktailed deer and Roosevelt elk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our partnership with New Forests will provide the Tribe with the means to boost biodiversity, accelerate watershed restoration, and increase the abundance of important cultural resources like acorns, huckleberry and hundreds of medicinal plants that thrive in a fully functioning forest ecosystem,” Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., then-chairman of the Yurok Tribal Council, said \u003ca href=\"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140211005853/en/New-Forests-and-Yurok-Tribe-Register-First-Compliance-Forest-Carbon-Offset-Project-for-California-Carbon-Market\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a statement\u003c/a> at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if the societal goal is preserving forests, it would be simpler and more effective to describe it accurately and fund it directly, said Haya, the UC Berkeley expert. As soon as these forests get tied up in an offset program, the carbon math does matter, because every additional ton purportedly preserved in trees enables polluters to purchase the right to generate an additional ton of CO2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Forest offsets appeal to the public partly because of what academics call “\u003ca href=\"https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-020-02653-1?ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue_20200806&utm_content=AA_en_06082018&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue&wt_mc=Internal.Event.1.SEM.ArticleAuthorAssignedToIssue\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">charismatic carbon\u003c/a>” — they offer a feel-good story of environmental and social good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Any good conservation advocate would tell you there’s a desperate need for more funding, and we agree entirely,” CarbonPlan’s Cullenward said in an email. The “problem isn’t that conservation is bad, it’s that the system of carbon offsets channels these real needs and sincere hopes into a system that grinds it all up and spits out garbage on the other side.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘The Best Bang for the Buck’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s Air Resources Board approved the forest offset program’s official rules in 2011, after years of discussions with dozens of experts, including government scientists and staff from conservation groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In adopting it, the agency relied heavily on Climate Action Reserve, a nonprofit that created programs with voluntary offset credits. The nonprofit, which continues to advise the agency, led an effort to calculate regional carbon averages as part of an initiative to update its voluntary offset rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To do so, the nonprofit used data from the U.S. Forest Service, which surveys tens of thousands of forest plots nationwide. The nonprofit grouped data from different tree species and combined data from various geographic zones into larger regional areas called supersections. This simplification allowed the Climate Action Reserve to create a set of common baselines that estimated the amount of carbon stored in typical privately owned forests. The baselines take into account such forest uses as logging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the use of these broad averages obscured real differences on the ground. Some industry insiders and researchers began to notice that landowners and developers routinely located their projects in areas where the specific tract of forest differed greatly from the regional averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Zack Parisa, chief executive of the carbon offsets company SilviaTerra, previously consulted for project developers and landowners enrolling forests in California’s system. But he said he stopped out of frustration, after seeing the ways it was regularly being gamed, including the cherry-picking techniques CarbonPlan highlighted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parisa said he doesn’t blame landowners or project developers, who are acting out of rational self-interest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If someone shows up and is offering a contract to buy carbon and it doesn’t require them to change anything about how they manage the forests, that’s free money and they’d be stupid not to take it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not hunting for a villain here,” Parisa added. “Of course they look for the best bang for the buck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to New Forests, other developers also worked on projects where favorable boundaries and forest types boosted the credits that could be earned, according to CarbonPlan. Those include Bluesource and Finite Carbon, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.finitecarbon.com/2020/12/16/bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bp-acquires-majority-stake-in-largest-us-forest-carbon-offset-developer-finite-carbon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BP purchased a majority stake in\u003c/a> late last year. The researchers found that those two developers’ projects, taken together, generated up to 24 million credits that don’t represent actual carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Forests,\u003c/a> Finite Carbon, Bluesource and other subjects of this article were provided the full study and an accompanying paper describing its methods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finite Carbon declined to address detailed questions, but stressed that the Air Resources Board and an independent auditor found that their projects were in compliance with the rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the company said there were “unanswered questions” about the CarbonPlan study’s methodology, adding, “however we cannot comment further on it as the underlying raw data is not currently available for public review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emily Six, the marketing and communications manager for Bluesource, denied the company had gamed the rules in any way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email, Six said California’s program actually undercounts the carbon preserved through projects by not crediting the amount stored in other parts of the forest like soil, shrubs and foliage. She also stressed that without offsets, some landowners could have chopped down their forests to carbon levels well below the regional average.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Deliberately overstating climate benefits would run counter to our very purpose for existence,” she wrote. “Bluesource exists to improve the world by improving the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The experts who wrote the original offset rules relied on the only national forest dataset available, from the U.S. Forest Service’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.fia.fs.fed.us/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, said\u003c/a> Constance Best, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust. The conservation nonprofit was \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/pacific-forest-trust-honored-by-climate-action-reserve-for-advancing-forests-in-climate-policy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely involved\u003c/a> in the creation of the early program and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pacificforest.org/selling-carbon-offsets/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">participated in it\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best said it was necessary to create carbon averages for larger regions and forest types because there wasn’t enough fine-grained data to ensure accuracy at highly local levels. She disputed CarbonPlan’s claim that its researchers had created a better way of calculating regional averages, since their method required relying on a smaller number of forest plots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason some super sections are large is to assure the data is more accurate,” Best said in an email. “So their solution creates more problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a separate note, she said: “The paper you shared has a strong editorial bias that undermines its findings and makes me question their data and analysis. It deliberately exaggerates what they present as smoking gun over-credited projects.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an emailed statement, CarbonPlan acknowledges that using fewer forest plots entails some uncertainty. But the researchers stressed they clearly accounted for it by providing a range of results, and maintained their findings are more accurate because they considered the specific mix of tree species in each project. CarbonPlan also shot back at the allegation of bias: “Having done our work on the basis of extensive public program records, and with fully reproducible methods, data, and code, we are confident that other researchers are capable of judging our paper on its merits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the board has updated regional averages based on more recent forest data, \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/tangri_neil_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critics say\u003c/a> efforts to address more fundamental problems \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/sites/default/files/2021-02/nowicki_brian_offsets_task_force_letter_020821.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have been thwarted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers and activists also worry about the close ties between the Air Resources Board and the groups that now profit from the program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, whenever a landowner wants to enroll a forest tract in California’s program, they open an account at Climate Action Reserve or two other nonprofits that have received the board’s blessing to review the documents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the project clears the Climate Action Reserve’s review and a subsequent audit by the state board, the nonprofit charges 19 cents for every credit issued. For one of the largest projects in the program, for instance, that would have added up to more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It “strikes me as a massive conflict of interest for an organization — whether nonprofit or not — that designed the system to have a financial stake in its operation,” David Victor, a professor at the UC San Diego, who has \u003ca href=\"https://www.nap.edu/read/13023/chapter/21\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">closely studied international offset systems\u003c/a>, said in an email. (Victor recently co-authored the book “Making Climate Policy Work” with Cullenward.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In any other market, putting the market players in charge of key elements of its design would lead to ‘hollers’” over the conflicts of interest, Victor said. With the forest offset program, “everyone seems fine or even happy about the arrangement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate Action Reserve didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Too Good to Be True’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hardy, drought-tolerant softwoods like junipers and pinyon pines dominate in the hot, dry landscape of central New Mexico, with smatterings of taller Douglas firs and spruces in the cooler, higher reaches of the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But under the initial rules of California’s program, those forests were considered to contain no carbon whatsoever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The error stemmed from the fact that there was no available Forest Service data in that part of New Mexico when the Climate Action Reserve calculated regional averages, said Olaf Kuegler, a Forest Service statistician who provided technical assistance to the nonprofit on the federal database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consequently, the Climate Action Reserve set the regional average for an area stretching nearly 34,000 square miles at zero, which meant anyone who owned a few dozen trees could earn carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kuegler said he wasn’t aware of the mistake until early or mid-2014, when Air Resources Board employee Barbara Bamberger asked him about it. Bamberger, who leads the board’s work on forest offsets, later highlighted the error during an October 2014 \u003ca href=\"https://americancarbonregistry.org/news-events/events/review-of-us-forestry-compliance-offset-protocol-updates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">webinar\u003c/a> on offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During her presentation, Bamberger said the board was updating the regional averages in ways that could lead to major changes in certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This may be due to the fact that no data existed for some years in the original span from years 2002 to 2006,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=2400&v=n92ZsQNKPk4&feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">she explained\u003c/a>. “For example, in New Mexico data wasn’t collected until the end of that period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost exactly one year after Bamberger’s presentation, New Forests’ affiliate filed the paperwork for a nearly 222,000-acre project in New Mexico, stretching across the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s nearly half-million-acre reservation about ninety minutes west of Roswell. More than a third of the project’s trees were carbon-rich Douglas firs, according to the project’s paperwork. Shillinglaw signed the forms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The erroneously low carbon calculation allowed the developer to claim they could have heavily logged the forest, boosting the amount of credits they could earn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project earned 3.7 million credits for its first year, worth more than $50 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the California board’s updated rules went into effect two weeks later, it set a far higher regional average for most of the project area. If that standard had been in place earlier, it would have eliminated nearly every credit the project earned, CarbonPlan found. The project generated more ghost credits than any other in the nonprofit’s study, based on its more conservative calculations of regional carbon averages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Mescalero Apache Tribe’s president at the time, Danny Breuninger Sr., said the tribe welcomed the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“None of us had heard about the carbon credit program, and in a way it sounded too good to be true,” he said. “But it was a great deal. It worked out great for us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Breuninger referred further questions to the tribe’s current president, Gabe Aguilar. Neither Aguilar nor the tribe’s attorney, Nelva Cervantes, responded to repeated inquiries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, the Air Resources Board said the project met all the requirements of the program at that time. The fact that the board was in the process of developing new regional averages using data that didn’t previously exist didn’t make the earlier figures “invalid or erroneous,” it added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Second Wave of Colonization’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghost credits matter because they allow other companies to purchase the right to continue emitting real greenhouse gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Credits from the Mescalero Apache Tribe’s project were sold to PG&E, Chevron and a company that drills for oil in Kern County, California, according to the latest figures available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Yurok Tribe’s 7,660-acre project generated credits that were obtained by a variety of energy companies like Calpine, PG&E and Shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some tribal members are \u003ca href=\"https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/how-carbon-trading-became-a-way-of-life-for-californias-yurok-tribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deeply uncomfortable\u003c/a> with the idea of selling offsets to companies like this even if they are legitimate, fearing they’re effectively profiting from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The offsets, by definition, allow California companies to continue producing more CO2 than otherwise allowed — as well as the toxic pollutants like soot and heavy metals that frequently accompany such emissions — often near poor neighborhoods. Communities near refineries, cement kilns and power plants have frequently opposed offset programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas Joseph, an activist and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in California, said offset developers target tribal projects because tribes are in “dire need of revenue” and own vast tracts of mostly intact forest. He said his tribe has resisted multiple pitches from developers. “For us to use this as a means to allow corporations to continue to pollute,” he said, goes “against our cultural values.” He added, “I see it as a second wave of colonization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Desautel, the Intertribal Timber Council president, sees it differently. When the issue comes up among tribal members, he explains that polluters under cap and trade need to pay either the state for permission to pollute, or landowners through carbon offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The check is getting written one way or the other,” he said. “It’s just a question of where it goes and what’s being accomplished with that funding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SilviaTerra’s Parisa said that landowners and project developers will continue to respond to the incentives created in the program, in ways that overstate climate progress, until the program itself changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need better rules,” he said. “Let’s make sure the dollars we spend actually change things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Forests really can be a part of the solution for the climate, but we haven’t gotten it right yet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\">http://pixel.propublica.org/pixel.js\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1974389/californias-forest-climate-program-could-actually-be-increasing-co2","authors":["byline_science_1974389"],"categories":["science_31","science_33","science_35","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_121","science_194","science_4414"],"featImg":"science_1974391","label":"source_science_1974389"},"science_1972789":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1972789","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1972789","score":null,"sort":[1613680809000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-says-it-will-review-cap-and-trade-amid-growing-criticism","title":"California Says It Will Review Cap-and-Trade Amid Growing Criticism","publishDate":1613680809,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Says It Will Review Cap-and-Trade Amid Growing Criticism | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>Newsom administration officials said this week that they will evaluate the role of California’s landmark cap-and-trade program as the state examines its strategies for tackling climate change over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At an oversight hearing Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/about/bios/blumenfeld/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jared Blumenfeld,\u003c/a> secretary for environmental protection, and Air Resources Board Chair \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/liane-m-randolph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Liane Randolph\u003c/a> said the carbon trading program will be a key part of the conversation as California updates its climate road map, called a scoping plan, over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Blumenfeld nor Randolph, however, would say specifically what will be examined or how the program might change. “Any changes would need to be carefully thought through and accompanied by economic and environmental processes,” Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Launched in 2013, California’s cap-and-trade program is the nation’s first economy-wide \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/california-reveals-terms-cap-and-trade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carbon market\u003c/a>. The program sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions that polluters — including oil refineries, power plants and manufacturers — can meet by buying and trading carbon credits or updating their facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/05/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Independent experts\u003c/a> have raised concerns that the program might be too weak to achieve California’s ambitious climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, environmental justice groups have long criticized \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/12/mary-nichols-czar-legacy-skies-controversy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California’s carbon market\u003c/a>, saying that former air board chair Mary Nichols had done too little to protect vulnerable Californians living in the shadow of fossil fuel polluters such as oil refineries and power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Randolph addressed those concerns at the hearing, but as market administrator of the cap-and-trade program, she was cautious about saying anything that might affect the market for carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This remains an important space for us to work directly with environmental justice and community organizations to ensure that their views are incorporated into our work,” Randolph said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in 2016\u003c/a> pledged to cut its climate-warming pollution 40% over the next 10 years, and it is relying on the carbon trading program for nearly half of those reductions in 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re calling on all our existing climate policies to do more in the next decade. We have no choice but to accelerate the rate of emission reductions dramatically,” Blumenfeld said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No changes to the program would happen soon. The process will begin this spring, and the final plan is expected to be presented to the board in late 2022, Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Opportunities to further strengthen the cap-and-trade program will begin as part of the public process to update the scoping plan. To do so now would be premature,” Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s hearing was held by a \u003ca href=\"https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/subcommittee2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate budget subcommittee\u003c/a> chaired by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, a Democrat from Fremont. Wieckowski asked \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/liane-m-randolph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Randolph\u003c/a>, who was appointed chair of the air board \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/12/09/governor-newsom-announces-liane-randolph-as-the-chair-of-the-air-resources-board/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in December\u003c/a>, whether she planned to revisit the weight of cap and trade in the new scoping plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, basically, the answer is yes,” Randolph said. “The scoping plan process will rely on analyzing the existing programs and authorities to determine how to achieve reductions and then to determine what additional reductions need to be addressed by cap and trade.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements at the hearing reaffirm Blumenfeld’s commitment \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/06/california-climate-strategy-cap-trade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a letter to Wieckowski over the summer\u003c/a> to weigh “the extent to which the state’s climate strategy should rely on the cap-and-trade program reductions relative to other approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discussion met resistance from oil and gas producers, but was welcomed by environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changing this market-based system now would only create economic uncertainty for businesses and raise costs for consumers, all at a time when the state’s overall economy is in a precarious position,” said Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association, which represents independent crude oil and natural gas producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, said “cap and trade is doing exactly what it was intended to do — driving innovation — which has helped the state meet its climate goals almost four years earlier than anticipated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s environmental justice advocates have long \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/12/mary-nichols-czar-legacy-skies-controversy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opposed\u003c/a> the program because they say it comes at the expense of climate policies that would benefit low-income communities of color that are disproportionately burdened by air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The upcoming CARB scoping plan update is an opportunity to address the bifurcation of climate and air pollution, and move towards a mechanism that will allow for direct emissions reductions,” said Neena Mohan, climate justice associate at the California Environmental Justice Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the program entered a new phase that adds new requirements through 2030. These include doubling the rate at which the emissions cap drops and adding a price ceiling for credits to prevent costs for industries from increasing past a certain point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross Brown with the Legislative Analyst’s Office, said at the hearing that California’s 2020 greenhouse gas target, which the state reached four years early, required cutting emissions by about 1% each year. To meet the 2030 goals, California would need to increase those cuts to roughly 4% each year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just having the program in place is not sufficient to ensure that the program is achieving the goals,” Brown said. “Implementation of the program and design of the program matters a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One concern that Brown \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/05/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and others have raised\u003c/a> is that companies may be banking unused pollution credits, called allowances, to use later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s possible that when you get out into the later years up to 2030, that large bank of allowances could be used to comply with the program,” Brown said. “And as a result, the state might not be close to its ambitious emission targets out to 2030.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wieckowski said that problem haunts him. “I lose sleep at night, knowing that we were told that we couldn’t amend that bill, when staff and you in particular were saying that this allowance problem was a very big problem,” he said. “And now we have to deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, which is made up of researchers and academics appointed by the governor and leaders in the Legislature, has proposed metrics for tracking the bank of extra credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we are going to see that the number of banked allowances is far in excess of what the board said in its previous rulemaking statement,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.stanford.edu/directory/danny-cullenward/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Danny Cullenward\u003c/a>, a lecturer at Stanford Law School and a member of the emissions advisory committee. He said an air board analysis of banked allowances is expected by the end of this year\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hearing comes one day before a cap-and-trade auction where companies and others can bid to purchase pollution credits. The timing raised red flags for oil companies covered by cap and trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our concern is that the hearing may unnecessarily create uncertainty about the cap-and-trade program that could affect the auction,” Slagle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullenward questioned, however, whether those concerns were justified. “Why is it not appropriate to ask questions about the performance of the program? If not now, when is it okay?” he said. “Neither the legislature nor the administration did anything in a way that would prejudice people’s behavior at the auction tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters.org\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Experts say the state’s cap-and-trade program may be insufficient in meeting ambitious climate goals. And environmentalists have called the program unfair to polluted communities.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704846755,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":34,"wordCount":1280},"headData":{"title":"California Says It Will Review Cap-and-Trade Amid Growing Criticism | KQED","description":"Experts say the state’s cap-and-trade program may be insufficient in meeting ambitious climate goals. And environmentalists have called the program unfair to polluted communities.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Says It Will Review Cap-and-Trade Amid Growing Criticism","datePublished":"2021-02-18T20:40:09.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:32:35.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"CalMatters","sticky":false,"nprByline":"Rachel Becker \u003cbr />Calmatters\u003cbr>","path":"/science/1972789/california-says-it-will-review-cap-and-trade-amid-growing-criticism","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Newsom administration officials said this week that they will evaluate the role of California’s landmark cap-and-trade program as the state examines its strategies for tackling climate change over the next decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At an oversight hearing Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"https://calepa.ca.gov/about/bios/blumenfeld/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jared Blumenfeld,\u003c/a> secretary for environmental protection, and Air Resources Board Chair \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/liane-m-randolph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Liane Randolph\u003c/a> said the carbon trading program will be a key part of the conversation as California updates its climate road map, called a scoping plan, over the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither Blumenfeld nor Randolph, however, would say specifically what will be examined or how the program might change. “Any changes would need to be carefully thought through and accompanied by economic and environmental processes,” Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Launched in 2013, California’s cap-and-trade program is the nation’s first economy-wide \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/california-reveals-terms-cap-and-trade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">carbon market\u003c/a>. The program sets a declining cap on greenhouse gas emissions that polluters — including oil refineries, power plants and manufacturers — can meet by buying and trading carbon credits or updating their facilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/05/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Independent experts\u003c/a> have raised concerns that the program might be too weak to achieve California’s ambitious climate goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, environmental justice groups have long criticized \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/12/mary-nichols-czar-legacy-skies-controversy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California’s carbon market\u003c/a>, saying that former air board chair Mary Nichols had done too little to protect vulnerable Californians living in the shadow of fossil fuel polluters such as oil refineries and power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Randolph addressed those concerns at the hearing, but as market administrator of the cap-and-trade program, she was cautious about saying anything that might affect the market for carbon credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This remains an important space for us to work directly with environmental justice and community organizations to ensure that their views are incorporated into our work,” Randolph said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160SB32\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in 2016\u003c/a> pledged to cut its climate-warming pollution 40% over the next 10 years, and it is relying on the carbon trading program for nearly half of those reductions in 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re calling on all our existing climate policies to do more in the next decade. We have no choice but to accelerate the rate of emission reductions dramatically,” Blumenfeld said Tuesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No changes to the program would happen soon. The process will begin this spring, and the final plan is expected to be presented to the board in late 2022, Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Opportunities to further strengthen the cap-and-trade program will begin as part of the public process to update the scoping plan. To do so now would be premature,” Blumenfeld said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today’s hearing was held by a \u003ca href=\"https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/subcommittee2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Senate budget subcommittee\u003c/a> chaired by Sen. Bob Wieckowski, a Democrat from Fremont. Wieckowski asked \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/about/leadership/liane-m-randolph\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Randolph\u003c/a>, who was appointed chair of the air board \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/12/09/governor-newsom-announces-liane-randolph-as-the-chair-of-the-air-resources-board/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in December\u003c/a>, whether she planned to revisit the weight of cap and trade in the new scoping plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Yes, basically, the answer is yes,” Randolph said. “The scoping plan process will rely on analyzing the existing programs and authorities to determine how to achieve reductions and then to determine what additional reductions need to be addressed by cap and trade.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The statements at the hearing reaffirm Blumenfeld’s commitment \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/06/california-climate-strategy-cap-trade/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in a letter to Wieckowski over the summer\u003c/a> to weigh “the extent to which the state’s climate strategy should rely on the cap-and-trade program reductions relative to other approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The discussion met resistance from oil and gas producers, but was welcomed by environmental justice groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Changing this market-based system now would only create economic uncertainty for businesses and raise costs for consumers, all at a time when the state’s overall economy is in a precarious position,” said Rock Zierman, CEO of the California Independent Petroleum Association, which represents independent crude oil and natural gas producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Slagle, a spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association, said “cap and trade is doing exactly what it was intended to do — driving innovation — which has helped the state meet its climate goals almost four years earlier than anticipated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s environmental justice advocates have long \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2020/12/mary-nichols-czar-legacy-skies-controversy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opposed\u003c/a> the program because they say it comes at the expense of climate policies that would benefit low-income communities of color that are disproportionately burdened by air pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The upcoming CARB scoping plan update is an opportunity to address the bifurcation of climate and air pollution, and move towards a mechanism that will allow for direct emissions reductions,” said Neena Mohan, climate justice associate at the California Environmental Justice Alliance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In January, the program entered a new phase that adds new requirements through 2030. These include doubling the rate at which the emissions cap drops and adding a price ceiling for credits to prevent costs for industries from increasing past a certain point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ross Brown with the Legislative Analyst’s Office, said at the hearing that California’s 2020 greenhouse gas target, which the state reached four years early, required cutting emissions by about 1% each year. To meet the 2030 goals, California would need to increase those cuts to roughly 4% each year, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Just having the program in place is not sufficient to ensure that the program is achieving the goals,” Brown said. “Implementation of the program and design of the program matters a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One concern that Brown \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2018/05/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and others have raised\u003c/a> is that companies may be banking unused pollution credits, called allowances, to use later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s possible that when you get out into the later years up to 2030, that large bank of allowances could be used to comply with the program,” Brown said. “And as a result, the state might not be close to its ambitious emission targets out to 2030.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wieckowski said that problem haunts him. “I lose sleep at night, knowing that we were told that we couldn’t amend that bill, when staff and you in particular were saying that this allowance problem was a very big problem,” he said. “And now we have to deal with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, which is made up of researchers and academics appointed by the governor and leaders in the Legislature, has proposed metrics for tracking the bank of extra credits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think we are going to see that the number of banked allowances is far in excess of what the board said in its previous rulemaking statement,” said \u003ca href=\"https://law.stanford.edu/directory/danny-cullenward/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Danny Cullenward\u003c/a>, a lecturer at Stanford Law School and a member of the emissions advisory committee. He said an air board analysis of banked allowances is expected by the end of this year\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The hearing comes one day before a cap-and-trade auction where companies and others can bid to purchase pollution credits. The timing raised red flags for oil companies covered by cap and trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our concern is that the hearing may unnecessarily create uncertainty about the cap-and-trade program that could affect the auction,” Slagle said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullenward questioned, however, whether those concerns were justified. “Why is it not appropriate to ask questions about the performance of the program? If not now, when is it okay?” he said. “Neither the legislature nor the administration did anything in a way that would prejudice people’s behavior at the auction tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"http://calmatters.org/\">CalMatters.org\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1972789/california-says-it-will-review-cap-and-trade-amid-growing-criticism","authors":["byline_science_1972789"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40","science_4450"],"tags":["science_3969","science_121","science_194","science_4414"],"featImg":"science_1972791","label":"source_science_1972789"},"science_1949823":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1949823","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1949823","score":null,"sort":[1571850462000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"doj-sues-california-over-its-climate-agreement-with-quebec","title":"California's Top Air Regulator Is Scathing in Response to DOJ Climate Suit","publishDate":1571850462,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California’s Top Air Regulator Is Scathing in Response to DOJ Climate Suit | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp class=\"p1\">Once again, the federal government is challenging California over policies related to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today in the Eastern District of California arguing that the state’s 2013 cap-and-trade \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/linkage/linkage.htm\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">agreement \u003c/span>\u003c/a>with the Canadian Province of Quebec violates the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The feds say in a \u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-against-state-california-unlawful-cap-and-trade-agreement\">release\u003c/a> that \u003c/span>California is interfering with U.S. international relations by “attempting to pursue an independent foreign policy in the area of greenhouse gas regulation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In a statement, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said that California “veered outside of its proper constitutional lane” with the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The power to enter into such agreements is reserved to the federal government, which must be able to speak with one voice in the area of U.S. foreign policy,” he said.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The civil complaint named the state, key officials, the California Air Resources Board and the Western Climate Initiative Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, was scathing in her criticism of the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking after her keynote address at a climate policy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/events/economic_policy_innovations_to_combat_climate_change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forum\u003c/a> hosted by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, she said her “first thought was that it was a joke.” She continued …\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The linkage with Canada has been in effect for a number of years. And our State Department and other elements of the U.S. government are well aware of it. They were following its development from the very beginning. We’ve also had legal opinions at all levels that what we’re doing doesn’t interfere with the federal prerogative on treaties. We don’t have a treaty. We’re not entering into treaties. But we do have many different memorandums of understanding that allow us to work on cross boundary problems with other states in other countries. And this is one of those programs. We’ll fight it out in the court, of course. But it just seems odd. The timing seems odd, and particularly odd at a time when the U.S. government is being investigated for conducting illegal foreign policy. It’s almost as though they are searching for a distraction.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back even before the workday in California had begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a press release, Newsom said on the issue of climate change that the White House has its “head in the sand,” and the Trump administration is pursuing “political retribution against California, our climate policies and the health of our communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carbon pollution knows no borders, and the Trump administration’s abysmal record of denying climate change and propping up big polluters makes cross-border collaboration all the more necessary,” Newsom said in his statement. “California’s landmark cap-and-trade program has inspired the creation of dozens of businesses, is a model for similar policies around the world, and puts California well ahead of the pack as we prepare for a low-carbon future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, Newsom and Nichols reached a tailpipe emissions agreement with four major automakers. Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen voluntarily agreed to produce cleaner cars over time and invest in electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That agreement was a rebuke of the Trump administration, which wanted to loosen emission standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s attorney general has sued the federal government more two dozen times over the Trump administration’s environmental policies.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Both Air Resources Board head Mary Nichols and Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at the Trump administration over its latest attempt to dismantle a critical California environmental policy.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848205,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":15,"wordCount":601},"headData":{"title":"California's Top Air Regulator Is Scathing in Response to DOJ Climate Suit | KQED","description":"Both Air Resources Board head Mary Nichols and Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at the Trump administration over its latest attempt to dismantle a critical California environmental policy.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California's Top Air Regulator Is Scathing in Response to DOJ Climate Suit","datePublished":"2019-10-23T17:07:42.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:56:45.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Climate Change","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1949823/doj-sues-california-over-its-climate-agreement-with-quebec","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">Once again, the federal government is challenging California over policies related to climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Justice Department filed a lawsuit today in the Eastern District of California arguing that the state’s 2013 cap-and-trade \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/linkage/linkage.htm\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">agreement \u003c/span>\u003c/a>with the Canadian Province of Quebec violates the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The feds say in a \u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/united-states-files-lawsuit-against-state-california-unlawful-cap-and-trade-agreement\">release\u003c/a> that \u003c/span>California is interfering with U.S. international relations by “attempting to pursue an independent foreign policy in the area of greenhouse gas regulation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In a statement, Jeffrey Bossert Clark, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said that California “veered outside of its proper constitutional lane” with the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The power to enter into such agreements is reserved to the federal government, which must be able to speak with one voice in the area of U.S. foreign policy,” he said.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The civil complaint named the state, key officials, the California Air Resources Board and the Western Climate Initiative Inc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, was scathing in her criticism of the suit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Speaking after her keynote address at a climate policy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/events/economic_policy_innovations_to_combat_climate_change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">forum\u003c/a> hosted by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, she said her “first thought was that it was a joke.” She continued …\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The linkage with Canada has been in effect for a number of years. And our State Department and other elements of the U.S. government are well aware of it. They were following its development from the very beginning. We’ve also had legal opinions at all levels that what we’re doing doesn’t interfere with the federal prerogative on treaties. We don’t have a treaty. We’re not entering into treaties. But we do have many different memorandums of understanding that allow us to work on cross boundary problems with other states in other countries. And this is one of those programs. We’ll fight it out in the court, of course. But it just seems odd. The timing seems odd, and particularly odd at a time when the U.S. government is being investigated for conducting illegal foreign policy. It’s almost as though they are searching for a distraction.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed back even before the workday in California had begun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a press release, Newsom said on the issue of climate change that the White House has its “head in the sand,” and the Trump administration is pursuing “political retribution against California, our climate policies and the health of our communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Carbon pollution knows no borders, and the Trump administration’s abysmal record of denying climate change and propping up big polluters makes cross-border collaboration all the more necessary,” Newsom said in his statement. “California’s landmark cap-and-trade program has inspired the creation of dozens of businesses, is a model for similar policies around the world, and puts California well ahead of the pack as we prepare for a low-carbon future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In July, Newsom and Nichols reached a tailpipe emissions agreement with four major automakers. Ford, Honda, BMW, and Volkswagen voluntarily agreed to produce cleaner cars over time and invest in electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That agreement was a rebuke of the Trump administration, which wanted to loosen emission standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s attorney general has sued the federal government more two dozen times over the Trump administration’s environmental policies.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1949823/doj-sues-california-over-its-climate-agreement-with-quebec","authors":["11608"],"categories":["science_31","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_524","science_5178","science_121","science_4093","science_194","science_3514"],"featImg":"science_1949827","label":"source_science_1949823"},"science_1949769":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1949769","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1949769","score":null,"sort":[1571813999000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"whats-bad-for-the-planet-is-bad-for-the-economy-says-new-analysis","title":"What’s Bad for the Planet Is Bad for the Economy, Says New Analysis","publishDate":1571813999,"format":"standard","headTitle":"What’s Bad for the Planet Is Bad for the Economy, Says New Analysis | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>There are enormous costs to doing nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond threats to public health and the environment, climate change poses a danger to the economy, especially for those who have the least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are the findings of a new analysis from the \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Institute\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">for\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Economic\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Policy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Research\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/\">Hamilton\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/\">Project\u003c/a>, a centrist economic think tank of the Brookings Institution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949772\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"346\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase.png 346w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase-160x136.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Economic Damages from Climate Change in 2080-99 by Temperature Increase \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two factors will determine just how disruptive climate change will be, according to the study. One is the extent of the warming; the other is the effectiveness of any mitigating technology and policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the century, an increase in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels could trim .5% off of U.S. gross domestic product, the economists found. At 4 degrees of warming the decline would hit 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, the damage would increase exponentially as warming continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. counties with the weakest economies, will be hit hardest, the report says. Similarly, around the world, the countries with the lowest incomes will face the most hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lower Emissions But Economic Growth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers point out that lower emissions and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between 2007 and 2017, U.S. planet-warming gas emissions dropped by 14%, while economic output grew 16%. E\u003c/span>nergy use fell, as did the price of developing renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind. (\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">U.S. emissions rose again in 2018.)\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949774\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 731px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17..png\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17..png 731w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17.-160x63.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Change in Levelized Cost of Energy for Solar and Wind. 2010-17. \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>Economic impacts from climate change unmitigated would be very, very large,” said Jay Shambough, a study author and former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. But there are clearly things that can be done. We’ve been making progress. Not enough, but some.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The important thing for us is to be clear that different policy approaches have different costs and benefits. Some ways to reduce carbon emissions can be pretty expensive, while other ways are more flexible and not actually that expensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study estimates the average cost of a host of climate policies; the researchers found that replanting forests and flaring methane gas are on the less-expensive end, along with the regulation of emissions from power plants and cars in former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration replaced those regulations with significantly weaker rules that could end up increasing emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More expensive climate solutions include weatherization assistance and vehicle trade-in programs like “Cash-for-Clunkers,” although these offer benefits beyond carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carbon Tax\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, economists have \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11446232/price-on-carbon-fine\">argued\u003c/a> that the most potent tool for fighting climate change is a tax on carbon emissions. A price on carbon, they maintain, lets the market determine the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. The researchers corroborated that view, finding that a price on carbon can reduce emissions at the lowest possible cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of governments across the world have introduced carbon pricing initiatives, with varying results. Many programs have set prices below what economists have identified as carbon’s “social cost,” a sweet spot that provides the most benefit at the lowest expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949776\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 709px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"709\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives.png 709w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives-160x65.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prices for Selected Carbon Initiatives \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study says that in 2020, based on policy that’s planned or in effect, 80% of the world’s emissions will remain unpriced. The U.S. will be pricing just 1% of global emissions, Europe 5.5% and China 7%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solutions outlined in the paper are much less sweeping than what is being called for by some of the current Democratic candidates for president. Proponents of a Green New Deal-style climate program, they are calling for a price on carbon, but also more aggressive action, including regulations to promote rapid decarbonization and investment in clean-energy jobs by the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors released the study Wednesday, timed to coincide with a Brookings and Stanford policy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/events/economic_policy_innovations_to_combat_climate_change\">forum\u003c/a> on economic policy innovations to fight climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Climate change poses a significant danger to the economy, especially, for those who have the least, says a new report out of Stanford.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848206,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":21,"wordCount":686},"headData":{"title":"What’s Bad for the Planet Is Bad for the Economy, Says New Analysis | KQED","description":"Climate change poses a significant danger to the economy, especially, for those who have the least, says a new report out of Stanford.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"What’s Bad for the Planet Is Bad for the Economy, Says New Analysis","datePublished":"2019-10-23T06:59:59.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:56:46.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Climate change","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1949769/whats-bad-for-the-planet-is-bad-for-the-economy-says-new-analysis","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There are enormous costs to doing nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond threats to public health and the environment, climate change poses a danger to the economy, especially for those who have the least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those are the findings of a new analysis from the \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Stanford\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Institute\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">for\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Economic\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Policy\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://siepr.stanford.edu/\">Research\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/\">Hamilton\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/\">Project\u003c/a>, a centrist economic think tank of the Brookings Institution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949772\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 346px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949772\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"346\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase.png 346w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/U.S.-Economic-Damages-from-Climate-Change-in-2080-99-by-Temperature-Increase-160x136.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Economic Damages from Climate Change in 2080-99 by Temperature Increase \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Two factors will determine just how disruptive climate change will be, according to the study. One is the extent of the warming; the other is the effectiveness of any mitigating technology and policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the century, an increase in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels could trim .5% off of U.S. gross domestic product, the economists found. At 4 degrees of warming the decline would hit 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, the damage would increase exponentially as warming continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. counties with the weakest economies, will be hit hardest, the report says. Similarly, around the world, the countries with the lowest incomes will face the most hardship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lower Emissions But Economic Growth\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers point out that lower emissions and economic growth are not mutually exclusive. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Between 2007 and 2017, U.S. planet-warming gas emissions dropped by 14%, while economic output grew 16%. E\u003c/span>nergy use fell, as did the price of developing renewable energy sources, especially solar and wind. (\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">U.S. emissions rose again in 2018.)\u003c/span>\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949774\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 731px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949774\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17..png\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17..png 731w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Change-in-Levelized-Cost-of-Energy-for-Solar-and-Wind.-2010-17.-160x63.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 731px) 100vw, 731px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Change in Levelized Cost of Energy for Solar and Wind. 2010-17. \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“\u003c/em>Economic impacts from climate change unmitigated would be very, very large,” said Jay Shambough, a study author and former member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. But there are clearly things that can be done. We’ve been making progress. Not enough, but some.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The important thing for us is to be clear that different policy approaches have different costs and benefits. Some ways to reduce carbon emissions can be pretty expensive, while other ways are more flexible and not actually that expensive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study estimates the average cost of a host of climate policies; the researchers found that replanting forests and flaring methane gas are on the less-expensive end, along with the regulation of emissions from power plants and cars in former President Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration replaced those regulations with significantly weaker rules that could end up increasing emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More expensive climate solutions include weatherization assistance and vehicle trade-in programs like “Cash-for-Clunkers,” although these offer benefits beyond carbon reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carbon Tax\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, economists have \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/2016/4/22/11446232/price-on-carbon-fine\">argued\u003c/a> that the most potent tool for fighting climate change is a tax on carbon emissions. A price on carbon, they maintain, lets the market determine the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions. The researchers corroborated that view, finding that a price on carbon can reduce emissions at the lowest possible cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dozens of governments across the world have introduced carbon pricing initiatives, with varying results. Many programs have set prices below what economists have identified as carbon’s “social cost,” a sweet spot that provides the most benefit at the lowest expense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1949776\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 709px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1949776\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"709\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives.png 709w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/10/Prices-for-Selected-Carbon-Pricing-Initiatives-160x65.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prices for Selected Carbon Initiatives \u003ccite>(Hamilton Project)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The study says that in 2020, based on policy that’s planned or in effect, 80% of the world’s emissions will remain unpriced. The U.S. will be pricing just 1% of global emissions, Europe 5.5% and China 7%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solutions outlined in the paper are much less sweeping than what is being called for by some of the current Democratic candidates for president. Proponents of a Green New Deal-style climate program, they are calling for a price on carbon, but also more aggressive action, including regulations to promote rapid decarbonization and investment in clean-energy jobs by the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors released the study Wednesday, timed to coincide with a Brookings and Stanford policy \u003ca href=\"https://www.hamiltonproject.org/events/economic_policy_innovations_to_combat_climate_change\">forum\u003c/a> on economic policy innovations to fight climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1949769/whats-bad-for-the-planet-is-bad-for-the-economy-says-new-analysis","authors":["11608"],"categories":["science_31","science_33","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_121","science_3780","science_5187"],"featImg":"science_1949788","label":"source_science_1949769"},"science_1946804":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1946804","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1946804","score":null,"sort":[1566889364000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"researchers-press-california-to-strengthen-landmark-climate-law","title":"Researchers Press California to Strengthen Landmark Climate Law","publishDate":1566889364,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Researchers Press California to Strengthen Landmark Climate Law | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>California’s cornerstone climate law for reducing planet warming emissions is coming under fire from a group of high-profile researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal and policy experts are challenging California’s top regulators to strengthen oversight of the state’s cap-and-trade law and to adopt changes to ensure that the state’s marketplace is reducing greenhouse gas pollution at the rate it claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authors from Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, among other institutions released a\u003ca href=\"https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Managing-Uncertainty-in-Carbon-Offsets-SLS-Working-Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> paper\u003c/a> today pressing the California Air Resources Board to strengthen accounting reviews and ensure the state’s landmark climate change law is achieving its goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board monitors the cap-and-trade program, and agency leadership are vigorously defending it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers — many of whom have been active in the program’s rule making and have challenged the agency before — argue in the working paper that the emissions reductions in California’s offset program are inherently uncertain. In some cases, they wrote, the rules create “perverse incentives” toward increasing planet-warming gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California law is at the center of the state’s plans to fight climate change and the state is counting on the initiative to \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/california-cap-and-trade/\">reduce\u003c/a> its total emissions by 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far, cap-and-trade programs have relied heavily on carbon offsets, as a way to meet the cap,” said lead author Barbara Haya, a UC Berkeley research fellow. “But carbon offsets have not worked very well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Haya examined the board’s assumptions around its offset program for forests in the U.S. (the agency refers to it as the U.S. Forest Projects \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/protocols/usforest/forestprotocol2015.pdf\">protocol\u003c/a>). She \u003ca href=\"https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Policy_Brief-US_Forest_Projects-Leakage-Haya_2.pdf\">estimates\u003c/a> landowners earn millions for reductions in planet warming emissions that might not be real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She argues that California overestimated carbon dioxide emissions reductions by 80 million tons, and the program may only have accomplished 18% of the emission reductions it claims to have made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you consider that U.S. forests comprise the vast majority of the credits the agency has issued to date, that’s a big discrepancy. The analysis raises questions about how well the state’s landmark climate program — a model for other states and even countries — is working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the agency is aggressively defending its cap-and-trade program saying it’s a model for the international community and the forest initiative is the product of years of policy making, hearings, and stakeholder input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Nichols, the Air Resource Board’s chair and top official, said in a letter to members of the Legislature that the agency reviewed Haya’s forest study and strongly disagreed with her analysis because it “contains errors and misunderstandings of the Forest Protocol.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the letter, the agency released a detailed \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/overview.pdf\">rebuttal\u003c/a>, to which Haya \u003ca href=\"https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/working-paper-series/policy-brief-arbas-us-forest-projects-offset-protocol-underestimates-leaka\">responded\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rajinder Sahota, who manages the cap-and-trade program for the agency, said she’s fully confident that the program is working. “We categorically disagree with these assertions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She vigorously defended the forest program calling it the “global gold standard” and saying that it was designed over many years, thousands of review comments, and dozens of public meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, Sahota categorized Haya’s studies as representing “old arguments” and pointed to the fact that in 2015 the First District Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit from environmental groups that charged the offset program could not be ensured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought the assertion that the offset program didn’t meet the requirements for being real, quantifiable emissions reductions,” Sahota said. “We litigated that and we prevailed in the lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Strengthening the Program\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California cap-and-trade works in two ways. It places a limit on industrial emissions — a “cap” that is lowered over time — and it creates a marketplace for companies to buy emissions offset credits from forest managers, dairy farmers, or others who are taking steps to remove carbon from the atmosphere or prevent its release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon offsets are central to California’s landmark climate change policy, and are organized into different areas the agency calls “\u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/offsets.htm\">protocols\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than reduce its own pollution, for example, an oil refinery can buy an offset that represents a ton of carbon emissions reductions from sustainable practices in another industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal was to explore how can an offset program be designed,” Haya said, “so that we can trust that the credits generated represent real emissions reductions and don’t undermine the effectiveness of our cap-and-trade programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1946806\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 531px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1946806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi.jpg 531w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 531px) 100vw, 531px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara Haya, a research fellow at UC Berkeley. A portrait of Haya was taken near the Alumni House at UC Berkeley on Saturday August 24, 2019. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The key issue, she added, has to do with California’s marketplace for “trading” emissions. State law requires that all of the offset credits be “real, permanent, quantifiable, verifiable, and enforceable.” Haya’s research found something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we saw really clearly looking at California’s program is that the reductions from offsets are inherently uncertain,” she said. “We know how to measure emissions under a cap, but it is much harder to measure emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and co-author of the paper, said that California doesn’t maintain an ongoing, formal structure to monitor how well the program is working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People think that these protocols can be used and used well, and we rely heavily on them, and invoke the idea that they’re high quality,” he said, adding that the California approach to ensuring quality with its offsets is “ad hoc.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota disagrees, saying that all of the emissions offsets are verified by a third party; if any fraud is detected, the offsets are invalidated; and all of the underlying reports are made available to the public. Also, since the forest program was first adopted, the agency has updated its rules on different occasions after a review of the latest science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘\u003cstrong>Perverse Incentives’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When researchers examined California’s recent initiatives that allow regulated industries to trade emissions, they found that, in some cases, they create what Haya calls “perverse incentives” that can lead to more emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, with one of its new initiatives, coal mines can make money by burning off the methane gas that leaks during production. While burning methane releases carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas driving climate change — methane gas is 84 times more potent in terms of global warming over the first 20 years it is released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burning the methane, even though it increases the carbon wafting in the air, is a net positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the researchers identified a problem. By destroying methane, the gassiest mines in the U.S. could earn enough money to remain open for longer than they would have at a moment when coal and natural gas are competing and mines closing. “Those profits can be substantial for those mines,” Haya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, California’s marketplace for emissions can deter governments from instituting other climate change regulations. Once an agency requires coal mines to flare their leaky gas, for example, the mines can no longer sell methane offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone can’t pay someone else to reduce emissions because they are already required by law,” Haya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota disagrees, and points to the fact that before California adopted the coal mine program in 2014, agency staff \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/regact/2013/capandtrade13/1mmcecon.pdf\">estimated\u003c/a> its potential impacts and found the potential revenue for the industry was minimal, a half a percent of the value of overall domestic coal production. “The protocol does not make any financial impact on bottom line decisions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, Sahota pushed back on the notion that the cap-and-trade program could deter other agencies away from regulations calling it “another falsehood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She pointed to the fact that after the board adopted a market for capturing methane from dairy farms, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1201862/california-targets-dairy-cows-to-combat-global-warming\">passed\u003c/a> a bill regulating heat-trapping gases from livestock operations and landfills (when cows belch, pass gas and make manure they release methane).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she acknowledged that other agencies might use California’s cap-and-trade law as an excuse not to pass regulations that they don’t want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulation is the best way to achieve these emissions reductions because it guarantees action,” she said. “But until such time that regulations can be formulated, offset protocols incentivize early action and actually get people doing something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, it’s a carrot rather than the stick way to produce emissions reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Forests and Amazon Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason that the quality of the program is so important is because California is a testing ground for climate policy, and the state exports its ideas to other countries, and also states like Oregon, which was poised to pass a similar law this year (until 11 Republican senators revolted, fled the state in protest, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/07/30/boeing-killed-oregons-cap-and-trade-deal-by-peeling-away-the-key-democrats-vote/\">killed\u003c/a> the bill).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quality of the state’s landmark climate law is all the more important because the board will meet next month to consider framework rules for a new tropical forest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the agency is not yet considering adopting a program for international rainforest — that would require years of environmental review and public comment — the board will consider a methodology for what such a program might look like, a precursor to adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is important because fires are ripping across the Brazilian Amazon after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1946696/fires-spread-across-brazilian-amazon-after-surge-in-deforestation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">surge\u003c/a> in deforestation, and supporters of expanding California’s market \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/climate-change-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argue\u003c/a> that the state can fight climate change while saving tropical forests throughout the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California approved a new program, forest managers in Brazil could earn money by sustainably managing their forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ensuring the quality of the program in other countries with different types of governments is a difficult challenge, Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California will be overseeing the program, who’s going to do that?” he said. “If you think it’s challenging to manage a forest protocol in the continental United States and Alaska, how about operating in Acre, Brazil, right now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germany, Norway, and other governments invested in a fund to support sustainable forestry in this part of Brazil. But recently, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753836508/why-norway-and-germany-have-frozen-money-going-to-the-amazon-fund\">withdrew\u003c/a> their investment because Brazil’s right-of-center president, Jair Bolsonaro, encourages deforestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/753140642/tens-of-thousands-of-fires-ravage-brazilian-amazon-where-deforestation-has-spike\">reporting\u003c/a> has Bolsonaro on the record saying he wants the Amazon open to development and describing rainforest protection measures as “obstacles” to the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Early Pushback \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s cap-and-trade law is a second generation carbon offset program. European leaders promoted the first generation program following the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when an international coalition of countries promised to reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kyoto’s offsets didn’t work very well. One \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/clima/files/ets/docs/clean_dev_mechanism_en.pdf\">study\u003c/a> found that only 2% of the projects have a “high likelihood” of ensuring that emission reductions were additional and not over-estimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporting in \u003ca href=\"https://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offsets/inconvenient-truth-carbon-credits-dont-work-deforestation-redd-acre-cambodia/\">ProPublica\u003c/a> revealed that the program subsidized thousands of projects, including coal plants, that claimed credits for being more efficient than they would have been. The European Union stopped accepting the credits after the program became mired in technical and human rights scandals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s market is meant to respond to some of the criticisms of the dysfunctional first generation program created under the United Nations climate trading regime and is different in a few key ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyoto’s initiative was voluntary and underfunded. But California’s program allows companies to offset a small percentage of their carbon output and only recognizes forests in the U.S., where the state can presumably have more oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The offset program is one of the most transparent parts of the cap-and-trade program,” Sahota said. “We were sensitive to the concerns about distrust of offsets when we were designing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But from the get-go, environmental justice groups like the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability debated whether California’s cap-and-trade offsets would improve on the old model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue it allows industry to pay to pollute in areas already suffering from toxic pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, they’ve recently eased back on their protests as long as the revenue from the market be used to meet the needs of neighborhoods most prone to dirty air; as, they hope, will be the case with California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943578/climate-funds-for-clean-water-democrats-enviro-groups-are-split\">plan\u003c/a> to use cap-and-trade money to clean dirty drinking water.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California is vigorously defending its cap-and-trade law from research that found the state is overestimating emissions reductions.","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848371,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":62,"wordCount":2158},"headData":{"title":"Researchers Press California to Strengthen Landmark Climate Law | KQED","description":"California is vigorously defending its cap-and-trade law from research that found the state is overestimating emissions reductions.","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Researchers Press California to Strengthen Landmark Climate Law","datePublished":"2019-08-27T07:02:44.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T00:59:31.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Climate change","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/tcr/2019/08/294649StarkCamhiCapandTrade2way.mp3","sticky":false,"audioTrackLength":200,"path":"/science/1946804/researchers-press-california-to-strengthen-landmark-climate-law","audioDuration":200000,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California’s cornerstone climate law for reducing planet warming emissions is coming under fire from a group of high-profile researchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legal and policy experts are challenging California’s top regulators to strengthen oversight of the state’s cap-and-trade law and to adopt changes to ensure that the state’s marketplace is reducing greenhouse gas pollution at the rate it claims.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Authors from Stanford Law School, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, among other institutions released a\u003ca href=\"https://www-cdn.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Managing-Uncertainty-in-Carbon-Offsets-SLS-Working-Paper.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> paper\u003c/a> today pressing the California Air Resources Board to strengthen accounting reviews and ensure the state’s landmark climate change law is achieving its goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The board monitors the cap-and-trade program, and agency leadership are vigorously defending it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers — many of whom have been active in the program’s rule making and have challenged the agency before — argue in the working paper that the emissions reductions in California’s offset program are inherently uncertain. In some cases, they wrote, the rules create “perverse incentives” toward increasing planet-warming gases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California law is at the center of the state’s plans to fight climate change and the state is counting on the initiative to \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/california-cap-and-trade/\">reduce\u003c/a> its total emissions by 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So far, cap-and-trade programs have relied heavily on carbon offsets, as a way to meet the cap,” said lead author Barbara Haya, a UC Berkeley research fellow. “But carbon offsets have not worked very well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May, Haya examined the board’s assumptions around its offset program for forests in the U.S. (the agency refers to it as the U.S. Forest Projects \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/protocols/usforest/forestprotocol2015.pdf\">protocol\u003c/a>). She \u003ca href=\"https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Policy_Brief-US_Forest_Projects-Leakage-Haya_2.pdf\">estimates\u003c/a> landowners earn millions for reductions in planet warming emissions that might not be real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She argues that California overestimated carbon dioxide emissions reductions by 80 million tons, and the program may only have accomplished 18% of the emission reductions it claims to have made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you consider that U.S. forests comprise the vast majority of the credits the agency has issued to date, that’s a big discrepancy. The analysis raises questions about how well the state’s landmark climate program — a model for other states and even countries — is working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the agency is aggressively defending its cap-and-trade program saying it’s a model for the international community and the forest initiative is the product of years of policy making, hearings, and stakeholder input.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mary Nichols, the Air Resource Board’s chair and top official, said in a letter to members of the Legislature that the agency reviewed Haya’s forest study and strongly disagreed with her analysis because it “contains errors and misunderstandings of the Forest Protocol.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beyond the letter, the agency released a detailed \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/overview.pdf\">rebuttal\u003c/a>, to which Haya \u003ca href=\"https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research/working-paper-series/policy-brief-arbas-us-forest-projects-offset-protocol-underestimates-leaka\">responded\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rajinder Sahota, who manages the cap-and-trade program for the agency, said she’s fully confident that the program is working. “We categorically disagree with these assertions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She vigorously defended the forest program calling it the “global gold standard” and saying that it was designed over many years, thousands of review comments, and dozens of public meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, Sahota categorized Haya’s studies as representing “old arguments” and pointed to the fact that in 2015 the First District Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit from environmental groups that charged the offset program could not be ensured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They brought the assertion that the offset program didn’t meet the requirements for being real, quantifiable emissions reductions,” Sahota said. “We litigated that and we prevailed in the lawsuit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Strengthening the Program\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California cap-and-trade works in two ways. It places a limit on industrial emissions — a “cap” that is lowered over time — and it creates a marketplace for companies to buy emissions offset credits from forest managers, dairy farmers, or others who are taking steps to remove carbon from the atmosphere or prevent its release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carbon offsets are central to California’s landmark climate change policy, and are organized into different areas the agency calls “\u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/offsets/offsets.htm\">protocols\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than reduce its own pollution, for example, an oil refinery can buy an offset that represents a ton of carbon emissions reductions from sustainable practices in another industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal was to explore how can an offset program be designed,” Haya said, “so that we can trust that the credits generated represent real emissions reductions and don’t undermine the effectiveness of our cap-and-trade programs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1946806\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 531px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1946806\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"531\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi.jpg 531w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/08/RS38656_CapandTrade_004-sfi-160x108.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 531px) 100vw, 531px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbara Haya, a research fellow at UC Berkeley. A portrait of Haya was taken near the Alumni House at UC Berkeley on Saturday August 24, 2019. \u003ccite>(Lindsey Moore/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The key issue, she added, has to do with California’s marketplace for “trading” emissions. State law requires that all of the offset credits be “real, permanent, quantifiable, verifiable, and enforceable.” Haya’s research found something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we saw really clearly looking at California’s program is that the reductions from offsets are inherently uncertain,” she said. “We know how to measure emissions under a cap, but it is much harder to measure emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and co-author of the paper, said that California doesn’t maintain an ongoing, formal structure to monitor how well the program is working.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People think that these protocols can be used and used well, and we rely heavily on them, and invoke the idea that they’re high quality,” he said, adding that the California approach to ensuring quality with its offsets is “ad hoc.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota disagrees, saying that all of the emissions offsets are verified by a third party; if any fraud is detected, the offsets are invalidated; and all of the underlying reports are made available to the public. Also, since the forest program was first adopted, the agency has updated its rules on different occasions after a review of the latest science.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘\u003cstrong>Perverse Incentives’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When researchers examined California’s recent initiatives that allow regulated industries to trade emissions, they found that, in some cases, they create what Haya calls “perverse incentives” that can lead to more emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, with one of its new initiatives, coal mines can make money by burning off the methane gas that leaks during production. While burning methane releases carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas driving climate change — methane gas is 84 times more potent in terms of global warming over the first 20 years it is released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Burning the methane, even though it increases the carbon wafting in the air, is a net positive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the researchers identified a problem. By destroying methane, the gassiest mines in the U.S. could earn enough money to remain open for longer than they would have at a moment when coal and natural gas are competing and mines closing. “Those profits can be substantial for those mines,” Haya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, California’s marketplace for emissions can deter governments from instituting other climate change regulations. Once an agency requires coal mines to flare their leaky gas, for example, the mines can no longer sell methane offsets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Someone can’t pay someone else to reduce emissions because they are already required by law,” Haya said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahota disagrees, and points to the fact that before California adopted the coal mine program in 2014, agency staff \u003ca href=\"https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/regact/2013/capandtrade13/1mmcecon.pdf\">estimated\u003c/a> its potential impacts and found the potential revenue for the industry was minimal, a half a percent of the value of overall domestic coal production. “The protocol does not make any financial impact on bottom line decisions,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, Sahota pushed back on the notion that the cap-and-trade program could deter other agencies away from regulations calling it “another falsehood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She pointed to the fact that after the board adopted a market for capturing methane from dairy farms, California \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1201862/california-targets-dairy-cows-to-combat-global-warming\">passed\u003c/a> a bill regulating heat-trapping gases from livestock operations and landfills (when cows belch, pass gas and make manure they release methane).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, she acknowledged that other agencies might use California’s cap-and-trade law as an excuse not to pass regulations that they don’t want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Regulation is the best way to achieve these emissions reductions because it guarantees action,” she said. “But until such time that regulations can be formulated, offset protocols incentivize early action and actually get people doing something.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Basically, it’s a carrot rather than the stick way to produce emissions reductions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Forests and Amazon Fires\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason that the quality of the program is so important is because California is a testing ground for climate policy, and the state exports its ideas to other countries, and also states like Oregon, which was poised to pass a similar law this year (until 11 Republican senators revolted, fled the state in protest, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.wweek.com/news/2019/07/30/boeing-killed-oregons-cap-and-trade-deal-by-peeling-away-the-key-democrats-vote/\">killed\u003c/a> the bill).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The quality of the state’s landmark climate law is all the more important because the board will meet next month to consider framework rules for a new tropical forest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the agency is not yet considering adopting a program for international rainforest — that would require years of environmental review and public comment — the board will consider a methodology for what such a program might look like, a precursor to adoption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is important because fires are ripping across the Brazilian Amazon after a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1946696/fires-spread-across-brazilian-amazon-after-surge-in-deforestation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">surge\u003c/a> in deforestation, and supporters of expanding California’s market \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/climate-change-2/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">argue\u003c/a> that the state can fight climate change while saving tropical forests throughout the globe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If California approved a new program, forest managers in Brazil could earn money by sustainably managing their forests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But ensuring the quality of the program in other countries with different types of governments is a difficult challenge, Cullenward said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If California will be overseeing the program, who’s going to do that?” he said. “If you think it’s challenging to manage a forest protocol in the continental United States and Alaska, how about operating in Acre, Brazil, right now?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Germany, Norway, and other governments invested in a fund to support sustainable forestry in this part of Brazil. But recently, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753836508/why-norway-and-germany-have-frozen-money-going-to-the-amazon-fund\">withdrew\u003c/a> their investment because Brazil’s right-of-center president, Jair Bolsonaro, encourages deforestation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NPR \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/753140642/tens-of-thousands-of-fires-ravage-brazilian-amazon-where-deforestation-has-spike\">reporting\u003c/a> has Bolsonaro on the record saying he wants the Amazon open to development and describing rainforest protection measures as “obstacles” to the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Early Pushback \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s cap-and-trade law is a second generation carbon offset program. European leaders promoted the first generation program following the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when an international coalition of countries promised to reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Kyoto’s offsets didn’t work very well. One \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/clima/sites/clima/files/ets/docs/clean_dev_mechanism_en.pdf\">study\u003c/a> found that only 2% of the projects have a “high likelihood” of ensuring that emission reductions were additional and not over-estimated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Reporting in \u003ca href=\"https://features.propublica.org/brazil-carbon-offsets/inconvenient-truth-carbon-credits-dont-work-deforestation-redd-acre-cambodia/\">ProPublica\u003c/a> revealed that the program subsidized thousands of projects, including coal plants, that claimed credits for being more efficient than they would have been. The European Union stopped accepting the credits after the program became mired in technical and human rights scandals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California’s market is meant to respond to some of the criticisms of the dysfunctional first generation program created under the United Nations climate trading regime and is different in a few key ways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kyoto’s initiative was voluntary and underfunded. But California’s program allows companies to offset a small percentage of their carbon output and only recognizes forests in the U.S., where the state can presumably have more oversight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The offset program is one of the most transparent parts of the cap-and-trade program,” Sahota said. “We were sensitive to the concerns about distrust of offsets when we were designing it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But from the get-go, environmental justice groups like the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability debated whether California’s cap-and-trade offsets would improve on the old model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argue it allows industry to pay to pollute in areas already suffering from toxic pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, they’ve recently eased back on their protests as long as the revenue from the market be used to meet the needs of neighborhoods most prone to dirty air; as, they hope, will be the case with California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1943578/climate-funds-for-clean-water-democrats-enviro-groups-are-split\">plan\u003c/a> to use cap-and-trade money to clean dirty drinking water.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1946804/researchers-press-california-to-strengthen-landmark-climate-law","authors":["11608"],"categories":["science_31","science_89","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_5178","science_121","science_4093","science_3832","science_3830"],"featImg":"science_1946807","label":"source_science_1946804"},"science_1943578":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1943578","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1943578","score":null,"sort":[1560974843000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"climate-funds-for-clean-water-democrats-enviro-groups-are-split","title":"Newsom Catches Heat for Using Climate Funds on Drinking Water Plan","publishDate":1560974843,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Newsom Catches Heat for Using Climate Funds on Drinking Water Plan | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>California lawmakers are poised to fund the cleanup of dirty drinking water in the state’s poorest communities — a problem most everyone agrees needs to be addressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" citation=\"State Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont\" size=\"small\"]‘I would caution that every worthy cause should not be financed through this fund.’[/pullquote] Not everyone, however, agrees on where the money should come from to pay for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue? The Legislature wants to use revenue from California’s cap-and-trade climate change program, which was created to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by making companies pay for the right to emit them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money the program generates is required by law to go toward programs that reduce the planet-warming gases. While that mandate hasn’t stopped lawmakers in the past from allocating funds to projects that are, arguably, only marginally related to greenhouse gas reduction, it could leave the funding for water cleanup open to a legal challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State attorneys made that clear to the Legislature last year in a legal opinion asserting cap-and trade money can, for the time being, only be spent “for purposes that reasonably relate to the reduction of [greenhouse gas] emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislative Counsel prepared the opinion for state Sen. Bob Wieckowski, the chair of the subcommittee that oversees the cap-and-trade program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He voiced his frustration with the state’s plan to spend the funds on water cleanup on the Senate floor last week, saying it “further weakens the integrity of our Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“AB 32 requires the Governor and the Legislature to only use revenues from the auctions of Cap and Trade for programs that reduce carbon emissions into our atmosphere,” Wieckowski said. AB 32 is California’s landmark climate change law, which sets targets for reductions in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, this does not bode well for future GGRF budgets,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While AB 32 was set to expire in 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legislature\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> passed an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11593491/brown-schwarzenegger-celebrate-extension-of-cap-and-trade\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">extension\u003c/span>\u003c/a> through 2030 \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That bill, AB 398, also removes the limits on how cap-and-trade money is spent \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as of Jan. 1, 2021, according to the Legislative Counsel’s opinion. The analysis attributes the freeing of those funds to the way AB 398 was written and because of its passage by a supermajority, both of which transformed cap-and-trade revenue from a fee, designated for specific use, into a tax, available for general spending. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wieckowski said on the Senate floor he was worried about how cap-and-trade money might be “broadened to include other uses” after 2021. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>“I would caution that every worthy cause should not be financed through this fund,” he said. “We have been instructed by the scientific community that our window is closing, and we may even be at the point of no return on permanent, irreversible climate consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Newsom administration doesn’t see it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kate Gordon, director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, said it’s time for California to stop thinking about climate issues in a “segregated budget box” with separate policies for reducing emissions and addressing climate impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the administration is looking to integrate climate considerations into housing, fire management and water policy. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor’s focus on putting new funds into the infill infrastructure fund is a climate policy, because it’s about building housing in denser areas so people drive less,” she said. “That’s climate policy. How do we think about fire management as a climate policy? How do we think about water movement as a climate policy?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clean Drinking Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, about a million people lack access to safe drinking water, even though the state has spent $3 billion since 2010 to solve the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, state lawmakers have fought over plans to address the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on water bills that would fund programs to rebuild broken drinking water infrastructure in some of the state’s poorest communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Legislature didn’t approve the plan, with some lawmakers worried that their constituents wouldn’t accept a new monthly tax given the state’s huge budget surplus. (The political peril entailed in voting for new taxes was driven home last June, when Orange County voters \u003ca href=\"https://voiceofoc.org/2018/06/josh-newman-is-recalled-ending-democrats-supermajority-in-state-senate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recalled\u003c/a> Democratic state Sen. Josh Newman after his vote to increase the gas tax.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So instead of the new water tax, lawmakers crafted a compromise that includes $100 million from cap-and-trade revenue and $33.4 million from the general fund. A trailer bill also seeks to use 5% of the cap-and-trade proceeds, up to $130 million annually, for clean water projects until 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and a member of the cap-and-trade oversight committee, said the new plan marks a “real shift,” and not for the good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are moving towards something that very clearly is not about climate,” he said. “It’s about water quality and it’s about water access. It’s not really about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration originally argued the expenditure on the water plan is in compliance with the cap-and-trade directive because trucks will no longer have to deliver bottled water to people whose tap water is undrinkable, and so will reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullenward, who in addition to being on the cap-and-trade oversight committee is the policy director for the climate group \u003ca href=\"http://www.nearzero.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Near Zero\u003c/a>, said that’s a stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is getting much closer to the line, if it’s not over the line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gordon, who also advises Newsom on climate issues, said the water plan would also replace the existing water delivery system with one that’s more energy efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A massive amount of our energy goes into moving water, and making that more efficient would have a huge impact,” she said. “If you’re not resilient, then your systems fall apart. We have a climate impact that’s creating this situation and we need to solve this situation in a way that reduces emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water expenditure is just the latest appropriation to rile critics of the way cap-and-trade money is spent. Former Gov. Jerry Brown drew \u003ca href=\"https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/01/10/critics-uniting-against-california-high-speed-rail-funding-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticism\u003c/a> when he spent more than $1 billion from the fund on the state’s beleaguered high-speed rail project. More questionable was Brown’s 2013 \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059992624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">diver\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059992624\">sion\u003c/a> of $500 million cap-and-trade dollars to help balance the state’s budget, although the money was eventually repaid. Last week the Los Angeles Times published an \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cap-and-trade-safe-drinking-water-budget-20190614-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">editorial\u003c/a> saying that lawmakers are turning cap-and-trade revenue into a “slush fund.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enviro Groups Split\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate over using cap-and-trade funds on clean drinking water has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">split\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">the\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">environmental\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">community\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the state’s largest environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, argue that the program should primarily be used to stave off the worst impacts of climate change by curbing emissions. Kathryn Phillips, director of the Sierra Club California, told \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CALmatters\u003c/a> that the money for the water project should have been taken out of the general fund instead of cap-and-trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice groups have fought cap and trade for years, arguing that it allows industry to pay to pollute in communities already burdened with pollution. These groups have also advocated that any funds from the program be used to meet the needs of communities most impacted by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That includes places like Fresno and the Central Valley, where they are struggling not only with toxic drinking water, but also some of the worst air quality in the state,” said Marie Choi, spokesperson for Asian Pacific Environmental Network. “For us, solutions aren’t about carbon counting, it’s about making our neighborhoods and people healthy and whole again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last three years, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy group for lower-income communities, pushed state lawmakers to approve a water tax, with the money going to pay for clean water programs in the San Joaquin and Coachella valleys, among other areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These places are most impacted by the hot, dry conditions exacerbated by climate change, the group argues, and in light of the tax plan’s failure, the group wants to see the current proposal to use cap-and-trade money enacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drought in particular has impacted drinking water quantity and quality,” said Phoebe Seaton, the group’s co-director. “We have seen since the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s inception the link between drinking water and climate, from an adaptation side and from a climate mitigation side,”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">presented\u003c/a> his May budget revision, he defended his proposed tax on water bills, saying it would be a “proud day, when the Legislature and the governor can align on providing a basic fundamental right. That’s clean and drinkable water at an affordable price for the most vulnerable Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even then, he signaled an openness to alternatives. “I’m not consumed by process, but by outcome,” he said in answer to a reporter’s question. “But we will get to a solution.”\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"Everyone agrees that California's dirty drinking water is a crisis. Not everyone agrees on how to pay to clean it up. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704848585,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":42,"wordCount":1642},"headData":{"title":"Newsom Catches Heat for Using Climate Funds on Drinking Water Plan | KQED","description":"Everyone agrees that California's dirty drinking water is a crisis. Not everyone agrees on how to pay to clean it up. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Newsom Catches Heat for Using Climate Funds on Drinking Water Plan","datePublished":"2019-06-19T20:07:23.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T01:03:05.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Polluted water","audioUrl":"https://www.kqed.org/.stream/anon/radio/RDnews/2019/06/CamhiStarkWater.mp3","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1943578/climate-funds-for-clean-water-democrats-enviro-groups-are-split","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California lawmakers are poised to fund the cleanup of dirty drinking water in the state’s poorest communities — a problem most everyone agrees needs to be addressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"‘I would caution that every worthy cause should not be financed through this fund.’","name":"pullquote","attributes":{"named":{"align":"right","citation":"State Sen. Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont","size":"small","label":""},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Not everyone, however, agrees on where the money should come from to pay for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The issue? The Legislature wants to use revenue from California’s cap-and-trade climate change program, which was created to reduce greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by making companies pay for the right to emit them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The money the program generates is required by law to go toward programs that reduce the planet-warming gases. While that mandate hasn’t stopped lawmakers in the past from allocating funds to projects that are, arguably, only marginally related to greenhouse gas reduction, it could leave the funding for water cleanup open to a legal challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State attorneys made that clear to the Legislature last year in a legal opinion asserting cap-and trade money can, for the time being, only be spent “for purposes that reasonably relate to the reduction of [greenhouse gas] emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Legislative Counsel prepared the opinion for state Sen. Bob Wieckowski, the chair of the subcommittee that oversees the cap-and-trade program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He voiced his frustration with the state’s plan to spend the funds on water cleanup on the Senate floor last week, saying it “further weakens the integrity of our Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“AB 32 requires the Governor and the Legislature to only use revenues from the auctions of Cap and Trade for programs that reduce carbon emissions into our atmosphere,” Wieckowski said. AB 32 is California’s landmark climate change law, which sets targets for reductions in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Obviously, this does not bode well for future GGRF budgets,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While AB 32 was set to expire in 2020, the \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Legislature\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> passed an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11593491/brown-schwarzenegger-celebrate-extension-of-cap-and-trade\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">extension\u003c/span>\u003c/a> through 2030 \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That bill, AB 398, also removes the limits on how cap-and-trade money is spent \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">as of Jan. 1, 2021, according to the Legislative Counsel’s opinion. The analysis attributes the freeing of those funds to the way AB 398 was written and because of its passage by a supermajority, both of which transformed cap-and-trade revenue from a fee, designated for specific use, into a tax, available for general spending. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wieckowski said on the Senate floor he was worried about how cap-and-trade money might be “broadened to include other uses” after 2021. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>“I would caution that every worthy cause should not be financed through this fund,” he said. “We have been instructed by the scientific community that our window is closing, and we may even be at the point of no return on permanent, irreversible climate consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Newsom administration doesn’t see it that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kate Gordon, director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, said it’s time for California to stop thinking about climate issues in a “segregated budget box” with separate policies for reducing emissions and addressing climate impacts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the administration is looking to integrate climate considerations into housing, fire management and water policy. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The governor’s focus on putting new funds into the infill infrastructure fund is a climate policy, because it’s about building housing in denser areas so people drive less,” she said. “That’s climate policy. How do we think about fire management as a climate policy? How do we think about water movement as a climate policy?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clean Drinking Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Across California, about a million people lack access to safe drinking water, even though the state has spent $3 billion since 2010 to solve the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, state lawmakers have fought over plans to address the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on water bills that would fund programs to rebuild broken drinking water infrastructure in some of the state’s poorest communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Legislature didn’t approve the plan, with some lawmakers worried that their constituents wouldn’t accept a new monthly tax given the state’s huge budget surplus. (The political peril entailed in voting for new taxes was driven home last June, when Orange County voters \u003ca href=\"https://voiceofoc.org/2018/06/josh-newman-is-recalled-ending-democrats-supermajority-in-state-senate/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recalled\u003c/a> Democratic state Sen. Josh Newman after his vote to increase the gas tax.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So instead of the new water tax, lawmakers crafted a compromise that includes $100 million from cap-and-trade revenue and $33.4 million from the general fund. A trailer bill also seeks to use 5% of the cap-and-trade proceeds, up to $130 million annually, for clean water projects until 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Danny Cullenward, an energy economist and a member of the cap-and-trade oversight committee, said the new plan marks a “real shift,” and not for the good.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are moving towards something that very clearly is not about climate,” he said. “It’s about water quality and it’s about water access. It’s not really about reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Newsom administration originally argued the expenditure on the water plan is in compliance with the cap-and-trade directive because trucks will no longer have to deliver bottled water to people whose tap water is undrinkable, and so will reduce emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullenward, who in addition to being on the cap-and-trade oversight committee is the policy director for the climate group \u003ca href=\"http://www.nearzero.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Near Zero\u003c/a>, said that’s a stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is getting much closer to the line, if it’s not over the line,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gordon, who also advises Newsom on climate issues, said the water plan would also replace the existing water delivery system with one that’s more energy efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A massive amount of our energy goes into moving water, and making that more efficient would have a huge impact,” she said. “If you’re not resilient, then your systems fall apart. We have a climate impact that’s creating this situation and we need to solve this situation in a way that reduces emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The water expenditure is just the latest appropriation to rile critics of the way cap-and-trade money is spent. Former Gov. Jerry Brown drew \u003ca href=\"https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/01/10/critics-uniting-against-california-high-speed-rail-funding-plan/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">criticism\u003c/a> when he spent more than $1 billion from the fund on the state’s beleaguered high-speed rail project. More questionable was Brown’s 2013 \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059992624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">diver\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1059992624\">sion\u003c/a> of $500 million cap-and-trade dollars to help balance the state’s budget, although the money was eventually repaid. Last week the Los Angeles Times published an \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-cap-and-trade-safe-drinking-water-budget-20190614-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">editorial\u003c/a> saying that lawmakers are turning cap-and-trade revenue into a “slush fund.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Enviro Groups Split\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate over using cap-and-trade funds on clean drinking water has \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">split\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">the\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">environmental\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\">community\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the state’s largest environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, argue that the program should primarily be used to stave off the worst impacts of climate change by curbing emissions. Kathryn Phillips, director of the Sierra Club California, told \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/california-clean-drinking-water-funding-greenhouse-gas-fund-climate-change/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CALmatters\u003c/a> that the money for the water project should have been taken out of the general fund instead of cap-and-trade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But environmental justice groups have fought cap and trade for years, arguing that it allows industry to pay to pollute in communities already burdened with pollution. These groups have also advocated that any funds from the program be used to meet the needs of communities most impacted by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That includes places like Fresno and the Central Valley, where they are struggling not only with toxic drinking water, but also some of the worst air quality in the state,” said Marie Choi, spokesperson for Asian Pacific Environmental Network. “For us, solutions aren’t about carbon counting, it’s about making our neighborhoods and people healthy and whole again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last three years, Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, an advocacy group for lower-income communities, pushed state lawmakers to approve a water tax, with the money going to pay for clean water programs in the San Joaquin and Coachella valleys, among other areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These places are most impacted by the hot, dry conditions exacerbated by climate change, the group argues, and in light of the tax plan’s failure, the group wants to see the current proposal to use cap-and-trade money enacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drought in particular has impacted drinking water quantity and quality,” said Phoebe Seaton, the group’s co-director. “We have seen since the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s inception the link between drinking water and climate, from an adaptation side and from a climate mitigation side,”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1941438/millions-for-climate-environmental-priorities-in-newsoms-may-budget\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">presented\u003c/a> his May budget revision, he defended his proposed tax on water bills, saying it would be a “proud day, when the Legislature and the governor can align on providing a basic fundamental right. That’s clean and drinkable water at an affordable price for the most vulnerable Californians.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even then, he signaled an openness to alternatives. “I’m not consumed by process, but by outcome,” he said in answer to a reporter’s question. “But we will get to a solution.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1943578/climate-funds-for-clean-water-democrats-enviro-groups-are-split","authors":["11608"],"categories":["science_33","science_35","science_39","science_40","science_98","science_3730"],"tags":["science_121","science_194","science_3832","science_554","science_3830"],"featImg":"science_1943580","label":"source_science_1943578"},"science_1927315":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1927315","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1927315","score":null,"sort":[1531438448000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"power-play-how-california-lawmakers-are-navigating-a-changing-energy-landscape","title":"Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape","publishDate":1531438448,"format":"standard","headTitle":"Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges.[contextly_sidebar id=”EJmArVVvxhckAoFcVPZYqb7X797Rvtwu”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide how to regulate. Key questions include who should be allowed to distribute energy and whether to expand consumers’ choices in purchasing electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate is taking place as the summer heat has been unleashed, when demand for power rises in concert with temperatures. At issue are the reliability and resiliency of the power grid–its ability to supply electricity consistently and balance itself when unexpected demand or supply arises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most sweeping and controversial ideas, presented as a way for California to produce and use electricity more efficiently, is chilling to some: the replacement of California’s own grid operator with a new regional authority to manage power for the entire West. The question is whether California would be giving up too much for too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The proposal,\u003c/a> from Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat, would open a market for California’s solar power but could also loosen the state’s grip on some distribution decisions. It has been percolating for several years in one form or another and has been, to say the least, hotly debated in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, California’s Independent System Operator in its present form would disappear. But a multi-state power authority run by a board of representatives from each participating state would operate more efficiently, better harness renewable energy and expand the state’s climate policies to its neighbors, some supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already many masters in the existing energy distribution system to dispatch power west of the Rockies. On the top of that food chain is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate power transmission.[contextly_sidebar id=”IdKYsh93WuwLpAlZBBqQL5cFav8M7sgv”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holden’s legislation would still allow California to make its own decisions about buying energy, said Kellie Smith, chief consultant to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, which Holden chairs. The new unified commission would fill a much-needed role as transmission traffic cop, she said: “We are not ceding any more authority than is there today. It’s status quo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But opponents say that California would be handing over critical decision-making power to states peddling fossil-fueled energy. They say Rocky Mountain coal states could send more dirty power to California, if they elected to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To begin with, let me guarantee you that Wyoming and Utah have no interest in joining anything that California is part of,” Smith said. “Secondly, we already have coal coming in every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though California has policies requiring utilities to buy a certain amount of renewable power, it can be difficult to determine how each watt of power coming into the state was generated. A unified grid would provide needed transparency, supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents counter that the proposal would saddle California consumers with unfair costs for new transmission lines and other infrastructure outside the state. That’s one reason some labor groups oppose the bill; they’ve estimated that tens of thousands of construction jobs will be lost to other states.[contextly_sidebar id=”cQ3cknIoWqQ8NBRccL892PDV2V4jMRDL”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Freedman, an attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a watchdog group, applauds improvements to the transmission system. But, echoing critics who say more vetting is needed, he expressed concern that the Holden bill would be a precipitous step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a decision that you can undo,” Freedman said in an interview. “There are many things a state can do to try out a new policy. If it doesn’t work, we can flip it. But once you get rid of the (current system) …. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal has long held the interest of Gov. Brown and carries his considerable political weight behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other proposals in the mix include allowing industrial and commercial energy customers to cut the cord that binds them to major utilities, as well as a bid to help California reach its climate goals by fashioning a fully “clean” power supply by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of the budding \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://cleanpowerexchange.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer choice\u003c/a>\u003c/u> movement—ratepayers leaving behind fortress-like utilities and grouping together to buy power from alternate providers. It’s caught on in more than a dozen California cities and counties, where local governments now determine their own power mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One bill the Legislature is considering would \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allow commercial and industrial power\u003c/a>\u003c/u> customers to join the “community choice” movement, unplugging from utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The freedom of choice would encourage competition among power providers and drive down prices, said the bill’s author, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys. The highly technical proposal has flown somewhat under the radar, and its prospects for passage are unclear.[contextly_sidebar id=”0zZ02hs5EewVYXJ5cjtt9fEJ5HduDX8q”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Public Utilities Commission has already weighed in on the idea of community grids and other ad hoc arrangements. It warns in a \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/2018SummerLoadsandResourcesAssessment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft report\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that they could leave consumers vulnerable to fly-by-night operators, stranded without power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with CALmatters, commission President Michael Picker invoked the price spikes and blackouts that rolled across California during the energy crisis of 2000 after deregulation of the energy market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last deregulation, we had a plan, however flawed,” Picker said. “Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan. If we are not careful, we can drift into another crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the other ideas that will be on lawmakers’ agenda when they return from recess next month is one that failed last year and has a second chance now: Sen. Kevin de León’s \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that California use 100 percent clean power within the next 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Democrat maintains that the state is on track to meet this accelerated goal. But his legislation is opposed by such powerful interests as the California Chamber of Commerce and the state’s three largest utilities. Legislative politics, which stymied the bill’s passage in the last session, appear to be at work again, making its prospects somewhat murky.\u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":null,"status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927698,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":26,"wordCount":1102},"headData":{"title":"Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape | KQED","description":"State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges. The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"Power Play: How California Lawmakers Are Navigating a Changing Energy Landscape","datePublished":"2018-07-12T23:34:08.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:01:38.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Environment","sticky":false,"nprByline":"\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/articles/author/julie-cart/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Julie Cart\u003c/a>,\u003c/br>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CALmatters\u003c/a>","path":"/science/1927315/power-play-how-california-lawmakers-are-navigating-a-changing-energy-landscape","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State lawmakers, faced with a transformed energy landscape and a glut of renewable power as California charges into a greener future, are considering a handful of measures to meet the state’s energy challenges.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The puzzle: how to align state policies with the quickly-evolving electricity world, one lawmakers are attempting to define and to decide how to regulate. Key questions include who should be allowed to distribute energy and whether to expand consumers’ choices in purchasing electricity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The debate is taking place as the summer heat has been unleashed, when demand for power rises in concert with temperatures. At issue are the reliability and resiliency of the power grid–its ability to supply electricity consistently and balance itself when unexpected demand or supply arises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the most sweeping and controversial ideas, presented as a way for California to produce and use electricity more efficiently, is chilling to some: the replacement of California’s own grid operator with a new regional authority to manage power for the entire West. The question is whether California would be giving up too much for too little.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The proposal,\u003c/a> from Assemblyman Chris Holden, a Pasadena Democrat, would open a market for California’s solar power but could also loosen the state’s grip on some distribution decisions. It has been percolating for several years in one form or another and has been, to say the least, hotly debated in Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, California’s Independent System Operator in its present form would disappear. But a multi-state power authority run by a board of representatives from each participating state would operate more efficiently, better harness renewable energy and expand the state’s climate policies to its neighbors, some supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are already many masters in the existing energy distribution system to dispatch power west of the Rockies. On the top of that food chain is the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate power transmission.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Holden’s legislation would still allow California to make its own decisions about buying energy, said Kellie Smith, chief consultant to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy, which Holden chairs. The new unified commission would fill a much-needed role as transmission traffic cop, she said: “We are not ceding any more authority than is there today. It’s status quo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But opponents say that California would be handing over critical decision-making power to states peddling fossil-fueled energy. They say Rocky Mountain coal states could send more dirty power to California, if they elected to participate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To begin with, let me guarantee you that Wyoming and Utah have no interest in joining anything that California is part of,” Smith said. “Secondly, we already have coal coming in every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though California has policies requiring utilities to buy a certain amount of renewable power, it can be difficult to determine how each watt of power coming into the state was generated. A unified grid would provide needed transparency, supporters say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opponents counter that the proposal would saddle California consumers with unfair costs for new transmission lines and other infrastructure outside the state. That’s one reason some labor groups oppose the bill; they’ve estimated that tens of thousands of construction jobs will be lost to other states.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Freedman, an attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a watchdog group, applauds improvements to the transmission system. But, echoing critics who say more vetting is needed, he expressed concern that the Holden bill would be a precipitous step.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not a decision that you can undo,” Freedman said in an interview. “There are many things a state can do to try out a new policy. If it doesn’t work, we can flip it. But once you get rid of the (current system) …. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The proposal has long held the interest of Gov. Brown and carries his considerable political weight behind it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other proposals in the mix include allowing industrial and commercial energy customers to cut the cord that binds them to major utilities, as well as a bid to help California reach its climate goals by fashioning a fully “clean” power supply by 2045.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California is at the forefront of the budding \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://cleanpowerexchange.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">consumer choice\u003c/a>\u003c/u> movement—ratepayers leaving behind fortress-like utilities and grouping together to buy power from alternate providers. It’s caught on in more than a dozen California cities and counties, where local governments now determine their own power mix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One bill the Legislature is considering would \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB237\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allow commercial and industrial power\u003c/a>\u003c/u> customers to join the “community choice” movement, unplugging from utilities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The freedom of choice would encourage competition among power providers and drive down prices, said the bill’s author, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys. The highly technical proposal has flown somewhat under the radar, and its prospects for passage are unclear.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Public Utilities Commission has already weighed in on the idea of community grids and other ad hoc arrangements. It warns in a \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"http://www.caiso.com/Documents/2018SummerLoadsandResourcesAssessment.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft report\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that they could leave consumers vulnerable to fly-by-night operators, stranded without power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with CALmatters, commission President Michael Picker invoked the price spikes and blackouts that rolled across California during the energy crisis of 2000 after deregulation of the energy market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the last deregulation, we had a plan, however flawed,” Picker said. “Now, we are deregulating electric markets through dozens of different decisions and legislative actions, but we do not have a plan. If we are not careful, we can drift into another crisis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the other ideas that will be on lawmakers’ agenda when they return from recess next month is one that failed last year and has a second chance now: Sen. Kevin de León’s \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposal\u003c/a>\u003c/u> that California use 100 percent clean power within the next 27 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"floatright"},"numeric":["floatright"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Los Angeles Democrat maintains that the state is on track to meet this accelerated goal. But his legislation is opposed by such powerful interests as the California Chamber of Commerce and the state’s three largest utilities. Legislative politics, which stymied the bill’s passage in the last session, appear to be at work again, making its prospects somewhat murky.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1927315/power-play-how-california-lawmakers-are-navigating-a-changing-energy-landscape","authors":["byline_science_1927315"],"categories":["science_31","science_33","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_121","science_765","science_135","science_134","science_136"],"featImg":"science_1927323","label":"source_science_1927315"},"science_1927220":{"type":"posts","id":"science_1927220","meta":{"index":"posts_1591205157","site":"science","id":"1927220","score":null,"sort":[1531352492000]},"guestAuthors":[],"slug":"california-cap-and-trade-is-working-for-other-states","title":"California Cap-and-Trade is Working — For Other States","publishDate":1531352492,"format":"standard","headTitle":"California Cap-and-Trade is Working — For Other States | KQED","labelTerm":{},"content":"\u003cp>A new report indicates California’s much-heralded carbon trading program may actually be harming the neighborhoods it was designed to protect.[contextly_sidebar id=”dZbVEycaPgbvv7CngoBKbDY4u37PHPmT”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the\u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604#abstract0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> first study examining\u003c/a> social disparities in California’s cap-and-trade program, researchers found that 52 percent of companies regulated by the program saw an increase in annual average greenhouse gas emissions — and those companies are largely situated in disadvantaged communities, historically hit hardest by environmental pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The communities that live on the fence line near these industries saw hope in the [cap-and-trade program] that emissions might be reduced,” \u003ca href=\"https://erg.berkeley.edu/people/lara-cushing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lara Cushing\u003c/a>, the study’s lead author, said in a\u003ca href=\"https://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/state-cap-and-trade-program-not-benefitting-disadvantaged-communities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> statement.\u003c/a> “But so far, we haven’t seen the kind of environmental equity benefits people were hoping for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study,\u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604#sec016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> published \u003c/a>in PLOS Medicine, looked at the first three years of the program, first launched in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California boasts the world’s fourth-largest carbon-trading program, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924376/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was developed to help\u003c/a> the the state meet its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program caps the total amount of emissions in the state but companies can increase their emissions by purchasing pollution “allowances” from companies that pollute less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while the program succeeded in lowering overall emissions statewide, the study found that specific industries actually produced more emissions since the program was launched.[contextly_sidebar id=”8GJCspiuAEItIZ7do3Fzrj2xvceDy8Z0″]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cement plants saw the highest increase in emissions, or 75 percent, followed by electricity generators, and the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increased emissions fell on neighborhoods with higher proportions of people of color and low-income residents, according the recent study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, the carbon trade program was partly intended to mitigate the disproportionate impact of air pollution in these communities. California law requires 25 percent of the program’s revenue to be invested in environmental measures that benefit vulnerable neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cushing and other researchers found that most of the program’s revenue stream is actually flowing out of the state, due to the way the program is designed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the program, companies can offset their emissions by purchasing credits through forestry or agriculture projects, including those in other states. Rather than investing in local green projects, the study found that 75 percent of those credits — which are part of a regulatory scheme paid for by California taxpayers — went towards projects outside of California.[contextly_sidebar id=”jn0YFwHSViZgJTxNV1CeqIhaEHkoUyDt”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Good climate policy is good for environmental justice,” said Cushing. “What we’ve seen from our study is that so far, California’s cap-and-trade program hasn’t really delivered on that potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cushing says that California should be praised for its ambitious climate goals. She points to the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/grants/urban-greening/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">urban greening program\u003c/a> that funds forests and greenways in vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional measures may be needed, according to Cushing, to ensure that California’s cap-and-trade program lives up to its potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Placing geographic restrictions on trading and limiting the amount of pollution ‘offset’ credits that companies can use to comply with the program could help incentivize local emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n","blocks":[],"excerpt":"California's carbon trading program is helping to subsidize green projects in other states even as a new report finds that 52 percent of participating companies are actually producing more, not less, emissions. ","status":"publish","parent":0,"modified":1704927701,"stats":{"hasAudio":false,"hasVideo":false,"hasChartOrMap":false,"iframeSrcs":[],"hasGoogleForm":false,"hasGallery":false,"hasHearkenModule":false,"hasPolis":false,"paragraphCount":18,"wordCount":548},"headData":{"title":"California Cap-and-Trade is Working — For Other States | KQED","description":"California's carbon trading program is helping to subsidize green projects in other states even as a new report finds that 52 percent of participating companies are actually producing more, not less, emissions. ","ogTitle":"","ogDescription":"","ogImgId":"","twTitle":"","twDescription":"","twImgId":"","schema":{"@context":"http://schema.org","@type":"Article","headline":"California Cap-and-Trade is Working — For Other States","datePublished":"2018-07-11T23:41:32.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-10T23:01:41.000Z","image":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/KQED-OG-Image@1x.png"}},"source":"Environment","sticky":false,"path":"/science/1927220/california-cap-and-trade-is-working-for-other-states","audioTrackLength":null,"parsedContent":[{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new report indicates California’s much-heralded carbon trading program may actually be harming the neighborhoods it was designed to protect.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the\u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604#abstract0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> first study examining\u003c/a> social disparities in California’s cap-and-trade program, researchers found that 52 percent of companies regulated by the program saw an increase in annual average greenhouse gas emissions — and those companies are largely situated in disadvantaged communities, historically hit hardest by environmental pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The communities that live on the fence line near these industries saw hope in the [cap-and-trade program] that emissions might be reduced,” \u003ca href=\"https://erg.berkeley.edu/people/lara-cushing/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lara Cushing\u003c/a>, the study’s lead author, said in a\u003ca href=\"https://news.sfsu.edu/news-story/state-cap-and-trade-program-not-benefitting-disadvantaged-communities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> statement.\u003c/a> “But so far, we haven’t seen the kind of environmental equity benefits people were hoping for.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The study,\u003ca href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002604#sec016\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> published \u003c/a>in PLOS Medicine, looked at the first three years of the program, first launched in 2013.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California boasts the world’s fourth-largest carbon-trading program, which \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924376/checking-the-math-on-cap-and-trade-some-experts-say-its-not-adding-up\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was developed to help\u003c/a> the the state meet its ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}},{"type":"component","content":"","name":"ad","attributes":{"named":{"label":"fullwidth"},"numeric":["fullwidth"]}},{"type":"contentString","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The program caps the total amount of emissions in the state but companies can increase their emissions by purchasing pollution “allowances” from companies that pollute less.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while the program succeeded in lowering overall emissions statewide, the study found that specific industries actually produced more emissions since the program was launched.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cement plants saw the highest increase in emissions, or 75 percent, followed by electricity generators, and the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The increased emissions fell on neighborhoods with higher proportions of people of color and low-income residents, according the recent study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet, the carbon trade program was partly intended to mitigate the disproportionate impact of air pollution in these communities. California law requires 25 percent of the program’s revenue to be invested in environmental measures that benefit vulnerable neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cushing and other researchers found that most of the program’s revenue stream is actually flowing out of the state, due to the way the program is designed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the program, companies can offset their emissions by purchasing credits through forestry or agriculture projects, including those in other states. Rather than investing in local green projects, the study found that 75 percent of those credits — which are part of a regulatory scheme paid for by California taxpayers — went towards projects outside of California.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Good climate policy is good for environmental justice,” said Cushing. “What we’ve seen from our study is that so far, California’s cap-and-trade program hasn’t really delivered on that potential.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Cushing says that California should be praised for its ambitious climate goals. She points to the state’s \u003ca href=\"http://resources.ca.gov/grants/urban-greening/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">urban greening program\u003c/a> that funds forests and greenways in vulnerable communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additional measures may be needed, according to Cushing, to ensure that California’s cap-and-trade program lives up to its potential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Placing geographic restrictions on trading and limiting the amount of pollution ‘offset’ credits that companies can use to comply with the program could help incentivize local emissions reductions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>","attributes":{"named":{},"numeric":[]}}],"link":"/science/1927220/california-cap-and-trade-is-working-for-other-states","authors":["11428"],"categories":["science_31","science_33","science_35","science_40"],"tags":["science_121","science_765","science_192","science_3370","science_3645","science_1712"],"featImg":"science_1927246","label":"source_science_1927220"}},"programsReducer":{"possible":{"id":"possible","title":"Possible","info":"Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. 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Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />","airtime":"SUN 9pm-10pm","imageSrc":"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Code-Switch-Life-Kit-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg","meta":{"site":"radio","source":"npr"},"link":"/radio/program/code-switch-life-kit","subscribe":{"apple":"https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/1112190608?mt=2&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory","google":"https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy","spotify":"https://open.spotify.com/show/3bExJ9JQpkwNhoHvaIIuyV","rss":"https://feeds.npr.org/510312/podcast.xml"}},"commonwealth-club":{"id":"commonwealth-club","title":"Commonwealth Club of California Podcast","info":"The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. 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