Nov 26 2009
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) received appreciation for its preliminary draft regulation (PDR) by the Environmental Defense Fund. The preliminary draft regulation helps in designing a cap-and-trade program, as simultaneous measures, to reduce pollution caused by global warming, and the measures are formulated by the Environmental Defense Fund. The Global Warming Solutions Act expects to reduce pollution caused by global warming to 15 percent by the year 2020.
The cap-and-trade program of California will commence on 1 January, 2012. A cap-and-trade program was conducted in December 2008 after receiving an approval from the California Air Resources Board.
Swift and inexpensive pollution reducing measures are formulated by the cap-and-trade program. In the year 1990, the federal Clean Air Act initiated a cap-and-trade program that brought about a reduction in the emission of sulfur dioxide along with acid rain, about 20 to 30 percent, as predicted by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The merits and demerits of different designs are projected by the preliminary draft regulation and stakeholder input from 21 public workshops and opinions from the public about the PDR will be collected and studied by CARD till mid January, 2010. In the spring of 2010, a Proposed Draft Regulation will be released to receive more comments from the public.
Director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense Fund, Derek Walker, remarks that the preliminary draft regulation developed by the California Air Resources Board will give rise to a number of environmental benefits and economic opportunities thus enabling California to successfully develop clean energy in the future.
Seven US states and four Canadian provinces under the Western Climate Initiative (WCI) will join with California’s cap-and-trade program in order to evolve a regional cap-and-trade market. The four provinces include: Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec. The seven US states part of this program include: Utah, Arizona, Montana, California, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico.
Source: http://www.edf.org/