SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers late Monday announced a proposal to extend through the next decade California’s landmark program to regulate climate-warming greenhouse gases — known as cap and trade — which is set to expire in 2020.
Also unveiled late Monday was a separate bill to clean up the air in chronically polluted areas — to reduce harmful emissions from factories and plants as well as from cars and trucks.
“The Legislature is taking action to curb climate change and protect vulnerable communities from industrial poisons,” Brown said in a statement released late Monday night.
The two bills were revealed after weeks of talks between Brown, Republican and Democratic lawmakers and environmental and industry groups.
Lawmakers won’t be able to vote on the proposals before Thursday because of a ballot measure Californians passed in November requiring a bill to be in print for 72 hours before the state Assembly or Senate can vote on it.
Assembly Bill 398 — for which Brown and legislative leaders aim to secure a two-thirds vote — would extend the cap-and-trade program to 2031.
Assembly Bill 617, which needs only a simple majority vote to pass, responds to activists’ demands to clean up the pollution that for generations has plagued residents in parts of the state. It would require oil refineries and other plants in heavily polluted areas to replace their equipment with cleaner technology by the end of 2023.
Among the proposed changes to the complex cap-and-trade program — in which refineries, power plants and factories pay to pollute, buying permits at auction — is a hard limit, or “ceiling,” on the price of carbon. Proponents of the change argue that it would prevent spikes in energy prices.
Industry would still be able to comply, at least in part, by funding carbon-offset projects such as urban forests — which tends to be a cheaper alternative. But in a departure from the current program, those projects would have to be in California.
In what could shape up to be one of its more controversial provisions, the cap-and-trade bill would block local air districts from setting their own carbon-emissions rules for businesses already regulated by cap and trade. It would not, however, limit the ability of local air districts to regulate contaminated air.
Perhaps to win support from the Legislature’s strongest environmental advocates, the governor and the leaders of each house stressed the importance of the air quality program, which the governor’s office said was the first of its kind.
“With its strong air quality provisions, this agreement ensures that Californians in underserved communities – and communities most impacted by air pollution – will receive the greatest benefit,” Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, said in a statement.
The Environmental Defense Fund, a mainstream environmental group that supports the program, released a statement calling on lawmakers to pass the bills with a two-thirds vote.
“Passing these bills demonstrates that our state is committed to achieving a stable climate, improving local air quality, and cementing California’s place as a global leader,” said Quentin Foster, the organization’s California climate director. “Reducing climate pollution will benefit all Californians, especially the most vulnerable. Ten years of climate action in California has shown that we can create environmental, economic and public health benefits at the same time. It’s time for California to act.”
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents more than 400 Bay Area employers, came out in support of the cap-and-trade extension and the air-quality bill.
The negotiations, said Mike Mielke, one of the group’s executives, “have resulted in a proposal that maintains the integrity of the program while balancing the needs of the business community.”
