California's Cap-and-Trade Leadership

On Wednesday November 14, California held its first auction to sell carbon credits. For six years that state has been working on its cap-and-trade system, more than six years in the making. Finally California has imposed a limit on the amount of carbon emissions and this limit will be reduced over time so that by 2020 the state can cut emissions by 15 percent as compared to 1990 levels. Companies that exceed their limit are forced to buy credits from projects that cut greenhouse gas emissions. Almost all of the 23.1 million credits California has distributed to utilities and big industry for 2013 compliance have been free

Cap-and-trade puts market mechanisms to work on behalf of the environment. This approach to emissions reductions is a model for the rest of the nation. It was market driven forces that caused the build-up of climate change causing greenhouse gases. It therefore stands to reason that similar market mechanism can be brought to bear to reduce emissions and curtail warming.

California's Proposition 39 will Generate Half a Billion a Year for Clean Energy and Efficiency

In California 60 percent of voters approved the passage of Proposition 39 which will generate $500 million per year for energy efficiency and clean energy projects in public buildings over the next five years. This includes projects at schools and government buildings such as installing solar panels, and energy efficiency retrofits.

"California voters not only modernized the state’s corporate tax structure by passing Prop 39, they indicated their strong support for renewable energy, including expanding solar energy and encouraging related investment over the next five years,” Carrie Cullen Hitt, vice president for state affairs at The Solar Energy Industries Association.

Scientists Want Carbon Taxes to Address Climate Change

NASA scientist Jim Hansen calls for a carbon tax as he describes climate change inaction as the moral equivalent of supporting slavery. Hansen argues that current generations are morally responsible to protect the Earth for their children and grandchildren. He is calling for a global carbon tax and sees inaction on climate change as an "injustice of one generation to others". Preceding generations may have been able to plead ignorance but we no longer have that luxury.

As reviewed in a Guardian article, Hansen's latest scientific paper, which he co-authored with 17 other experts, urgently calls for an immediate 6% annual cut in CO2 emissions, and substantial growth in global forest cover. Hansen and his colleagues warn that failing to cut CO2 emissions by 6% now will mean that by 2022, the annual cuts would need to reach a more drastic level of 15% a year.