D.C. dawdles, California leads on climate
Becky Kelley directs the Climate and Clean Energy Agenda at the Washington Environmental Council. Any opinions expressed are her own.
We could smell the sweet winds of change all the way up in Washington State last week, when California adopted final rules to implement a cap and trade program to reduce climate pollution across its economy, beginning in 2013.
California got it right. Cap and trade is a policy at the scale of the problem: big, complex policy to deal with a big, complex problem.
The state’s action to embark on cap and trade, along with a suite of other essential clean energy, energy efficiency and clean transportation polices, matters far beyond its borders.
It is especially important in light of national legislative inaction. With so much at stake, it is extraordinary to consider that Congress is not taking action on climate change to protect Americans’ interests across the country.
States like California, and my own Evergreen State, Washington, are left to take matters into their own hands.
Perhaps it’s more apt to call these winds of change bittersweet.
Here in Washington, back in 2009, Governor Chris Gregoire, legislators, and advocates unsuccessfully sought state legislation to join a regional cap and trade program with California.
Like California, Washington has climate pollution reduction requirements in state law, and a wide range of existing policies to drive the transition to cleaner energy.
Yet, a recent report by the state demonstrates that we aren’t on track to meet our 2020 targets for ramping down climate pollution. To do that, we need more transformational policies.
As EPA moves forward under the Clean Air Act requiring emissions reductions from big polluters like coal-fired power plants and oil refineries, California’s cap and trade program and Northeast’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will serve as working models of a market-based alternative.
EPA’s continued action is essential to leveraging comprehensive national climate policy that can ultimately help bring about global policy at the scale of the global problem.
It seems likely that a healthy dose of reality may re-ignite the stalled conversation about climate policy in Congress.
Polluters will look to their left and see direct regulation: reduce pollution at your facility, period.
They will look to the right (pun intended) and see a flexible, market-based approach that enables lower-cost reductions. And if they get squeamish, there’s always the comfort that early versions of cap and trade were architected by an attorney in G.H.W. Bush’s White House.
California’s relevance to the national debate also derives from its size. As the world’s eighth-largest economy, its policies drive innovations that will ultimately find markets across the country.
We’ve already seen California leading the way on policies to clean up climate pollution.
In trickle-up environmental policy, the Clean Cars revolution begun in California was modeled by many other states, including Washington in 2005. This state-led pressure ultimately led to the Obama Administration in 2010 finalizing improved national fuel economy standards and a first-ever greenhouse gas emission standard for new cars.
In trickle-up environmental policy, the Clean Cars revolution begun in California ultimately led to the Obama Administration in 2010 finalizing improved national fuel economy standards and a first-ever greenhouse gas emission standard for new cars.
In fact, California’s climate policy revolution has been led as much by businesses and venture capitalists seeking clear government signals on which to base investments, as by its concerned populace imagining a cleaner future.
Tell us the destination and the rules of the road, businesses said, and we’ll chart a path to get there.
Citizens joined with businesses to tell Texas oil companies to take a hike when Valero, Tesoro and their ilk sought to roll back California’s foundational climate law in 2010—it went down with a 61 percent ‘no’ vote, a resounding show of support for California’s climate leadership.
It’s worth putting down the poms-poms for a moment to acknowledge a few inconvenient truths.
Will California’s cap and trade program work perfectly from the beginning? Owing to a combination of political realities and the pitfalls of being a policy pioneer, the answer is undoubtedly no.
However, its architects have sought to incorporate lessons painfully learned by Europe’s emissions trading program, and have committed to evaluating and addressing concerns by environmental justice advocates about the possibility of localized pollution harming poor communities.
And with opponents poised to eviscerate California for any missteps, officials’ motivation could hardly be higher to iterate, learn and make it work.
When the Centers for Disease Control, the insurance industry, and the U.S. military all identify climate change as a serious threat to U.S. health and security and begin the hustle for solutions, it is clear the winds of change are blowing. Those institutions are not partisan, and they are pragmatic to a fault. Health, national security, and billions of dollars of assets are on the line.
While DC dawdles, California leads. Let’s hope they get some company soon.
UPDATE 1-Apple to hold private memorial for Jobs Sunday-source
Those invited to the closed service for the industry icon
— who died last week after a years-long battle with pancreatic
cancer — include industry bigwigs and others closest to Jobs,
the Wall Street Journal reported earlier, citing several of the
invitees.The event is separate from an Oct. 19 celebration that
Apple plans for all its employees at its Cupertino campus. An
Apple spokesman would only confirm a private service, without
elaborating.According to the invitation, guests have been asked to RSVP
to Emerson Collective, a philanthropic organization founded by
Jobs’ wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, the Journal reported.
Mobile telephony startup targets jump in sales
* Sees revenue run-rate reaching $100 mln next yearBy Tarmo Virki, European Technology CorrespondentOct 13 (Reuters) - Swedish startup Rebtel, the second
largest mobile Internet telephony firm after Skype, expects
sales to surge next year based on strong initial demand for its
new application combining Internet calls and traditional
calling.Venture-backed Rebtel has built a clientele of 13 million
users offering cheap international calls for cellphone users,
and it aims to reach $100 million annual revenue rate during
next year, compared with $62 million revenue seen for 2011.It unveiled on Thursday its new application for
international calls, which provides free calls between Rebtel
users, and technology enabling switching between traditional
voice calls and Internet calls if call quality drops too low.Rebtel says its the second largest mobile VoIP (Voice over
Internet Protocol) provider after Skype, which Microsoft is buying for $8.5 billion. Internet protocol services
offer free voice and video calls routed over Internet
networks.Andreas Bernstrom, Rebtel’s chief executive, said the
ability to use also telecom networks and allow calling to any
number, including landlines or simple cellphone models, make
the offering stand out among rivals.Operators have tried to block such services in some
countries and Bernstrom forecast the battle for $628 billion
voice calls market to continue.”We’re kind of a friend and an enemy for operators: from
wholesale perspective they like us, but from consumer
perspective they don’t,” Bernstrom said.Index Ventures and Benchmark Capital invested $20 million
in Rebtel in 2006 and Bernstrom said there were no imminent
plans to raise more capital as the firm turned profitable last
year, but said this could change if launch of the new app goes
well and capital markets would be better.”It might make sense to arrange Series B,” he said.
Fed mulled balance sheet expansion: minutes
Fed officials discussed easing tools ranging from rebalancing the Fed’s portfolio to lengthen its average maturity — the step they ultimately took — to providing explicit guidance about their goals for the labor market.The Fed at its last policy meeting warned of significant risks to the already weak economy and launched a new plan to lower long-term borrowing costs and bolster the battered housing market.Two Fed officials wanted stronger action, while three objected to taking any new measures at all, the minutes said.
UPDATE 1-Strike of German air traffic controllers averted
* Lufthansa, Fraport, Air Berlin shares up
(Adds background, comments)By Victoria Bryan and Peter MaushagenFRANKFURT, Oct 12 (Reuters) - The German air traffic control
authority has reached a deal on pay and conditions with the GdF
union, thus averting a strike that would have disrupted
thousands of flights across Europe.The DFS authority said on Wednesday it had agreed to
increase pay by a total 5.2 percent in two stages over a 17
month period, while certain employees would be moved up the pay
scale, thus receiving a further increase.The GdF union, which had wanted a 6.5 percent rise,
confirmed that a deal had been reached.In total, the measures will increase the DFS’ labour costs
by around 9 percent, it said.The authority described the deal as “a major financial
burden” but said it wished to reach an agreement in the
interests of customers and passengers.The wrangling over pay and conditions has been going on
since the start of the year and intensified when the union
threatened to strike twice in August during the busy summer
holiday period.Those strikes were averted by court action and a last-minute
agreement by the DFS to enter mediation.The final round of talks, which were held on Wednesday near
Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt, had been called at the
behest of the German government, which controls the DFS, after
mediation talks broke down last week.Shares in Air Berlin closed up 5 percent, while
shares in Lufthansa and Frankfurt airport operator
Fraport were up 2 percent and 3.3 percent,
respectively.Around 6,000 people work for the DFS, coordinating up to
10,000 flight movements in German airspace a day, the authority
said.
