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Please consider the following news release from the California
Air Resources Board:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/newsrel/newsrelease.php?id=872

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 3, 2016

NEWS RELEASE 16-54



CONTACT: 

Stanley Young
(916) 322-2990
stanley.young@arb.ca.gov

Dave Clegern
(916) 322-2990
dave.clegern@arb.ca.gov



Air Resources Board announces 100 percent compliance for
cap-and-trade regulation

Program participants fully meet requirements for 2015 greenhouse
gas emissions under the program


SACRAMENTO — The California Air Resources Board (CARB) today
announced that on November 1, 2016, regulated entities with a
compliance obligation under the cap-and-trade program had
submitted 100 percent of the required number of compliance
instruments to comply with the annual surrender obligation for
2015 greenhouse gas emissions under the regulation. 

“The fact that we achieved 100-percent compliance clearly shows
that the cap-and-trade program is working well and on track for
delivering the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to meet
the target called for in law,” said CARB Executive Officer
Richard Corey. “There can be no doubt that the cap-and-trade
program has become part of the economic fabric of the state’s
fuel, energy and industrial sectors, and will continue to deliver
multiple benefits to California’s environment and communities.”

2015 marks the first year of the second multi-year ‘compliance
period’ (2015-2017) of the cap-and-trade program. CARB developed
multi-year compliance periods to provide companies in the program
more planning flexibility to comply with their greenhouse gas
emissions obligations.  

Under the regulation, every regulated company must surrender a
sufficient number of compliance instruments (carbon allowances
and a limited number of offset credits) to cover 30 percent of
their reported and verified annual emissions for the first years
in each multi-year compliance period–in this case 2015 and 2016.
This approach ensures that California stays on track for reducing
its emissions of greenhouse gases.

For the last year in a compliance period, companies are required
to surrender a sufficient number of compliance instruments to
cover the combined remaining emissions for all years of the
compliance period. 

The cap-and-trade program is one of the programs set in place
under the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), which has a goal
of reducing greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020.
 Cap-and-trade sets an annual cap, or total amount of greenhouse
gas emissions, which declines about three percent each year,
guaranteeing reductions. 

California’s program linked with the program in Québec in 2014. 
Under the linked program, covered entities must account for every
ton of greenhouse gas they emit by providing California-issued or
Québec-issued carbon allowances or offsets.  Carbon allowances
can be purchased at quarterly auctions held by California and
Quebec, or on the secondary carbon market. 

California’s cap-and-trade program covers facilities in the state
which emit more than the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of
carbon dioxide each year. At present it covers about 600
reporting entities statewide, responsible for about 85 percent of
California’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

To date more than $2 billion from cap-and-trade auction proceeds
has been invested in projects throughout California, with a focus
on disadvantaged communities, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
and provide multiple co-benefits.

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