California issues 608,000 carbon offset credits

OREANDA-NEWS. April 10, 2015. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) issued 608,000 offset credits to four developers across seven projects yesterday.

The majority of the credits went to a US forestry project operated by Mattamsuskeet Ventures, which was awarded about 394,000t credits. Another 104,000t from the project was credited to the forest buffer account, used to hedge against potential project reversals that result from events such as a forest fire.

The project received credits from its 2010-2012 reporting years, but it has another verification on file for 2013 with the Climate Action Reserve that indicates another 68,000t are likely coming for the project's proponent. The project is an avoided conversion project that protects 2,500 acres of forest in Hyde County, North Carolina.

ARB also approved four projects operated by Environmental Credit, with about 180,000t total credits issued to three livestock projects and one for destroying ozone-depleting substances (ODS). The three livestock projects total about 54,000t of credits, and use anaerobic digestion to capture methane that will be used to generate electricity at three Indiana dairy farms. The ODS project will destroy refrigerants at the Clean Harbors facility in El Dorado, Arkansas, and produce about 126,000t of credits.

The remaining offsets were issued under the early action protocols the state has recognized. Those include two livestock projects operated by CSE Operating and Solar & Renewables Management for a combined 33,000t. Both projects are in Maricopa County, Arizona.

With this round of approvals California's compliance offset program includes 70 early action and 40 compliance protocol projects that account for a total supply of 18.8mn offset credits. Quebec has four listed offset projects, but has not issued credits to any of them.