Washington governor orders cap on CO2

OREANDA-NEWS. August 10, 2015. Washington state governor Jay Inslee (D) today directed state regulators to set a cap on CO2 emissions that will allow for some form of trading.

The state Department of Ecology will take up to a year to develop the proposal, which will be issued under the state's Clean Air Act and will not require legislative action. Inslee said his administration will not adopt a low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) because of "poison pill" language put into a recently enacted transportation package by the Republican-led state Senate. The provision would have moved \\$700mn from biking, walking and transit projects into the state's highway fund if Inslee enacted an LCFS.

"This is not the comprehensive approach we could have had with legislative action," Inslee said. "But Senate Republicans and the oil industry have made it clear that they will not accede to any meaningful action on carbon pollution, so I will use my authority under the state Clean Air Act to take these meaningful first steps."

The new CO2 regulations will not include auctioning of allowances to raise money for transportation or other state needs, as Inslee had proposed earlier this year. The legislature discussed several versions of the bill this year, but it failed to advance in the face of opposition from the Senate Republicans.

While the program will not include a central auction, Inslee said that the program may allow emitters to "trade amongst themselves."