In summary
By Kathleen McAfee, Special to CalMatters
Kathleen McAfee is a professor of international relations at San Francisco State University, kmcafee@sfsu.edu.
Should oil refineries in California be allowed to emit extra greenhouse gases if they “offset” their effects by paying hog farmers in Iowa to reduce methane from animal waste? Or by paying landowners to promise to take better care of their trees? In other words, should offset trading based on projects like these remain part of our state’s climate policy?
This is a big question facing the California Air Resources Board at a hearing this week and over the coming year as they revise the rules of the state’s climate law, AB 32 / AB 398. Under that law’s cap-and-trade section, any California company that purchases approved offsets may emit more planet-heating gasses than would otherwise be allowed.