Cap-and-trade in California

California state law AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, created a comprehensive cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gases (GHGs) in California covering about 85% of the total emissions in the state. AB 32 also includes renewable energy targets, agriculture guidelines, and forestry programs, and other provisions to address climate change. The C&T market is increasingly under fire for causing or increasing environmental injustice.

To what extent did the California cap-and-trade market cause environmental injustice?

Work together to answer the following questions. Your goal is to figure out what you need to learn in order to assess the claims that the CA C&T market caused or increased environmental injustice. To facilitate recording your discussion and communicating your thoughts to the class, two of you will take notes in a shared doc and one of you will report your answers to the class.

You are a notetaker if the last letter of your last name is alphabetically last or second-to-last. Notetakers, one of you will send your notes to Prof Rao at the end of class.

You are the reporter if the last letter of your last name is alphabetically first.

All of you should participate in the discussion!

Questions to guide your discussion

  1. What are the questions you need to answer to assess the EJ impact of the market?
  2. How could you answer those questions? What infrastructure (physical, economic, political) would you need?
  3. What concerns might you have about your approach to answering those questions?