What's Wrong With the WCI?
Update 12/30/08: For more up-to-date information on Sightline's work with the Western Climate Initiative, check out our blog series "Inside WCI" or our post "Sightline's Line of the Western Climate Initiative."
The Western Climate Initiative is a path-breaking effort. Insufficient federal progress prompted seven states and two provinces to join together to reduce climate pollution by means of an economy-wide cap and trade program. It's a momentous opportunity, and Sightline has been working hard to ensure that it's a success.
Unfortunately, there's now cause for serious concern.
Yesterday evening, WCI released its draft proposal (pdf). It proposes an initial cap that would cover less than half of the region's total emissions. And most surprisingly, WCI does not recommend including emissions from transportation fuels, by far the largest source of climate pollution in the West. [Update 3/7: The recommendation doesn't exclude transportation precisely, but rather defers the decision until further economic studies are completed.]
The proposal is at odds with WCI's own stated principles that include a commitment to cover "as many emissions sources as practical." And for an effort born of frustration with federal lawmakers, it's bizarre that the proposal is significantly smaller in scope than recent federal bills, including Leiberman-Warner.
There are no big technical challenges to including transportation fuels. In fact, the WCI admits that while there are a couple of hurdles, it's administratively feasible to include transportation emissions. So what's going on?
No one knows for sure.
Cuteness Saves The Climate
I thought this was clever -- a Cliff Notes version of climate-friendly lifestyle choices. Click the image for the full-sized version.
Nothing groundbreaking here, really, but it's a nice summary. And it's cute!
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