We are concerned. The latest state greenhouse gas cap and trade legislative proposal and accompanying air quality measure has oil industry fingerprints all over it. The Coalition for Clean Air does not support a cap-and-trade program designed to cater to industry demands over the need to reduce pollution, reach our climate targets, and improve air quality in our most environmentally burdened communities.
We are asking you to ask your Assemblymember not to vote for cap-and-trade legislation unless it preserves the California Air Resources Board’s authority to directly reduce pollution from oil refineries, makes big polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, and is linked to enforceable air quality standards that protect our most impacted communities.
Below is a letter from CCA and our allies to our Executive, Senate and Assembly Leaders:
July 7, 2017
The Honorable Jerry Brown
Governor
California State Capitol, First Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
The Honorable Kevin de León
Senate President pro Tempore
California State Capitol, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
The Honorable Anthony Rendon
Assembly Speaker
California State Capitol, Room 219
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Governor Brown, Senate pro Tempore de León, and Speaker Rendon,
We appreciate your leadership and efforts to advance a fair and balanced cap and trade proposal and air quality measure this legislative year. We thank you for sharing draft language on both proposals with the stakeholder community on Monday, July 3, 2017. We’d like to continue to vet proposals with you. While a deal of this magnitude clearly requires a healthy give and take in the political process, we urge you to strengthen and preserve the environmental and health aspects of the draft proposals.
We are concerned that based on our reading of the cap and trade proposal and accompanying air quality measure, that the oil industry is over-reaching and compromising both efforts. We do not support cap-and-trade designs that cater to industry demands over the need to reduce pollution, reach our climate targets, and improve air quality in our most environmentally burdened communities.
We write in unity to express our position on the following key points in the cap and trade and air quality bills:
1. The pre-emption provision in the cap and trade proposal needs to be removed as it sets a bad precedent as we fight federal preemption from the Trump administration. Further, it constrains air districts and the ARB from doing their job of protecting public health and cleaning up our air.
2. The air quality bill needs to provide immediate, enforceable measures to address pollution from mobile sources as public health is at risk. The air quality bill must ensure that tools and strategies are applied by the air districts and air board in the near-term to capture reductions in health-threatening pollution from stationary and mobile sources. Communities have participated in extensive public process, planning and monitoring for years. We know the risks to our health from dirty air.
3. The cap and trade proposal already weakens legislative gains made last year in AB 197 by constraining ARB’s ability to prioritize direct emission reductions from oil and gas. Any further weakening of language on allowances or offsets will compromise our ability to reach our SB 32 targets, and this would be a non-starter.
4. As negotiations continue on cap and trade and air quality bills, we urge you to uphold the core values of maintaining environmental integrity, protecting public health from harmful air pollution, and meeting community identified needs, in the design of the proposal. We cannot support trading on these values for the sake of making a deal.
While it is important to continue to reduce ghgs, we must do so without inadvertently causing other harms. Thank you for your consideration of the points covered in this letter.
