Trump administration took aim Wednesday at one of California’s premier climate change policies, suing the state for entering into a cap-and-trade agreement with the Canadian province of Quebec to lower fossil fuel emissions.
California’s cap-and-trade program requires companies to buy permits to release emissions into the atmosphere.(Christina House / For The Times)
The lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice argues that California overstepped its legal authority by forging an agreement with another country designed to limit air pollution and climate-warming greenhouse gases. Only the federal government has this power, according to the suit, which also names the state’s top air quality regulator and the Western Climate Initiative, a nonprofit group California and neighboring states created to promote similar policies.
“The state of California has veered outside of its proper constitutional lane to enter into an international emissions agreement,” said Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division in a release.”California’s unlawful cap-and-trade agreement with Quebec undermines the President’s ability to negotiate competitive agreements with other nations, as the President sees fit,” Clark added.
California Governor Gavin Newsom released a statement criticizing the lawsuit as another episode in what he called the administration’s ongoing “political vendetta against California.”
“For years our state has proudly participated in a number of environmental partnerships that tackle the devastating effects of climate change to our health and economy,” the governor said. “This latest attack shows that the White House has its head in the sand when it comes to climate change and serves no purpose other than continued political retribution.”
California’s cap-and-trade program has been in place since 2013 and is considered essential if the state is to meet its own targets for reducing carbon pollution.
The program works by establishing an annual limit, or a cap, on nearly all of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. California oil refineries, cement plants and other industries can meet this requirement by either lowering their emissions or buying state-auctioned permits that allow them to pollute. These permits can then be bought and sold within an open market — the “trade” part of the program.
The theory underlying the program is that, over time, as the emissions cap is lowered, companies will find it more cost effective to decarbonize rather than continue to pay for pollution permits.
Quebec has participated in the program from the very beginning, expanding the size of the emissions-trading market.
