Advocacy at the California Air Resources Board (CARB)

California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) requires close collaboration by the Air Resources Board, Public Utilities Commission, Energy Commission, and Independent System Operator to implement the reduction of greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions in order to obtain 100% of the state’s electricity from zero-carbon sources by 2045. CEERT’s Climate Program works to strengthen CARB’s GHG Scoping Plan and to lower the current target for GHG emissions.

Recent Developments:

V. John White and graduate fellow Mark Hanin participated in the workshops and listening sessions that preceded final adoption of the 2022 CARB Climate Change Scoping Plan. Notable improvements in the Plan that CEERT and others advocated for were the addition of the Governor’s ambitious offshore wind targets, the elimination of proposed new natural gas-fired plants, and improvements in the modeling assumptions, which are more consistent with SB 100’s and the CPUC Integrated Resource Plan’s clean energy and GHG-reduction targets. John worked with the Scoping Plan communications team, and has begun developing new ideas for CARB to consider: adopting a Climate Implementation Plan to track progress in reducing GHG emissions, and identifying weaknesses and failures that can be mitigated.

Mark Hanin reports that the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC) is slated to become a permanent committee at CARB to advise on Scoping Plan progress and updates, with EJAC and the CARB Board holding an annual joint meeting. EJAC members have expressed interest in the uses of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and in the preparation of an Industrial Heat Electrification Roadmap. Members of the Scoping Plan Working Group are focusing on reforming Low Carbon Fuel Standard provisions on factory farm gas and manure lagoons, a possible interagency task force on ending oil extraction and refining, and an expansion of CARB’s Community Emissions Reduction Program.