Calif., Ore., Wash., Canadian province to make climate announcement Monday
Source: Debra Kahn, E&E reporter • Posted: Monday, October 28, 2013
Representatives of California, Oregon, Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia will make an announcement Monday afternoon at a meeting of the Pacific Coast Collaborative in San Francisco, officials from California and Washington said.
The PCC, formed in 2008, is an alliance among the four West Coast jurisdictions as well as Alaska to cooperate on clean energy, transportation, research and economic goals.
Details on the announcement were not immediately available.
“It will be an interesting and newsworthy event,” said Jay Manning, a former chief of staff to former Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) and former head of the state’s Department of Ecology who serves as an assistant to the PCC.
Earlier this month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said that he supports an absolute cap on carbon-fuel emissions in the state as one of several ideas he thinks can get it closer to reaching goals set in 2008 for cutting greenhouse gas emissions (ClimateWire, Oct. 16).
British Columbia has a carbon tax and a goal of 33 percent below 2007 levels by 2020, while California has a cap-and-trade system in service of its goal of 1990 emissions levels by 2020. The province of Quebec is so far California’s only scheduled trading partner, although British Columbia is part of a nonprofit corporation with California and Quebec, the Western Climate Initiative Inc., that is aimed at implementing greenhouse gas trading programs.