Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

Like a store beseiged with Black Friday shoppers, California SOLD OUT of the first pollution permits at the inaugural auction against greenhouse gases. SFGate.com says:

The effort to curtail carbon emissions involved the sale of 23.1 million permits — each allowing for the release of one ton of carbon — for $10.09 apiece, the California Air Resources Board said.

The permit sales last week opened the largest carbon marketplace in the nation and the second-biggest in the world after the European Union. The California air board will hold four such auctions a year.

The California Air Resources Board would not reveal specific numbers on the number of permits purchased by individual polluters that are covered under the newly instituted caps on carbon emissions.

“By putting a price on carbon, we know we are beginning the process of breaking our dependence on fossil fuels,” Mary Nichols, board chairman, said during a conference call with reporters.

Just remember that, as you watch all of the expensive commercials for offshore drilling for oil, fracking for natural gas, and mining of “clean coal,” 😉 if you BURN it, it releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and the principal component of natural gas, methane, is a greenhouse gas even before you burn it. The Air Board did not comment on bidding activity to protect each polluter’s strategy regarding use of the carbon market.

However, a sampling of the more than 300 companies that are covered include utilities such as Pacific Gas & Electric Co., petroleum refiners such as Phillips 66 Co. and even food processing companies such as Saputo Cheese USA Inc.

Blair Jones, a spokesman for Pacific Gas & Electric, said the company is “satisfied with the process based on what we’ve observed.” He said he couldn’t comment on whether PG&E participated in the auction due to restrictions in the cap and trade regulations.

The board said participation in the auction was robust, with three times more bids submitted than allowances available for sale.

The high number of bids showed that California’s carbon market it legitimate, according to Robert Day, a partner at Boston-based clean tech investment firm Black Coral Capital.

“As an investor, I take a lot of comfort that this was for real, was done right and will continue into the future,” Day said

The “pollution permits” are part of California’s landmark “cap-and-trade” program, which is a central part of California’s 2006 global warming regulations with the goal of dramatically reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases. Under the program, businesses are required to either cut emissions to cap levels annually, or buy pollution permits called “allowances” from other companies for each extra ton of emissions discharged annually. Over time, BOTH the cap and the number of allowances will DECLINE in an effort to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases year by year.

The final price for 2013 allowances was just nine cents above the $10 minimum price set by regulators.

“The fact that the prices are clearing a little above the reserve is a good sign that people’s fears about out of control costs for cleanup are not justified by the way the market actually worked,” Nichols said.

About 97 percent of the allowances were bought by companies regulated under the program, and another 3 percent were bought by financial traders for later sale.

Nearly 40 million permits for 2015 — a year when cap-and-trade widens to include more entities — were made available in the first auction. About 5.5 million of those allowances were auctioned for $10 each.

Manufacturing companies, petroleum refiners, and other industries have OPPOSED the program and have called it an illegal tax that will hurt California’s economic recovery.

We should LISTEN to their arguments, since MANY of the companies know a LOT about ILLEGAL things! 😉 On the other hand, California seems well on the way to recovery, with a recent drop in unemployment, a recovering housing market, and commute traffic to Silicon Valley that reminds me of the “boom times” of the 1990s!

The California Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit with the intent to INVALIDATE the program and argues that the board does not have the legal authority to collect money for the state of California.

Woe be to ANYONE who seeks to interrupt collection of money for the state of California!! 😉

“Instead of hiring workers, expanding production, or investing in new carbon-reducing equipment, these auction dollars will be distributed by government for other purposes,” said Shelly Sullivan of the AB32 Implementation Group, a business coalition that supports greenhouse gas reductions but opposes the auctioning of allowances.

Some of the money collected by the state between now and 2020 is earmarked for residential utility ratepayers and small businesses to help offset an expected rise in their bills due to cap and trade. Other portions of the funds will go to energy efficiency and other projects in low-income neighborhoods.

Nice opinions, but, as the “Dirty Harry” movie, “The Dead Pool” noted about opinions, I have one, too! 😉 Having worked for some for-profit corporations, I think that merely SAYING that you support greenhouse gas reductions is not quite good enough. 😉 There has to be a DOLLAR AMOUNT associated with it and it has to be COMPULSORY. Otherwise, there will be coastal businesses SAYING that they support greenhouse gas reductions until LONG after they are knee-deep in seawater. 😉

Unlike the moronic “energy voter” who starred in pre-election commercials by petroleum companies, WE have to realize that, if you BURN it, and it releases carbon dioxide, it is NOT clean energy.

-Bill at

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