CalMatters’ Rachel Becker quotes me in a story about a new report from Chris Busch and Robbie Orvis at Energy Innovation LLC on how to strengthen California’s 2030 climate strategy. In addition to calling for efforts to reform the struggling cap-and-trade program, the new report highlights potential for policy innovation in the often-overlooked industrial sector:
Cullenward called the proposals “illustrative of the kinds of new and complicated things that climate policy makers need to do to begin tackling the industrial sector.”
Policies that drive technologies capable of generating heat high enough for oil extraction, or producing steel and cement, could be useful globally, Cullenward said: “If we could successfully tackle that, it would show the way on a new chunk of emissions — where we could be a leader for others to follow.”
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the new report is that it’s the first major study to offer both a deep dive on the mitigation potential for individual regulatory policies and carbon pricing in a single, comprehensive analysis. By contrast, California’s 2017 Scoping Plan relies exclusively on analysis of regulatory policies and doesn’t incorporate economic feedbacks from the state’s carbon price, despite designating cap-and-trade to do nearly half of the work in getting to the state’s 2030 climate target.
Analyzing regulatory and carbon pricing policies is essential to developing and implementing a clear plan; Chris and Robbie deserve a lot of credit for putting them together in a single effort. The Energy Innovation report should set the methodological standard for the next state Scoping Plan, which is due in 2022.