Environmentalists, Businesses troubled

Carbon emission plan questioned

December 9, 2010 - The carbon cap-and-trade program California will soon embark on was designed to reduce greenhouse gases while spurring a new generation of eco-friendly technologies to drive a green economy and clean up the air.

Both environmentalists and business leaders, however, say the proposed regulations the California Air Resources Board will vote on next week need much more work before they can accomplish those goals.

“Nobody is happy per se, because you can’t make everyone happy,” said Kristin Eberhard, legal director of energy and climate for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To some degree, that should be expected of a new rule that is the most ambitious cap-and-trade program ever undertaken in the United States. While other regions of the country have enacted such programs, California’s will be the most extensive, eventually touching 85 percent of the economy when fully under way in 2015. {continued}