It’s AB 32 fee payment time at the California Air Resources Board. Power plant operators, gas utilities, and other companies can expect to receive bills from the Air Board sometime after March 1 based on their greenhouse gas emissions. The fees—which are to raise $65.5 million this budget year—are due to support the administrative cost of carrying out the state’s climate change law. The Air Board plans to use $27 million of the fee revenues to repay other state funds from which the Air Board borrowed money to administer the law since it was enacted in 2006. The rest—$36.5 million—is to cover current fiscal year expenses related to the law. Of that, $33 million is to go to the Air Board, which will support 155 staff members involved in administering the law. Other agencies are to share the remainder, including the Air Board’s parent cabinet-level office the California Environmental Protection Agency, which is set to get $1.8 million. Other beneficiaries are to include the Department of Public Health, the Department of Water Resources, Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, State Water Resources Control Board, and the Department of Housing and Community Development. Meanwhile, today, Jan. 21, the Air Board is holding a public workshop on technical changes to conform its AB 32 fee regulation to its greenhouse gas reporting requirements. * * * * * Attorneys continued to fight this week over California’s greenhouse gas standards for autos in oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Jan. 18. California joined with the U.S. Department of Justice in arguing that the state has the right to set its own greenhouse gas standards for cars under the federal Clean Air Act, while attorneys for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups said no dice. The business groups initiated litigation in 2009, claiming the standards are too “costly.” While the standards effectively were subsumed when the Obama Administration issued almost identical federal requirements soon after taking office, California is seeking to maintain its prerogative under the federal statute to set even tighter standards in the future. The California Air Resources Board, for instance, is moving forward with another round of greenhouse gas standards for cars that is expected to dramatically increase the number of electric cars on the road. While the Obama Administration has expressed interest in developing similar standards at the federal level, that may not happen if the White House changes hands in 2012 or if Congress blocks his executive action. * * * * * The California Air Resources Board adopted a carbon cap-and-trade system that is partly modeled on the European Union’s trading scheme, which was recently a victim of cyber attacks. On Jan. 20, the European Commission announced that trading was being halted until Jan. 26. “This transitional measure is taken in view of recurring security breaches in national registries over the last two months.” The commission added, it “will proceed to determine together with national authorities what minimum security measures need to be put in place before the suspension of a registry can be lifted.” Greenhouse gas emission allowances valued at $9.4 million were stolen from an account in the Czech Republic, according to the Financial Times. The first hacking in the EU emission trading market launched in 2005 was discovered early in 2010.
