Covering California’s high-speed rail project and future funding from the cap-and-trade program, Jeff Daniels of CNBC spoke with Near Zero’s Danny Cullenward:
The rail authority is projecting it will get $4 billion to $4.5 billion in the future from the cap-and-trade auction through 2030. It also estimates it could get nearly $4 billion to $11 billion in additional funds it is able to borrow against future cap-and-trade revenues through a federal loan or public-private partnership.
Yet some suggest the auction of emission allowances has been volatile in recent years and could weaken, as they did a few years ago. As a result, they believe it may be risky to rely on these auction revenues for financing major projects.
“The revenue from the program is highly uncertain,” said Danny Cullenward, a Stanford University energy economist and researcher at the climate-change think tank Near Zero. “It’s not likely that you’d see significantly higher revenues in the near future. In fact, you may see them dip down as the volume of allowances goes down.”
Read the full article, “California Gov-elect Gavin Newsom faces pressure to cut $77 billion high-speed rail project after audit” by Jeff Daniels, on the CNBC website.