Reports
The Quiet Undoing: How Regional Electricity Market Reforms Threaten State Clean Energy Goals
Danny Cullenward and Shelley Welton published a paper forthcoming in the Yale Journal on Regulation Bulletin (Sept. 2018) discussing recent actions by FERC and implications for state energy and climate policies. A digital preprint is now available.
California’s Cap-and-Trade Reforms: July 2018 Comment Letter
Managing the excess supply of allowances in California’s cap-and-trade program is arguably the most important question affecting the design of ARB’s post-2020 market
California’s “self-correcting” cap-and-trade auction mechanism does not eliminate market overallocation
ARB staff have suggested that California’s “self-correcting” cap-and-trade auction mechanism will address overallocation. Our calculations show this “self-correction” mechanism will eliminate only a fraction of the overallocation expected by 2020.
Ready, fire, aim: ARB’s overallocation report misses its target
The California Air Resources Board’s report on allowance overallocation in the cap-and-trade program does not address whether overallocation will cause the state to exceed its 2030 climate target—and also makes a fundamental methodological error that undermines the Report’s own conclusions.
California’s Cap-and-Trade Reforms: March 2018 Comment Letter
At a workshop earlier this month, ARB released its initial thinking on how to implement the post-2020 market design reforms required by AB 398. We comment on ARB’s overall market design proposal and proposed interpretation of AB 398 offsets limits.
Implementing AB 398: ARB’s initial post-2020 market design and “allowance pool” concepts
At a workshop earlier this month, ARB released its initial thinking on how to implement the post-2020 market design reforms required by AB 398. We comment on ARB’s proposal and offer conceptual suggestions regarding market design and oversupply, with a goal of informing constructive discussion on these issues.
Interpreting AB 398’s carbon offsets limits
The California Air Resources Board has released its initial thinking on how to incorporate new limits on the use of carbon offsets in its post-2020 cap-and-trade market design, as required by AB 398. We review two key issues here.
The Q1 2018 WCI auction: prices fall while oversupply grows
The auction resulted in carbon prices near the price floor, with the outcome indicating that the bank of extra allowances held in private accounts continues to grow
Greenhouse Gas Accounting in the Electricity Imbalance Market
Comment on CAISO’s Second Revised Draft Final Proposal for regional greenhouse gas accounting in the Electricity Imbalance Market.
Removing excess cap-and-trade allowances will reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Two prominent economists, Severin Borenstein and Jim Bushnell, have argued that proposals to eliminate oversupply in California’s cap-and-trade market would not have much effect—a conclusion we critique in this research note.