The California Air Resources Board has endorsed a cap-and-trade program that will eventually set limits on emissions by transportation fuels.


The regulation, which still is in progress, will begin to take effect in 2012 with industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions, such as utilities, and then expand in 2015 to include distributors of transportation fuels.

CARB voted 9 to 1 last week for the program to achieve greenhouse gas emission goals set by a climate change law, AB 32, that California passed in 2006.

"This program is the capstone of our climate policy, and will accelerate California's progress toward a clean energy economy," said CARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols in a statement.

"It rewards efficiency and provides companies with the greatest flexibility to find innovative solutions that drive green jobs, clean our environment, increase our energy security and ensure that California stands ready to compete in the booming global market for clean and renewable energy."

The program will set limits on GHG emissions with the aim of creating a price incentive to stimulate investment in cleaner fuels and more efficient use of fuel. CARB said the program will achieve the goal set by AB 32: a 15 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 compared to 2010, bringing the state to the same level of emissions it experienced in 1990.

The move comes as the U.S. Congress has backed away from a national cap-and-trade program - a program that had been stoutly resisted by business interests in general and trucking in particular on grounds that it amounts to a tax on energy. As the rulemaking proceeds, trucking interests will want to know the impact of possible price differentials between fuel purchased in California and in other states.