California’s New Gold: A Primer on the Use of Allowance Value Created Under the CO2 Cap-and-Trade Program

How land use patterns keep driving cheap: Geographic support for transportation taxes

“…Proposition 23, rejected by the state's voters in November 2010 by a margin of 62-38%, would effectively have abolished the state's cap-and-trade programme and much of its other climate policy apparatus (Biber, 2013). At the time of the election, cap-and-trade had not yet taken effect, but California Air Resources Board projections at the time indicated that it would increase gasoline prices by 6% or $0.18 per gallon (Burtraw et al, 2012). 1 Transportation was one of the most salient aspects of the Proposition 23 campaign, and oil companies provided almost all of the campaign funding on the 'Yes' side (Biber, 2013).…”

The social costs of second-best policies: Evidence from agricultural GHG mitigation

“…7 Spatially uniform emission factors capture the average relationship between agricultural practices and GHG emissions at a broad regional level, as opposed to finer-scale emission factors that reflect spatial heterogeneity in the GHG emission generation process. 8 Burtraw et al (2012) report an allowance price forecast of about $37/tCO 2 e in 2020. The U.S. EPA estimates that, under a congressional cap-and-trade proposal, allowance prices would reach $13-59/tCO 2 e in 2020 (Horowitz and Gottlieb, 2010).…”

Potential State‐level Carbon Revenue Under the Clean Power Plan

“…Burtraw et al. () provide a discussion of California's cap‐and‐trade program, with particular attention paid to the allowance value created and the potential distribution of that value under the program.…”

“…Source for CA: “The 2015–2016 Budget: California's Fiscal Outlook.” Burtraw et al. () point out that under California's policy “[d]irecting [carbon] revenue to the general fund for new, unrelated programs or to reduce marginal tax rates appears to be precluded.” In other words, most of California's carbon revenue goes toward new government programs and dedicated expenditures.…”