Sacramento, California – California may have lost as much as $3 billion in potential revenue over the past year due to faltering results in its landmark cap-and-trade program, according to a new report released Monday by Clean and Prosperous California, a nonprofit research group focused on state climate policy.
At the center of the decline is a sharp drop in “allowance prices”—the cost of the carbon pollution permits that companies must buy under California’s emissions cap. Prices have plunged from a high of $42 per metric ton of carbon dioxide to just $26 this year, near historic lows. That crash has rippled across the state’s climate financing system, starving programs meant to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change.
“These funds would have otherwise been directly invested into communities and used to lower utility bills for ratepayers,” said Clayton Munnings, executive director of Clean and Prosperous California…