California Exempts Waste-to-Energy Plants from GHG Trading Program

Date: September 28, 2012

Source: News Room

California officials have decided to exempt waste-to-energy and bioenergy plants from its landmark greenhouse gas (GHG) trading program set to launch next year. It is a big win for industry that had argued for months that compliance with the program would have been economically devastating to existing and future waste-to-energy projects without any environmental benefits. The last minute changes to the program are being closely watched by industry, environmentalists and other stakeholders across the US since California's platform will likely serve as a model for other states or even a future federal cap-and-trade program.

The decision by the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to exempt bioenergy facilities in particular was surprising given recent debate on the issue, including the argument put forward in a recent Massachusetts study that such facilities can have a significant carbon footprint. However, in July, waste industry officials and other supporters of waste-to-energy plants argued that a new CalRecycle (California Department of Resources, Recycling & Recovery) study should prompt ARB to remove the facilities from the cap-and-trade program because it shows the plants may have a smaller carbon footprint than previously thought.

However, environmental groups continue to argue that waste-to-energy and other conversion technologies can create localized air pollution problems and threaten the viability of recycling. Industry maintains however that waste-to-energy compliments recycling since plants take only post-recycled materials.

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