Wednesday, July 7, 2010, 4:36pm PDT | Modified: July 8, 2010, 12:53 PM

Western Climate Initiative: regional cap-and-trade could save $100B

by Christina Williams
Sustainable Business Oregon

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The seven states — including Oregon — and four Canadian provinces that make up the Western Climate Initiative released an updated economic analysis Wednesday that says the regional plan to cap carbon and stimulate the clean-energy economy can achieve a cost savings of $100 billion by 2020.

The updated analysis, available in full via the WCI website, incorporates new data and reflects the membership of three Canadian provinces that had not been members of the initiative when the last economic analysis was released in 2008.

The analysis finds that if the partners in the initiative are successful in reducing emissions to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2010, the savings will be achieved over the period of 2012 to 2020. The savings would come from increased energy efficiency and reduced fuel consumption, according to the report. The estimated savings, $100 billion, are less than 1 percent of the combined size of the state and province economies of WCI members.

The Western Climate Initiative got its start in 2007 with an agreement between western governors to work together on the climate change issue. It grew from there but has yet to enact a binding regional policy.

During a panel at the Future Energy Conference earlier this year, Angus Duncan, president of the Portland-based Bonneville Environmental Foundation said of the WCI, "I’ve been spending far less time on it."

A focus on developing a national policy on carbon has pushed the WCI to the wings.

But, Duncan said,"We may have to return to a regional plan if there aren't national actions."

In a post on the Ecocentric blog over at Time magazine, climate writer Bryan Walsh writes about the Congressional Budget Offices analysis of a national cap and trade program.

"In a preliminary look at the American Power Act—the climate legislation that has been put forward by Senators John Kerry and Joseph Lieberman—the CBO found that the bill would actually reduce the budget deficit by about $19 billion over the 2011 to 2020 period," Walsh writes.

He goes on to admit that an economy-wide carbon cap is highly unlikely at this time.

U.S. members of the WCI comprise 19 percent of the total U.S. population and 20 percent of the U.S. GDP. In addition to Oregon, member states include Washington, California, Arizona, Montana, Utah and New Mexico. Member provinces include British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.