Energy efficiency program funding makes economic sense
As California policymakers discuss how to spend revenue generated by the state’s soon-to-be-launched carbon market, four related studies providing legal and economic analysis of different investment scenarios were released late Wednesday.
How the money is spent will have implications for the state’s economy and future, said F. Noel Perry, businessman and founder of Next 10, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization which commissioned the four studies.
“The major takeaways from these reports are that from an economic perspective funding new energy efficiency programs produce the greatest economic benefits,” Perry said in a news release. “From a legal perspective, these and other investments that further the goals of AB 32 are considered low risk. And, in terms of impacts on households, the research shows minimal impacts on electricity rates once the allowance value has been allocated.”
California is set to hold its first auctions to sell greenhouse gas emissions allowances in November.
One component of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, is a market-based emissions cap-and-trade program that will begin in 2013.
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