The Cap-and-Trade Fight Comes to New York
By Colin Kinniburgh, NY Focus
IT WAS A DEFINING MOMENT in US climate politics. In 2009, with Barack Obama freshly in the White House and Democratic majorities in both chambers, Congress came close to passing a sweeping bill that would have set an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions. But the bill failed, and “cap and trade,” as it’s known, became for many a third rail of climate policy.
Still, the idea remained popular among climate wonks. California embraced it statewide in 2013, with fiercely contested results. For years, California remained the only state to adopt the policy. Then, in 2020, Oregon took up its own version of cap and trade — through executive action, after Republicans walked out on attempts to pass it through the legislature. And last year, Washington passed a plan of its own after several failed attempts at carbon pricing, under the label “cap and invest.”
New York could be next. As the state’s Climate Action Council wraps up deliberations over its plan for implementing the climate law, it is weighing a proposal that would set an economy-wide cap on carbon emissions, in line with those already set by the climate law. The policy would require emitters to buy “allowances” for every ton of pollution up to that cap, with the proceeds going toward clean energy, electrification of buildings and transportation, and other initiatives needed to bring emissions down to zero.