Further, pollution trading programs will suppress the technological innovation needed for a genuine transition to clean energy sources. Companies will sit on the sidelines speculating about the future price of carbon instead of making the investments needed to fundamentally change how we produce and use energy. See, for example, a 2007 article in The Economist that pointed out that the market in Europe has “not encourage[d] much of the innovation that carbon trading had been expected to spawn.”

Fundamentally, pollution trading is wrong. It treats clean air and public health as a private commodity to be traded, speculated against, and profited from—and we are going to fight it. We are at a cross-roads. We can invest in a clean energy future, OR we can condemn the planet by staying chained to a hopeless fossil fuel future.

Our Coalition calls, instead, for policies that directly and significantly reduce emissions and focus on moving the state away from the fossil fuel infrastructure because such fuels are the overwhelming contributor to climate change and have devastating impacts on the poor and communities of color in California and around the world. Our people are sick and dying from the refineries, the power plants, the diesel exhaust from trucks and cars on the freeways that slice through our communities. We want the fossil fuel problem to be addressed head on—that is how we, collectively, will be able to protect the planet and protect our communities.

We’re urging others to join the Environmental Justice movement in demanding that California reject the fundamentally flawed trading and offsets approach, and instead adopt energy efficiency policies, promote zero-carbon cars, and calls on the Legislature to adopt and the Governor to sign an aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standard bill. We also support the use of consistent carbon pricing mechanisms, such as a mitigating effects carbon fee, to achieve actual reductions and a genuine transition to a clean energy economy. Such a transition could bring numerous opportunities; economic benefits, green job creation, and healthier communities in the fight against climate change. Instead of wasting incredible amounts of time and resources trying to re-design a failed carbon trading system.  Source and more information

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