Opportunities and Challenges Attend Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy

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Stoel Rives attorney Allison Smith discussed with Law360 the announcement last week of a regional climate change action pact between California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Under the nonbinding "Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy," the U.S. states and Canadian province agreed to coordinate efforts to enact climate change policies such as carbon emission reduction targets, pricing mechanisms for carbon emissions and low-carbon fuel standards.

Smith noted that while California has a cap-and-trade system and low carbon fuel standard in place, such programs would be new for the other states. She noted that such programs require creation of a complex regulatory structure and passage of new enabling legislation.

Smith anticipated that harmonizing greenhouse gas reduction targets could push pact members to adopt higher renewable portfolio standards, which require utilities to draw a certain percentage of their power from renewable sources, thus increasing the need for new renewable energy projects.

Read the full article (PDF)

"Pacific Climate Pact's Green Energy Goals No Easy Feat" was published by Law360, October 31, 2013. Republished with permission.

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Allison C. Smith
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