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5.21 Climate Change

Greenhouse Gas and Climate Policies of the Trump Administration. President Trump
and his senior advisors and appointees, including US Environmental Protection Agency
Secretary Scott Pruitt, have stated their intent to halt various regulatory activities to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions, including for example, the Climate Action Plan, the Clean Power
Plan, and a waiver program allowing California to mandate more stringent emission
standards for passenger cars and light duty trucks. Representatives from various states,
including California’s Governor and Legislative leaders, along with national environmental
advocacy groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council, have stated their intent to
sue to block federal agency actions that would postpone or eliminate GHG reduction
measures approved by former President Obama, and to consider expansions of state-level
GHG reduction measures that are not dependent on federal action. The timing, emission
consequences, litigation outcome, and implementation consequences of these types of
federal GHG decisions, and the potential for and consequences of enhanced GHG reduction
regulatory programs by other entities such as the state of California, remain speculative at
this time.

Multi-State/Regional Area

Western Regional Climate Action Initiative

The Western Regional Climate Action Initiative (WCI) is a partnership among seven States,
including California, and four Canadian provinces to implement a regional, economy-wide
cap-and-trade system to reduce global warming pollution. The WCI will cap GHG emissions
from the region's electricity, industrial, and transportation sectors with the goal to reduce
the heat trapping emissions that cause global warming to 15 percent below 2005 levels by
2020. When the WCI adopted this goal in 2007, it estimated that this would require 2007
levels to be reduced worldwide between 50 and 85 percent by 2050. California is working
closely with the other States and provinces to design a regional GHG reduction program that
includes a cap-and-trade approach. CARB's planned cap and-trade program, discussed
below, is also intended to link California and the other member States and provinces. As of
January 1, 2014, California's Cap-and-Trade program is linked to Quebec's pursuant to the
Agreement Between the California Air Resources Board and the Gouvernement du Québec
Concerning the Harmonization and Integration of Cap-and-Trade Programs Reducing
Greenhouse Gas Emissions, in accordance with the direction in CARB Board Resolution 13-7
(CARB 2013).

Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy
On October 28, 2013, the Governors of California, Oregon, and Washington and the Premier
of British Columbia signed a clean energy pact, known as the Pacific Coast Action Plan on
Climate and Energy (Pacific Coast Action Plan). Although the Action Plan does not impose
legally enforceable obligations and lacks a specific schedule for implementation, the pact sets
out a number of goals and aspirational measures. The Action Plan calls upon each of the
parties to undertake a number of measures to address the use of carbon-based fuels in the
transportation sector, including the adoption or maintenance of low-carbon fuel standards;
the development of targets and action plans in order to encourage public and private
investment in low-carbon commercial fleets that use alternative fields; and the expansion of

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