[BRIEF] Regulatory Round-up: Draft Scoping Plan & 2017 Reserve Price

December 5, 2016 by Harry Horner

(CaliforniaCarbon.info, Dec 5, 2016) Last week, California Air Resources Board made two consequential releases: a draft of the 2030 Scoping Plan, and an announcement of the 2017 Reserve Price. Both of these releases and their respective contents were expected and largely predicted, yet this doesn’t diminish their importance.

2030 Draft Scoping Plan

The proposal in full can be found here on the ARB website. CC.info has been following the development of the plan over the course of 2016, the ongoing debate and formulation can be reviewed through our periodical Regulatory Round-ups. The best description of the most recent incarnation of the plan can be found here, for a review of the key issues under debate post-2020 see here. A detailed guest commentary by regulatory expert Jon Costantino will likely soon follow.

The structure of the Scoping Plan Draft holds true to the previous public debate, and as such all three scenario paths are included:

Reference: Cap-and-Trade
Alternative 1: Direct Regulation
Alternative 2: Carbon Tax

With a Board meeting to discuss the plan on December 8^th and two public workshops on the 14^th and 16^th, there is a huge amount more to come from this quarter in the next fortnight.

Below is the timeline released by ARB in the draft plan:

Mid-December 2016	Public workshop on Draft Scoping Plan.
Early January 2017	Release January Proposed 2030 Target Scoping Plan for 45-day public comment
Late January 2017	Public Hearing to present January Proposed 2030 Target Scoping Plan to Board
Spring 2017	Release Spring Proposed 2030 Target Scoping Plan
Spring 2017	Public Hearing to present Spring Proposed 2030 Target Scoping Plan to Board for approval

2017 Reserve Price, Auction Dates and Volumes

On Thursday last week, ARB released all of the key auction information for 2017. The new floor price was confirmed at $13.57; to put this in perspective, this is a full $0.70 above the current front price.

Secondly, ARB released total auction volumes for next year. Over the quarterly auctions there will be 256,962,568 V2017 allowances offered by ARB, MDDELC, and through consignment. For the future vintage of V2020, there will be a round total of 38,894,000 offered.

The exact dates of those auctions are also listed below: