California lawmakers mull using carbon trading revenues for EV incentives

Dive Brief:

The Los Angeles Times reports California lawmakers are considering a spending deal that would earmark $1.5 billion in revenues from the state's cap-and-trade carbon scheme for clean energy vehicles, including rebates for EVs, farm equipment and large freight vehicles.
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in July signed legislation extending the state’s greenhouse gas emissions cap and trade program. The monies potentially being directed towards transportation electrification do not represent all of the program's revenues.
The California legislative session ends on Friday, and the deal will need to be voted on by the end of the week.

Dive Insight:

Six weeks after extending the cap and trade program, and just days before the legislative session ends, California lawmakers are reportedly close to a deal that would inject more than a billion dollars into the state's electrification efforts.

According to the Times, the largest portion of spending, almost $900 million, would go towards putting more electric vehicles on the roads in the form of rebates and incentives. Another $300 million will also flow through the clean vehicle program, but will be directed towards improving air quality in polluted neighborhoods.

The Sacramento Bee reports the spending deal was reached after another provision related to labor unions was inserted. The United Auto Workers has been trying to organize workers at Tesla's Freemont, Calif., facility.

If approved, the provision would require manufactures to be certified as "fair and responsible in the treatment of their workers” by the state in order to be eligible for zero-emission rebates, beginning in summer 2018.

California's cap-and-trade program is part of the state's wider effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Some portion of the annual revenues is distributed under a set formula.

Just this month, lawmakers abandoned a bill that would have authorized $3 billion in funding for electric vehicle incentives. Instead, it was rewritten to direct the state's Air Resources Board to conduct a lengthy study on the issue of EV rebates. That report is due in early 2019.