Kristin Eberhard, Legal Director, Western Energy and Climate Projects, Santa Monica

This week, nearly 60 renowned economists and other experts around the country sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown emphatically voicing their strong support for the design of California’s groundbreaking cap-and-trade program, a key element of the Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).

Sent just days before the expected simulated auction of greenhouse gas allowances, the letter to Brown commended his leadership “in implementing the world’s most comprehensive climate law” and his commitment to auction allowances – rather than give them away free – “as part of the crucial launch phase” of the cap-and-trade program, one of the critical strategies California is pursuing to achieve AB 32’s mandate to reduce California’s carbon pollution to 1990 levels by the year 2020.

“Auctioning allowances generates proceeds for government to redistribute to households, reduce other taxes, or achieve further environmental and equity goals that otherwise may not be achieved if allowances are given for free,” the economists noted in the letter.

As the California Air Resources Board prepares for Thursday’s planned simulation in the run-up to the Nov. 14 auction, there have been 11th hour calls from opponents to modify, delay ...

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