Assessing California’s Climate Policies—Cap-and-Trade Reauthorization

May 7, 2025 - Net reductions would occur in the non ‑covered sectors because it would not result in a trading of allowances that simply change the source of emissions, as such entities are not required to purchase allowances or comply with the cap.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5042

The 2026-27 Budget: Governor’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tax Credit Proposal

Feb 24, 2026 - To the extent this is the case, the policy would result in “shuffling, ” or replacing one lower carbon fuel with another rather than simply increasing overall use, thus limiting any net environmental benefits.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5139

Framework For Cap-And-Trade Investment Plan Needs Further Development

Sep 22, 2015 - As we have written previously ( here and here ), spending money on activities that reduce GHG emissions from covered entities might not actually reduce overall GHG emissions but instead simply change the mix of emission reduction activities.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3298

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—An Overview

Dec 21, 2018 - In some cases, higher gasoline prices paid by households and businesses is simply a transfer of money, rather than a net economic cost. For example, by design, cap ‑and ‑trade increases gasoline prices as a way to encourage less consumption.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3911

The 2017-18 Budget: Cap-and-Trade

Feb 13, 2017 - Given the advantages of such an approach, the Legislature might want to direct the administration to implement cap ‑and ‑trade (or a carbon tax), rather than simply providing it the option of implementing it as is the case under current law.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3553

Cap-and-Trade Revenues: Strategies to Promote Legislative Priorities

Jan 21, 2016 - As long as the cap is limiting emissions, subsidizing an emission reduction from one capped source will simply free –up allowances for other emitters to use. The end result is a change in the sources of emissions, but no change in the overall level of emissions.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/3328

A Framework for Evaluating State-Level Green Stimulus Proposals

Jan 5, 2021 - This is because most households receiving the subsidies either (1) would have purchased a new vehicle anyway or (2) simply shifted their vehicle purchase forward by a few months to access the temporary incentive.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4308

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—Electricity Generation

Jan 6, 2020 - As a result, in this report, we often focus o n changes in emissions and generation sources that occur after 2009 i n order to avoid capturing changes that are simply due to an accounting change. This is especially relevant when discussing changes in imports and coal generation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4131

Assessing California’s Climate Policies—Agriculture

Dec 15, 2021 - Instead, the biogas produced from dairy digesters simply increases the supply of natural gas available for vehicles. Additional supply could indirectly incentivize businesses to purchase heavy ‑duty vehicles that run on natural gas instead of diesel by reducing the cost of natural gas fuel.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4483

The 2024-25 Budget: CalFire—Implementation of a 66-Hour Workweek

Mar 19, 2024 - The administration argues that it cannot reduce the workweek simply by adding proportionately more firefighting staff. Instead, in addition to hiring additional firefighters overall, the administration also proposes to modify various other aspects of CalFire ’s staffing model to address a current problem with its staff development pipeline.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4886