California’s carbon offset program was upheld on Jan. 25, when San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith rejected an effort by environmental groups in Citizens Climate Lobby and Our Children’s Earth Foundation v. California Air Resources Board, CGC-12-519554, to invalidate the California Air Resources Board’s offset rule. Two public interest groups had challenged the rule on grounds that it failed to meet the so-called "additionality" requirement, which ensures that offsets will provide "additional" carbon reduction benefits over and above "business as usual." Offsets are a key element of the state’s controversial cap-and-trade climate change regulation.
Under the CARB rules in California, offsets may be used to satisfy up to 8 percent of a covered source’s emissions. Offsets are only awarded for projects carried out pursuant to one of four protocols adopted by CARB: U.S. forestry projects, urban forest projects, livestock projects and ozone depleting substances projects.
