California’s GHG cap and trade program and the equity of air toxic releases

Abstract

Carbon trading faces pushback over concerns of increasing copollutant exposure for minorities. Combining federal and state data I evaluate three questions concerning the distribution of hazardous air pollutants after implementation of California’s greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. Did air toxic releases from facilities covered by the GHG program upwind of minorities disproportionately increase? Did minority communities suffer a disproportionate increase in cumulative exposure from covered facilities? Did minorities overall suffer higher exposure to air toxics from all sources relative to a counterfactual no-cap-and-trade scenario? Results suggest that covered facilities upwind of minorities did not have higher releases, and minority communities experienced a relative reduction in cumulative exposure from them. Under all policy scenarios minorities have a less desirable exposure distribution than whites. However, both demographic groups have a better air toxic exposure distribution with the cap-and-trade program than in a counterfactual without.