Cap And Trade: Alaska, California, Forests, Coal -- January 28, 2017

I may have this wrong, but this is how I read this story from Penn Energy:

Alaska Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian shareholders

• Chugach Alaska Corporation
• Alaskan's Prince William Sound
• natives rely on commercial fisheries and a subsistence lifestyle
• want to protect 115,000 acres of its forested land from development and coal acreage from development

Meanwhile, California has strict "cap and trade" laws

• California CO2 emitters will "buy" ("protect") that Native American forested land from developement
• CO2 emitters will purchase "credits" from the Chugach Alaska Corporation
• terms are confidential 
• the agreement will also buy/sell coal rights on 62,000 acres on behalf of New Forests, a sustainable forestry investment firm; forests to Nature Conservancy and Native Conservancy land trust; coal will not be developed
• of the land being protected, the forest and the coal field overlap on 11,000 acres

Precedent / Future

• for forests, this is not an unusual move
• other states protecting forests: Michigan, South Carolina, New Hampshire, Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona
• other Alaska Native corporations pursuing similar projects
• the "coal" angle is setting a new precedent