California regulators awarded seven offset projects a total of 712,077 CCOs on Wednesday to take the total offset credits issued by the state to 18,880,031.

The biggest award went to Mattamuskeet Ventures, with 498,693 CCOs for emission reductions over 2010-12 at an avoided conversion forestry project in North Carolina, of which 104,228 will be set aside in California’s buffer account to insure against accidental forest losses.

Three Environmental Credit Corp (ECC) livestock methane capture projects in Indiana were awarded a total of 53,650 CCOs for emission reductions made in 2013.

CSE and Southern Generation were awarded 21,814 and 11,606 CCOs respectively for their livestock methane capture projects in Arizona.

ECC was also awarded 126,314 CCOs for 2014 emission reductions for ozone destruction carried out at the Clean Harbors plant in Arkansas. The facility has said it will exit the offset market in the wake of the invalidation investigation at the site last year.

The administration is due to make its next issuance announcement on April 22.

By Ben Garside – ben@carbon-pulse.com