An Unclear Course on Emissions Policy
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Opposition to cap and trade, a regulatory tool for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, normally comes from the right end of the political spectrum, where it is derided as "cap and tax."
But in California it is the political left that has been most successful in challenging the effort, creating a legal speed bump of sorts that might even delay the nation's first statewide cap-and-trade system, set to start on Jan. 1.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled this month that an analysis undertaken under California's groundbreaking law to combat climate change gave short shrift to alternative ways of putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions. The judge, Ernest Goldsmith, ordered California air regulators to provide a more detailed examination of all options for controlling emissions, including a direct tax on them.
Environmental justice groups had sued to block the cap-and-trade program. The crux of their argument was that in focusing strictly on climate-warming gases that are dispersed high in the atmosphere, California's plan could overlook or indirectly abet the release of conventional pollutants that mainly harm low-income communities, like carbon monoxide or deadly fine particles from oil refineries.
Environmental groups will continue to try to protect their communities if state officials "want to steamroll ahead single-mindedly in pursuit of cap and trade, as if California is some kind of pilot project," said Brett Newell, a lawyer for one plaintiff, the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment.
Most economists and policy makers predict that the cap-and-trade program will go forward once the judge has accepted a new analysis as sufficiently thorough. For them, the bigger question is what role California's system will play now that there is no prospect of a similar national initiative.
First Published May 30, 2011 12:00 am
