In the Media
In blow to big polluters, judge halts California’s Cap and Trade Program
May 26, 2011
Alertnet
San Francisco’s Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE) announced yesterday that it received the judge’s writ in its lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board (CARB). The writ gives the green light to most of the policies advanced under AB32, California’s Global Warming Solutions Act, but puts a permanent hold on cap and trade.
While cap and trade failed in Congress last year, and the European carbon market has shown itself to be ineffective at actually reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the California Air Resources Board chose in 2008 to make cap and trade — which CRPE has called “a Wall Street trading scheme” — the centerpiece of the state’s plan to confront global warming, rather than requiring major greenhouse gas sources like refineries, power plants and factories to reduce their emissions.
Since late March, when the program in Chiapas began to come under intense scrutiny by local community-based organizations and international environmental rights advocates, the governor of Chiapas, Juan Sabines, has grown increasingly vocal in his promotion of the program. The governor has made several highly publicized visits to communities in the Lacandon Jungle to hand out funds associated with REDD+, but until last week it was unclear where the money was coming from, given that the deal with California was still in the pipeline.
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Keywords: California, cap-and-trade, Carbon market, North America, REDD