California's global warming law gets court go-ahead – except for cap and trade

Time to get outta Dodge:

So ARB’s reaction to Friday’s ruling was mostly a sigh of relief. According to a written statement from spokesman Stanley Young:

“We are pleased that the court’s decision enables ARB to continue moving forward on implementation of a range of AB 32 measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, drive innovation, improve energy security, and steer California to a clean energy economy.

But the order expressly prohibits the Air Board from “engaging in any cap and trade-related project activity that could result in an adverse change to the physical environment,” until ARB fully complies with CEQA. ARB says it will continue its fight on the cap & trade front:

“We respectfully disagree with the court’s determination that ARB did not adequately analyze alternatives to cap and trade program in the Scoping Plan, and will file a notice of appeal on Monday.”

Full story here at KQED

ARB has that “we are right and everybody else is wrong attitude” even in the face of cap and trade being a bust most everywhere else in the world. I hope these bureaucrats get a swift kick in the butt from reality when they finally go through this court battle again.

The cap and trade program proposed for California is almost as stupid as the medical marijuana law, which is now turning residential neighborhoods into war zones thanks to pot growers.

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John A
May 23, 2011 1:03 am

California’s unemployment rate is currently 11.9%. I can’t see this as helping.

Henry Galt
May 23, 2011 1:04 am

It’s probably just me, but when I read “carbon trading” my mind sees “cartoon trading”.

rbateman
May 23, 2011 1:22 am

Did any of these Court types bother to step outside today?
It’s freaking cold, and it’s almost June, with stormy weather for Wed, showers all weekend, and the following week is just as messed up.
No, the bozos never bothered to stick thier toe in the water before pronouncing “the water’s fine”.

John Marshall
May 23, 2011 1:42 am

The best way to throttle the life out of California is this ridiculous bill. It’s up to them as long as the idea does not migrate.

Harold Pierce Jr
May 23, 2011 2:30 am

Soon the jackboots of CARB will be goose steeping into corporate offices and seizing control of the means of production. After thousands are thrown out work and companies flee the state, will the clueless in California ever figure out that they have been had by the IPCC, the white-coated wiseguys, and the enviros.

Jack Simmons
May 23, 2011 3:02 am

California really needs some adult supervision.
Problem is, I don’t know where we could find any adults.
But maybe again, California doesn’t need it. Anyone trying to run a business will be leaving there for other places. I would move mine to Nevada.

mike restin
May 23, 2011 4:21 am

I don’t understand the final comment from the author “The cap and trade program proposed for California is almost as stupid as the medical marijuana law, which is now turning residential neighborhoods into war zones thanks to pot growers.” I wasn’t aware of how many people are dying in the streets in Butte County fighting over ‘turf”? The analogy is ‘stupid’.
Cap and trade will not reduce CO2 or the earth’s temperature just as the war on drugs has not reduced drug use.
Conservatives are acting on emotion and not reality. Prohibition does not work, is not a sane option and has never been the solution. The war on drugs has done much damage, wasted hundreds of billions of dollars, killed thousands of people and ruined millions lives. The war is the problem, not the use.

Myrrh
May 23, 2011 4:25 am

How will this affect California’s bottom line, the GDP? It has the status on it own as the 8th largest economy in the world: http://www.visualeconomics.com/california-vs-the-world_2010-05-10

Gaelan Clark
May 23, 2011 4:46 am

I’m sorry Anthony, but I missed the reference to the “war zones” being created in residential neighborhoods because of pot.
Would you please provide examples to that rant?

Chuck L
May 23, 2011 5:28 am

Hasta la vista, California industry.

JohnWho
May 23, 2011 5:51 am

From the “Residential…War Zone” article:
“… and can’t do much about the vicious dogs or armed guards keeping an eye on the crop.”
What? People who don’t need the marijuana for medicinal purposes might try to take some from one of these areas of cultivation?
Wow. Who could have foreseen that?
🙂

Charles Higley
May 23, 2011 6:33 am

We really need to keep an eye on California. They are the poster-child for bad decisions and the horrendous damage that the greenies and warmist bedwetters can do to an economy.
They are running into their own problems as the their environmental worries conflict with environmental worries. Recently, the spillway waters in one state did not meet the dissolved gas standards for the local fish, so the water was run through hydroelectric facilities which aerates the water and produces electricity—such a deal. However, with hydroelectricity being produced, the region had to deny solar and wind power feed-in to protect the grid from overpowering; the favored, subsidized wind and solar screamed for their “rights.” Gee, that’s just too bad.

Amino Acids in Meteorites
May 23, 2011 6:34 am

One can always find a judge that will rule anything you’d like.

Amino Acids in Meteorites
May 23, 2011 6:38 am

AB 32 measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, drive innovation
Innovation has driven itself quite well, thank you very much. Government getting in innovation will only screw it up beyond recognition.

CDJacobs
May 23, 2011 7:09 am

Perhaps straying too much on the marijuana law, but…
Anthony’s point is not invalid. Please understand I have as libertarian a view on cannibis as anyone who visits this site. But in fact California’s cultivation laws ARE a problem. Cannibis is, for better or worse, illegal pretty much everywhere in the US, so creating a largely unregulated island for legal cultivation in CA will clearly attract very high crop prices from illegal markets, and growers who have no intention of serving a medical need. I’m not opposed to rational marijuana laws, but CA’s current regulatory stance will draw neighboring “businesses” you do NOT want.

Jeremy
May 23, 2011 7:13 am

Pot growers can’t possibly be as bad for the neighborhood as meth houses, Anthony. That story just mentions that neighbors feel intimidated by growers, with no solid story of why, no indication of actual transgressions. I would venture a guess that lax local laws in the face of a nationwide ban is suffering the exact same problem that neighborhoods during prohibition that were “friendly” to boozemakers suffered. That is the unsavory element of society looking to make a quick but has flocked there. Methinks they doth protest too much. But enough off-topic…
down with AB32.

John from CA
May 23, 2011 7:14 am

When Jerry ran for office, he stated that he doesn’t support AB32 in its current form. Let’s hope Gov. Brown has the commitment to follow through and modernize what can best be be described as junk legislation.
Striping ARB of all authority and turning into an advisory panel would be a good start. IMO, ARB should not have the authority to issue Executive Orders and Regulations.

Spector
May 23, 2011 8:27 am

RE: rbateman: (May 23, 2011 at 1:22 am)
“Did any of these Court types bother to step outside today?
It’s freaking cold, and it’s almost June …”

Perhaps this might be cited as sure evidence that these strict laws were already mitigating Global Warming in that state … 🙂

Bob Diaz
May 23, 2011 8:30 am

FACT: 1 out of 5 small businesses in California won’t be around in 3 years.
http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/03/08/are-calif-businesses-closing-or-leaving/55995/
The STUPIDITY of the people in Sacramento who come up with these retarded business-killing laws is unreal. Yet, every time, the people of California keep voting the same liberal Democrats back into office. I’ve reached the point where I wonder, is the Intelligent Life in California?

Elizabeth (not the Queen)
May 23, 2011 9:08 am

Does this mean that pollution without CO2 will remain strong in the state of California?

Jeff Mitchell
May 23, 2011 9:16 am

It seems California has forgotten the tale of the goose that laid golden eggs. I know the state knew it once upon a time, because I grew up there and became familiar with it. The odd thing about California is, they don’t realize they are playing this story out. Unlike the story, where the goose was killed to get the supply of gold faster, California is killing the goose with no expectation of getting anything whatsoever out of it. They seem to just want it dead.
When it comes time, there is no reason why the rest of the country should bail them out. The people elected the people who passed these laws. They can have those results until they smarten up.

richardM
May 23, 2011 9:27 am

The issue has already spread beyond the borders of California with regards to CO2 – the Western States Initiative is joyfully following California’s suicidal lead. My own state of Washington has gleefully jumped aboard the alternative energy bandwagon by mandating 15% of all generation be from alternative energy. I live in eastern Washington, and am powered by hydro – which is not recognized as “green”. Insanity.

Hoser
May 23, 2011 9:35 am

They think stuff comes from Nordstrom’s and food comes from Safeway. Let the third world make it all, including our food, so we can buy the formerly cheap stuff from Walmart. Nobody actually needs to work unless they have a government job.
Jerry is California’s Obama. The sooner it all flies apart, the sooner we can kick the idiots out of Sacramento and return some sanity to the state. If we let it drag out, our small businesses will leave. Many of the big ones are gone, like NUMMI in Fremont.
The golden goose is on life-support, and there isn’t much brain activity in Sacto. The sooner the government lets the people fix our problems the better. There is way too much top-down control over everything we do. No one can understand all the requirements, all the bureaucracy. The system is literally designed to fail a la Alinsky.
Government in the state and the nation have grown too fast, too hungry, too big, and too stupid to survive. It has most of the characteristics of cancer, a social cancer. Perhaps the Tea Party is the chemotherapy we need. Let’s hope. My dark fear is the US might survive only if California drops dead. If that’s what it takes, then so be it.

May 23, 2011 11:08 am

The theory that Californians will come to their senses when things hit bottom, simply won’t work. All the conservatives and business owners will have left by then. There will be no republicans left to vote the dingbats out.

Olen
May 23, 2011 11:49 am

I am reminded of Charleston Heston in the Planet of the Apes yelling it’s a mad house because the natural order was upside down. Common sense was all screwed up and the authorities were at the head of the mad house.

John-X
May 23, 2011 11:50 am

All right Anthony, here are some suggestions, in no particular order:
K5C1 231835Z AUTO 18010G16KT 10SM BKN040 OVC046 28/18 A2983 RMK AO1
KT82 231835Z AUTO 20010KT 10SM OVC042 28/17 A2984 RMK AO1
KERV 231835Z AUTO 19011G16KT 10SM OVC036 27/18 A2984 RMK AO2
KJCT 231824Z AUTO 20012KT 5SM HZ SCT029 SCT036 28/20 A2982 RMK AO2 TSNO
KSJT 231751Z 18012G17KT 10SM CLR 33/16 A2977 RMK AO2 SLP053 T03280161 10328 20233 58010
all representative of typical late spring, early summer conditions. And a business “climate” vastly better than in California

Hoser
May 23, 2011 12:50 pm

Corky Boyd says:
May 23, 2011 at 11:08 am
The theory that Californians will come to their senses when things hit bottom, simply won’t work. All the conservatives and business owners will have left by then. There will be no republicans left to vote the dingbats out.
__________________________
CA going down just might save the US. Unfortunately, when the maggots leave the rotting corpse of CA, they’ll infect other states. Those who left the Bay Area and LA looking for less expensive housing a decade ago turned many conservative counties into liberal outposts. In the 70s, radicals leaving California university towns ruined Oregon and Washington. Well-programmed liberal automatons have already infested formerly sane states like Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico.
European socialists have been coming here, telling us how our system is wrong. Socialist ideas sound great, but they have nearly destroyed us (that is the plan). Fortunately, some european countries are wising up and moving back toward sanity and freedom. Meanwhile the Obama crowd try to remake us as a soviet system every day – mob rule versus the rule of law.
Only when the 60s radical communists pretending to be mainstream are long dead and buried will we have some hope of the threat ending. But the damage has been done to the generation soon to be taking power – the 40 year olds. They believe the socialist programming is normal. They don’t understand what America was or should be.
I suspect the generation getting out of college, looking for work, and having a very hard time think the people in power now are the problem. The old radicals are the establishment after all. The wheel comes around.
Note that in Obamacare, the US government now controls student loans. Not banks. And who will decide which kids get to go to college, get the good jobs, and acquire positions of power? Did your daddy donate to the right political party? Remember how unbiased closing the GM dealerships was? Republican donors lost their dealerships under Government Motors. The masters are at work furiously finding ways to enslave us. Is it too late?
What may save us is a fundamental American attitude that we will not be controlled. No matter how much the government wants to tell us what to do, people will not just go along. The radicals bred people to resist. And they will resist the new oppressors too, once they figure out what the game is. In other words, the old radicals may take power, they may destroy our institutions, but the people will not be held down forever.

CRS, Dr.P.H.
May 23, 2011 1:54 pm

Anthony, you folks in Calif. have a lot more to worry about than AB 32!!
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-california-inmate-release-20110524,0,2921563.story?track=rss

May 23, 2011 3:29 pm

Do you like dry and hot (out near the ‘dry line’ usually too, like today):
KSPS 232152Z 17021G27KT 5SM HZ SCT041 33/21 A2963 RMK AO2 PK WND 15031/2053 SLP018 T03280211
Or a little more rain (and greenery; shrubs and trees):
KTYR 232153Z 11014G20KT 10SM FEW055 31/21 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP084 T03060211
If you like something a little more progressive, of course:
KDAL 232153Z 18017G23KT 10SM FEW035 SCT050 BKN130 BKN250 31/19 A2972 RMK AO2 SLP057 T03060189
Just north of there by a county:
KTKI 232153Z 15015G22KT 10SM FEW035 28/22 A2974 RMK AO2 PK WND 15026/2114 SLP065 T02780217

JC
May 23, 2011 3:39 pm

That last line about the war zone had to be sarcasm right? But I didn’t see a sarc switch. It was still pretty funny anyway.

Tom in Florida
May 23, 2011 6:02 pm

On top of all the other problems in Kalifornia, the Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling to release approximately 33,000 prisoners due to overcrowding. It really is worse than you thought.

Amino Acids in Meteorites
May 23, 2011 7:41 pm

Bob Diaz says:
May 23, 2011 at 8:30 am
FACT: 1 out of 5 small businesses in California won’t be around in 3 years.
That may be the intent. When all small business leaves the only thing left will be union businesses. Unions would have a monopoly. That could be the goal.

Merovign
May 24, 2011 12:58 am

I’ve had to deal directly with CARB a couple of times. Institutionalized irrationality, their response to easily demonstrated facts is “Nay nay, we have rules!”
They don’t know and they don’t care, they just get to make everyone else follow inane rules, consequences be damned.
We are talking about the state that banned cell phone use at gas stations because of the terrible record of gas station fires caused by cellphones: Zero. Ever.
If California were a parody, no one would believe it, except maybe Massachusetts.

John_in_Oz
May 24, 2011 6:09 am

The best way to stop the rot spreading, is to get commitments from every State and Federal politician right now that they will not bail out California under any circumstances.

Gaelan Clark
May 24, 2011 6:27 am

Not many results to choose from on the google search of ” pot turning neighborhoods into war zones”, but this is interesting…. http://www.chicoer.com/ci_17988826
Unsubstantiated hyperbole.

Gaelan Clark
May 24, 2011 6:28 am

All pit bulls are bad dogs, or, guns kill people, or, there is no social clique amongst scientists pushing global warming