California Cap-Trade Plan Dealt Blow by S.F. Judge

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on February 4, 2011, that San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled that the California Air Resources Board violated state law with its plan to implement AB 32, the state’s emissions reduction plan. The ruling means that the board will need to go back to the drawing board and study the issue further. “At a minimum it is a delay and whether it has more of a substantive effect depends on what the air board does,” according to Michael Zischke, an environmental and land use attorney at Cox Castle & Nicholson in San Francisco.