Judge places California's global warming program on hold

A San Francisco superior court judge has put California's sweeping plan to curb greenhouse gas pollution on hold, saying the state did not adequately evaluate alternatives to its cap-and-trade program.

In a 35-page decision, Judge Ernest H. Goldsmith said the Air Resources Board had failed to consider public comments on the proposed measures before adopting the plan, which affects a broad swath of the state's economy. In particular, the judge noted, officials gave short shrift to analyzing a carbon fee, or carbon tax, devoting a “scant two paragraphs to this important alternative” to a market-based trading system in their December 2008 plan.

The air board said it would appeal the judge's decision, which was filed late Friday and released Monday.

The potential setback in California, the first state to enact a broad global warming law, comes amid heightened nationwide controversy over how to curb the gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere, and change climates. A cap-nd-trade bill passed the U.S. House in 2009, but failed in the Senate after intense opposition from the coal and oil industries. With the election of more business-oriented politicians last November, the measure is considered dead in the short term.

In the November election, however, Californians voted down a oil-refinery-sponsored ballot initiative to delay the state's global warming law, which is touted as a spur to California’s fast-growing renewable energy industry. The 2006 law requires the state to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

The California lawsuit was filed by six environmental groups that represent low-income communities, including the Association of Irritated Residents, based in the San Joaquin Valley, and Communities for A Better Environment, which fights pollution around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The groups contend that a cap-and-trade program would allow refineries, power plants and other big facilities in poor neighborhoods to avoid cutting emissions of both greenhouse gases and traditional air pollutants.

“This decision is good for low-income communities like Wilmington, Carson and Richmond,” said Bill Gallegos, executive director of Communities for a Better Environment. “It means that oil refineries, which emit enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and contribute to big health problems, cannot simply keep polluting by purchasing pollution credits, or doing out of state projects.”

California's cap-and-trade program was strongly backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the objections of groups that prefer direct regulations, or a carbon tax, on industrial polluters. Under the market-based system, companies can meet their obligations by purchasing credits from other companies, or from projects such as forest preservation that cut pollution more cheaply.

“Claims of environmental harm from a program of tradable allowances for greenhouse gases are unfounded,” the Air Resources Board said in a statement on the judge’s decision.

The board’s attorneys will meet with plaintiffs about complying with the order without halting all aspects of its global warming plan. Besides the cap-and-trade program, which covers 600 industrial plants, the plan includes rules to curb the carbon intensity of gasoline production and distribution, slash motor-vehicle emissions and control potent greenhouse gases such as refrigerants.

“We believe plaintiffs did not intend to put on hold efforts to improve energy efficiency, establish clean car standards and develop low carbon fuel regulations,” the board said. Such a “broadly written” order, “puts at risk a range of efforts to move California to a clean energy economy,” it added.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress backing carbon fees over cap-and-trade systems, and a carbon tax is enjoying widespread support in British Columbia, where it is offset by cuts to other taxes. But the administration of California Gov. Jerry Brown has given no indication of whether it would be open to similar alternatives.

Politically influential green groups, such as the Environmental Defense Fund, the Nature Conservancy and the Natural Resources Defense Council have backed a cap-and-trade approach, and did not join the lawsuit by environmental justice groups.

RELATED:

California Air chief blasts auto trade group over greenhouse gas rules

Will California companies offset their carbon emissions with Mexican forests?

Oil Refineries launched a ballot initiative against California's global warming law

--Margot Roosevelt

PHOTO: Valero's Wilmington refinery, near the Port of Long Beach. The company was the main funder of Proposition 23, a ballot initiative to suspend California's global-warming law. And it would be among 600 industrial facilities covered by the state's cap-and-trade program. Christina House /Los Angeles Times

Comments

[LukeJohn]

@TorresD30

CAGW is far from being proven and the NASAcomputer models don't add much credibility either - these are the same people who lost a billion dollar Mars probe because someone screwed up a metric to feet-inch conversion, who killed several astronauts because they chose to ignore problems with the Space Shuttle (a friend who works there .warned me many years ago that the Shuttle disasters were waiting to happen)

Even the famous "hockey Stick" graph has been proven to be flawed.

They use selected data - discard inconvenient readings from higher elevations. Use Russian data from Siberia that was shown to be fraudulent.

They tell us that the sea levels are rising then have to re-calibrate their polar satellites measuring apparatus and find that no meaningful sea-level rise is happening.

They tell us that soon there will be no more snow in winter, then tell us that record snowfalls and freezing temperatures are the result of CAGW??

They tell us that we should expect a "drier than average winter" and we get flooded out??

They tell us EVERY year since Hurricane Katrina that THIS year "will see more activity and more named storms than normal" and every year since Katrina there have been FEWER??

And so much more.

And you say that this hypothesis, built on multiple assumptions, suppositions and so many variables as to be meaningless is FACT??

That's not science, that's a belief system. You can choose to believe in it if you want, you can choose to believe in the Easter Bunny if you want. But neither has been proven in REAL scientific terms and don't ask me and so many others to pay far more than I can afford to support your beliefs.

[Marek]

Posted by: J in Pasadena | March 22, 2011 at 10:05 AM
My bet is, though, that it's no coincidence these "low-income communities" just happen to be centers of refinery activity and petroleum commerce.

Atlanta & Fulton County in GA thought it unfair that all the train repair yards were located in the poor areas of town so they used eminent domain to seize a business park in the rich area of town and build the yard. Some people were so excited because the rich finally got what they deserved but there is always cause and effect. The business’s that got shut down moved out the county so there went jobs and taxes. Rich people don’t want to be around such places so they moved and there went more money that they spent on local purchases. People don’t like such areas so property values went down and so there was less money to collect on property taxes. An the south side of the city where no one wants to live and businesses aren’t located because it’s racist to have industry in poor areas sit vacant and not producing any income. So now the city and county have even less money from business, property taxes and the wealthy spending to help the poor an so it goes.

[Tazz]

Good, the guy who did the numbers is a fraud (lied about his education and degree) and so are his calculations.

There is no benefit in moving forward on bad science. Bad science is what nailed the approval numbers for global warming in the first place.

And now that the economy is in the tank and credit is hard to come by. Millions of small business owners will be able to utilize their existing equipment. Which is regularly inspected to be able to operate on our roads and is actually more environmentally friendly than full scale replacement. The junker trucks driving down the road are a thing of the past.

It is tragic that people making a $150,000+/yr are implementing flawed programs that will knock out the small time competition against the large corporations. Because that is all these regulations do. Clear the path of the little mom and pop truckers and construction companies in favor of huge corporations with easy access to credit to buy an entire new fleet.

[Dr. D]

@ TorresD30

That simply is not true. If it was a fact, it would then be a scientific law, which it is not, it is still a theory. Please get -your- facts straight. Pier editing only adds to confidence and validity in research, while these things are good, it doesn't make the topic/research factual.

[Ted]

The Article states:
Legislation has been introduced in Congress backing carbon fees over cap-and-trade systems, and a carbon tax is enjoying widespread support in British Columbia, where it is offset by cuts to other taxes. But the administration of California Gov. Jerry Brown has given no indication of whether it would be open to similar alternatives.
A carbon tax is enjoying widespread support in British Columbia, where it is offset by cuts to other taxes
A CARBON TAX IS NOT ENJOYED OR WELCOME IN BRITISH COLUMBIA.
That is absolute garbage, we in British Columbia. Canada, Hate the carbon tax and we are taxed to death from every level of government if it's not taxed they charge fees ( Disguised Taxes). and the best trick is compounded taxes (A TAX CHARGED ON A TAX) for you readers interest We just threw ex Premier Gordon Campbell out for out right lying about the introduction of a new tax scheme, he has become the most reviled Ex Premier and Politician in the history of BC .
This guy has sold the citizens out to the green lobby without any consideration of the cost of energy and the same thing will happen in the US when the sticker price for energy hits the roof because of governmental meddling.
The Same thing is happening in Ontario, Canada, the Government there has virtually bankrupted the industrial heartland of Canada with wild eyed Eco energy plans such as wind-farms, solar Etc.. the Cost of Power has doubled and set to triple. Who in Industry, business or private citizens can afford such wanton stupidity? Yes California is not alone in the green fantasy. Meanwhile China Hums along with a Big smile, laughing all the way to the bank!

[Pete]

The shills for the Green Church are out in force. The only thing keeping the green industry going is the green of taxpayer dollars being poured down a rat-hole. Once we have a new President and Senate in 2012 hopefully we can start to focus on what is good for the economy and job creation. For example, provide tax credits for gas stations to install natural gas refueling stations for cars. Natural gas is cheaper, burns clean and more importantly the US has an abundance of it. Of course, it would reduce the price of gas and not push a gallon of gas to $8.00 to force people to buy electric cars.

"1. This 'Climate wars' production is a shameful and desperate effort from the BBC's 'green religion department' to shore up the failing theory of CO2 driven Global Warming and Climate Change.

Read more here:

http://www.weatheraction.com/pages/pv.asp?p=wact10&fsize=0

[Alan]

Excellent hove Judge. It's about time somebody save us taxpayers from supporting the new religion of the left. Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is in fact a false premise based on juck science and 'religious' rhetoric. Soon it will be a thing of the past, along with public sector unions and big govt.

[Livin In Spokanistan]

Get a grip people and start using your heads...Globl warming is the biggest scam in the history of mankind! Socialist science created to balance the world economy. Its all about global redistribution. Industrious nations paying for the development of the third world. You say you have science that PROVES Global Warming?!? I can show you numerous peer reviewed scientific papers that counter any CAGW claim you have. Get yourselves educated and off the talking points, its not that hard to understand what is going on here.

[Goodmongo]

CAGW has NOT been proven. Their so called proof is a computer model where they refuse to release all the source code and data. The reason they refuse is because of all the feedback loops employed. None of these have been proven in nature. These conmputer models don't prove CAGQ anymore then MVP Baseball proves who will win the next World Series.

The believers are nothing more then that. Faith based believers. Its a religion.

[James]

AGW is a scam. All of these peer review articles are written by the very people who aim to profit from all of the research and taxes spent to combat this non-existent problem.

Nobody mentions the lawsuits brought against people like Al Gore by prominent members of the scientific community for using their names in his fear-mongering. Nobody mentions the outright fraud perpetuated on the people by the ipcc. Nobody mentions that not only is solid evidence against the theory dismissed by popular media outlets but that even public schools are still teaching the now defunct "hockey stick" model which has been accepted to be disproven by both sides.

Last but not least, what they wont tell you is that the earth is now COOLING, and has been since the late 90's which is why they have changed their rhetoric from global warming, to Global Climate Change. You see folks, the climate always changes hence, they will always have a way to fear you into submission.

We are heading toward (if not already) what is called a maunder minimum. If you want to know what really influences climate.. see that big ball of fire in the sky.... now youve got it.

[mrastoria]

Stupid is as Stupid does..................
Global warming is the biggest HOAX perpetrated on mankind in the history of the World.
Some people will beleive any BULLSITH they are sold as fact. This is just another way of government to try to confiscate peoples money.
The consumer always pays for everything in higher prices period

[CitizenX]

Man-made GW is a complete hoax. Let's see focus on analysing the science.. I am amazed that the MSM and "educated people" continue the march forward, based on a flawed foundation. It is solar radation, heating up oceans, wind currents, etc. that's causing "global climate change", not cars, etc. Don't get me wrong--I am all for a clean environment, but "CAP AND TAX" will only make the fat controllers even more fat. It will do little, if anything, to actually clean up the air & related environmental issues.

My .02

[LukeJohn]

California air will get even cleaner soon as all those who can't find work move elsewhere - less people means less exhaled CO2 and as we all know, the EPA claims that is a pollutant.

Keep it up and we'll have the cleanest, emptiest, POOREST state in the country.

What a paradise for all those rich liberals.

[will tell]

I see the AGW conspiracy nuts are here. Who pays you to post this nonsense, Al Gore?

[Harry Obrian]

Global warming may be real but it's not man made. What is man made is taxes and all this scam does is raise taxes so government can spend more and give more to these fringe climate groups.

[Marek]

Global Warming is real and thanks to Japan’s Earthquake shifting our axis, Lord knows what it will do to the climate not to mention the quake sped up the Earth’s rotation. There is an interesting correlation that a lot of people ignore. It has been proven that the glaciers on the North Pole have been receding at an alarming rate. NASA has been able to document and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this has been happening with radar and image photography. The twist, it’s the Mars Surveyor Mission that has shown the Red planets ice cap shrink faster than the Earth’s. It cannot be global warming there because the Mars Rovers run on solar power and have not CO2 emissions. No one freaks out that Antarctica has had record snow fall the last couple of years but the papers go insane when an ice sheet breaks off. If you keep piling snow at almost 3 times the normal rate, you are going to have bigger ice sheets. But no one can figure this out.
All the computer climate scenarios need to be rerun accounting for axis and rotation changes of all the past and current quakes. If the first three months of these new predictions are not 100% accurate then its all “Bunk”. If it is not right in the beginning, how can it be right in the end?

[Doug]

Sean, Please read Heaven and Earth, Global Warming the Missing Science by Ian Plimer. Lots of smart people with good hearts have serious doubts that CO2 from human activity makes any measurable impact on our continually changing climate. Ranting to the contrary won't convince anyone of your position.

[J in Pasadena]

It looks like the lobbyists for big oil and coal really got their troops moving in this comment section.

Don't believe it, folks. There aren't this many bad people in the world.

[J in Pasadena]

Big oil and coal win again.

Thanks, jerks, for filing your petty lawsuit. Move from Wilmington if you don't like it.

My bet is, though, that it's no coincidence these "low-income communities" just happen to be centers of refinery activity and petroleum commerce. Let's do a little investigative work now in where these edge "six environmental groups" are getting their funding.

[TorresD30]

Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming is real and is a proven fact. Numerous peer reviewed scientific papers describe CAGW and the effects it is going to have on this planet in the future.

CAGW has been proven by computer models run by NASA THe data produced by these models shows what is in store for all of us both the believers and deniers.

[Phil McKann]

In a supporting opinion, non-judge Phil McKann ruled the legislation as back-door corporatism and a steaming bowl of unnecessary taxation and government regulation wrapped in fake science. He noted that he was flabbergasted that people believe in the capability of a centralized Big Government to organize and control everything, including the weather.

Hopefully this self-destructive and absurd regulation will be completely turfed.

[Wayne]

While the Oil refineries do nto have the option, expect to see any industry effected by the California Cap & Trade law to locate outside California. Neighboring states will work hard to attract them and their jobs. California, say hello to higher unemployment and higher gas prices.

[Seek the Truth]

This is great news as this ruling provides at least a temporary delay before California commits Economic Suicide.

Unemployment in our once great state is already 12.7% (much higher when you count those too discouraged to keep looking for work) and A.B. 32 will further damage our economy.

What reasonable company in the world would choose to being operations, particularly manufacturing operations in California?

Where are our friends and children going to find jobs?

Even if you swallow what Al Gore and the Environmental Left/Socialists are selling it is important to realize that these insane rules regulating CO2 will have no measurable o positive affect on the environment. They will however kill our economy and most likely your job and our childrens futures.

Please people wake up!!!

[sracplnrba]

Man cannot control what God has already put into motion. The word of God says that what has been determined must come to pass. The change in the environment, climate, seasons, etc., is foretold in the Holy Bible...there will come a time when we will not be able to distinguish the seasons. If you want the answer to what is causing the 'climate change' - read the Holy Bible - ...its in there!

[Mary Ann Ludwig]

I guess everyone in California missed the memo that AGW is a crock and has been quite thoroughly debunked. Will we reduce water vapor since it is the predominant "greenhouse" gas? How exactly is that done? Does anyone out there realize that CO2 is heavier than air and can't form a "greenhouse" effect to keep in the heat? It's probably too late for California. I love the topography and geography of this state. I was born here, but I'm looking for somewhere that has a population slightly above the idiot level that seems to be running the state right now.

[Paul Taylor Examiner]

Let's see... social justice radicals sue the environmental justice radicals' state greenhouse gas program because the "socialists" were left out of the alternatives.
As a rational Californian, it's great entertainment to watch the left compete to further destroy California's economy with crushing and unnecessary environmental regulations.

Radical eco-groups and green-obsessed bureaucrats have become an "axis of antagonism" that we can no longer afford. Environmentalists offer no product or service in support of America's future security and prosperity.

ECOPOLITICS

[Lorenzo]

No wonder California has the highest unemployment. Their air will be much cleaner when all those wicked corporation move out.

[Winski]

Truly stupid. Let these lobbyist keep throwing money at these courts and they'll keep saying the air is fine and it will kill us all. Great thinking by the lobbying folks and their money masters.. Truly scourge of the planet...

[mrsharfer]

Manmade "global warming" is a junk science invented to make a LOT of money for the likes of algore. The rummies picked it up as a substitute religion now that darwinism has been abandonded by them. We needd warming or nothing will grow! In the early 70's I was duped by "global cooling" and the threat of a mini-ice-age. I still have the blankets I bought, as though that would make a difference! The audacity of man assuming they have the power to change the earth is absurd. This is what you get when fools with no "real" guiding beliefs and convictions try to run things!

[Otto]

Did you hear what China - the dirtiest manufacturing and pwer generating country in the world - has done to curb carbon emissions? Me neither. Feel like a hypocrite yet? Check the lables on your clothes, shoes, dishes, electronics... etc. and tell me that the California laws will make a difference... I can't hear you. Change the way YOU live and it will have a greater impact on the earth - if that is what you are after. Buy things made with the cleanest energy you can find... the carbon you save may be your own.

[You know it's a scam]

Cap and trade will work out as well as securitizing mortgages worked and it will be run by basically the same people.

A carbon tax is simple, hard to cheat and effective and won't have huge trading costs that pose a drain to the economy.

If we want to "fight" global warming the carbon tax is the way to go. It must be global to work, though otherwise developing nations will more than compensate for any adjustments we make.

What few want to consider is that from an engineering perspective global warming is far easier to mitigate than cooling and it doesn't have to include getting rid of atmospheric CO2. There are many ways to reduce global temperatures (and PV electric is NOT one - covering the earth in black panels will just make more heat).

[Earl]

What the LA Times is apparently missing is the controversy is over WHETHER carbon has any impact on global climates, not which approach to curbing them is better. Anthropogenic global climate change is a hoax as evidenced by the lengths to which real scientific debate has been suppressed, how the proponents have hidden and destroyed data contrary to their theories and more importantly, how global climates have actually cooled over the last decade as carbon emissions have increased.

That you are missing the main boat is no surprise given the agenda-driven mainstream media. But as one who clearly remembers the hysteria over in the coming ice age during the 70's from the exact same carbon emissions I can actually learn from history. When the prophets of doom were proved wrong and climates actually warmed they all rushed in claiming the opposite of what they were claiming before. Now that they have once again been proven wrong they have reverted to "climate change". How convenient that regardless of the change in climates you can blame man. Totally ridiculous but somehow completely predictable.

[Michael Kennedy]

At least one judge has the common sense that is lacking in California for the most part. The "poor communities" that are supporting the green house gas scam must not be very interested in jobs as these kinds of crack brained laws are driving them away.

[bob]

I live totally off-grid(solar). It is great but you must be prepared to make changes to how you use energy and be willing to maintain your equipment to make it reasonably trouble free. We still need to run a PROPANE generator on cloudy days. Truth is alternative energy does not work as a large scale replacement for gas and coal power generation because wind and solar are too inefficient. Not now or in the foreseeable future. We can reduce our use of petrochemicals by using these technologies in a sensible way but like it or not they are not a replacement technology for the masses. And besides honest, non-subsidized research proves that "It's the sun stupid!" that is responsible for our predominant weather trends.

As others have mentioned.
Fake data in the CARB research= FAIL.
Ponzi scheme Carbon Credit trading program owned by the same people that promote it=FAIL.

CARB is another method to control the people. end of story....

[AMartel]

"heightened nationwide controversy over how to curb the gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere, and change climates." This is fiction presented as fact, very bad reporting. Anthropogenic global warming is not fact; it has not been proven scientifically. The science was faked and that fakery was reported, selectively. Shame on the LAT for perpetuating this propaganda.

[Mark Q. Rhoads]

There is something in this decision and process for both progressives and conservatives to deplore. Maybe the judge was right that the policy was ill considered but since when does his role as a judge include second-guessing the wisdom of a policy, he is supposed to be deciding the law of the case. His black robe does not confer on him the right to change policy unless a state agency stepped outside the law.

[LukeJohn]

Firstly politicians and public employees need to learn once and for all that the "tax pool" is not bottomless. Money in general circulation is to the economy what blood is to the human body. you can take a certain amount out without harm but you get to a point where any more taken - mo matter from where - will hurt or even kill. We long ago passed that point.

Secondly, the pro Prop 23 campaign was pathetic. They allowed anti-prop 23 ads to insinuate that it would reverse all CA environmental regulations. This of course panicked many moderates.

Of course we should control pollution. But there is a sane way to do it, a way that does not include climate change hysteria; and killing the economy in the process will achieve nothing.

[Socorro Varela]

Green groups get a good chunk of their $$$funding from the middle east's oil rich nations. What does that tell you about green's sincerity?

[XGreenpeace-Seattle]

This so-called "news article" should have carried the GreenPeace banner instead of Greenspace.

"...nationwide controversy over how to curb the gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere, and change climates". This was written with such sophmoric, matter-of-fact authority, even though the science is anything but settled.

Now we have faceless bureaucrats and politicians working together to use "climate change" as an honorable rationale for bilking taxpayers... yet again... out of $billions. Global Cooling didn't gain traction in the 70s because the earth simply wasn't cooling, so the same group of pseudo-scientific activists switched to Global Warming. When the earth again failed to follow the script, the boogey man then became Climate Change.

For the truly ignorant, Climate Change is beyond disagreement. If it's a warmer than usual winter... Climate Change. If its a colder than usual winter... Climate Change. If its a perfectly average winter... Climate Change.

There's just too much money at stake for all these scam organizations to walk from, and too much tax revenue at stake for the scam politicians to resist.

Absolutely revolting.

[Krunch1]

Global warming may be occurring but man has little to do with it. Thru out time, the earths temperatures have had cyclic variations that man cannot control or influence.

[oger]

cap-and-trade was pushed by Enron and is currently backed by Goldman Sachs and the other major Wall Street crooks. That should tell you all you need to know to decide whether it is a system for combating AGW or just another scam conceived by the same criminal quants who brought you credit default swaps.

[Hoser]

To: Gil | March 22, 2011 at 07:44 AM
California already has outlawed power plants. It is illegal to build a natural gas power plant or sign new natural gas contracts.
See
ftp://leginfo.public.ca.gov/pub/05-06/bill/sen/sb_1001-1050/sb_1037_cfa_20050601_115850_sen_floor.html

The law doesn't sound bad, but the effect is to outlaw natural gas fired plants. Renewables will drive electricity prices very high. Wind and solar are not free.

The solution is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor. See
1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LFTR

LFTRs can't melt down - they are already molten. In a power failure, drain liquid to non-critical storage where the material freezes through passive cooling. To restart the reactor, heat the fluoride salts and pump back into the reactor. Operates at atmospheric pressure. Burns all fuel and most waste. Can be used to dispose of current stored wastes from other reactors. Can't divert products to bomb production if use thorium fuel.

See video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk&feature=related

[Bob]

CARB... aren't these the same idots that insisted MTBE was good to put in our gasoline and fought those who insisted MTBE was poisoning our water while it also failed at cleaning up the air.

Those who protested the putting MTBE in our gasoline, after many years of fighting CARB, were proven right and CARB was wrong. In California we no longer have MTBE in our gasoline and CARB should have been disbanded for their proven beauocratic idotcy.

[Richard_Iowa]

Atmospheric CO2 levels are around 360-380 parts per million. Water vapor, also a green house gas, is around 40,000 parts per million. Water vapor has an over lapping infrared spectrum with CO2, indicating that it also absorbs energy. Perhaps we need to consider how to eliminate water vapor from the atmosphere.

[sean]

Global warming is real, period. There are a few scientists who debate it-they are for the most part paid shills, (for example, Exxon-funded "Dr" Fred Singer, who used to say that cigarettes were totally safe, now says that global warming is fake and that polution is "healthy"). Are you gonna trust these paid industry shills?
Meanwhile THE VAST, VAST majority of scientists DO know that global warming is REAL. Many of the deniers who you see post on these comment boards are just very naive and have the mentality of a 14 yr old, but some also know global warming is real. They just think that it's more important to oppose ANY progressive initiative, than it is to face the facts. It's a zero-sum ideological game to them, nothing more.
I have no respect for anyone who denies it. NONE.

[sanford]

These scam artists supporting this law are taking advantaged of the uneducated poor by filing a lawsuit on their behalf. Poor people can't afford the massive energy cost increases that tax and cap scams produce. Cap and tax scams will force poor people to choose between buying food and the ability to refrigerate it. Fifty dollars a month might not be a lot to many people, but 50 dollars a month is a huge price increase to poor people. I'll bet my paycheck these scam artists are not telling the poor how much more their electricity and other energy costs will rise. Global warming is a scam to hurt the poor and shrink the middle class and that's all there is to it.

[jim newton]

As usual your newspaper politicized an issue of science , before you remark about heat being trapped in the atmosphere you should have someone explain to you the second rule of thermodynamics , i know for your reporter to have this explained to them a pre school teacher will have to explain it , but just listen very closely and you might be able to understand , heat from the earth is not "trapped" it radiates into space a trace gas in the atmosphere will not "trap " heat , sorry i know the politicians want it to be otherwise but newspapers and politicians can change opinions but not the physics .

[Jay Fry]

This article is a bit troubling. Lets talk about the fact that Global Warming has not even been proven to exist. The latest statistics show that it probably is no where near the problem some scientists say it is. We saw the controversy of the university in Europe that was falsifying data, we know that NOAA has placed measurement devices in warmer areas, near cement under the sun (and other things) so that the readings are tainted-if not put there intentionally to fool us.

I think the new California law will hurt the economy more and more, and do no good for the world. If the change in the environment is less than 1%, yet the economic costs to california is over a few Billion Dollars in lost productivity and jobs, how can you go forward. Why should californians suffer for soemthing, a cuase if no one else makes a sacrifice too?
The net impact is so miniscule, we will never see a benefit.

When will calm and informed heads be makig the decisions?

[JustAGuy]

“This decision is good for low-income communities like Wilmington, Carson and Richmond,” said Bill Gallegos

-----------------------------------------

I don't know about Richmond, but I know for a fact that the refineries near Carson and Wilmington neighborhoods were there first. Now, all of a sudden, they're saying the refineries are the evil ones.

It's like saying I move next to you, then demand that you move away because your lifestyle is bothering me. RIDICULOUS!

[John A. Jauregui]

What are the chances 4 (CO2) atmospheric molecules in 10,000 control our planet's climate?

Answer: About 4 in 10,000

What are the chances that increasing CO2's atmospheric concentration from 3 to 4 molecules in 10,000 over the last 150 years has significantly greened the planet?

Answer: About 1 in 3