Court temporarily halts California’s cap-and-trade carbon emissions plan

Los Angeles Times : A cap-and-trade carbon emissions plan in California, modeled on Europe’s six-year-old system, may be delayed by litigation. Scheduled to begin in January 2012, the program has been challenged by local environmental groups that contend the California Air Resources Board failed to analyze alternatives to trading. “We have to be open to the possibility that there could be other approaches and that we could achieve [carbon] reductions in a different way,” said board chairwoman Mary Nichols. Because the European cap-and-trade system has been plagued by tax fraud schemes and cybertheft, it was hoped that the California plan would set a better example for the US. The court’s decision is expected to be appealed, but any delay in the January start date could throw a wrench into the financial planning of hundreds of companies, writes Margot Roosevelt for the Los Angeles Times.