A New Front In the Cap & Trade War

Opponents of cap and trade have played just about every card in the deck in an effort to repel the proposed carbon emissions trading scheme, with arguments running the gamut from environmental (it doesn't stop carbon emissions, it sanctions them with the purchase of an offset) to economic (this is a simply a tax on business that will drive up costs to consumers).

Still, the proposal barrels on.

Enter a new stakeholder: the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to be free.

A consortium of environmental justice groups have filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court against the Air Resources Board. The suit alleges that the Board has not done enough to prevent diproportianate impact on vulnerable communities, and that it is ineffective and unenforcable, putting it in violation of the mandate established by AB 32.

Basically, the idea seems to be that evil corporate interests will simply buy their carbon offsets and keep pumping out emissions in industrialized areas which tend to where at-risk communities live.

We'll see where it goes...

Will poor take the brunt of global warming fight? [Sacramento Bee]