"California’s agreement with Quebec to share cap-and-trade markets to reduce greenhouse gases, which was challenged by the Trump administration in its campaign against efforts to combat global warming, survived its first federal court test Thursday.
The first-of-its-kind agreement, which took effect in 2014, did not amount to a treaty or international compact in violation of the federal government’s exclusive constitutional authority, said U.S. District Judge William Shubb of Sacramento. He said the agreement doesn’t expand California’s regulatory powers and noted that the state is free to withdraw from the deal or modify its terms at any time.
Shubb deferred consideration of additional claims by the Trump administration that the California-Quebec program interfered with federal authority over international affairs and foreign commerce. But the claims he dismissed Thursday were the administration’s chief arguments to scuttle the agreement: that California had entered into a treaty or compact with a foreign state, powers the Constitution reserves to the federal government.
The market-based cap-and-trade program was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, took effect in 2012, and was extended for another decade in 2017. It sets limits, which decrease over time, on California companies’ emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Companies that do not meet their emissions “cap” must “trade” by buying credits at an auction, with the proceeds used to fund emissions-control programs and help vulnerable communities."
Bob Egelko reports for the San Francisco Chronicle March 12, 2020.
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