Cap and Trade to be Enforced at State and Local Level

Climate Activists Target States with Lawsuits in an Effort to Force Government Intervention on Climate Change

May 4, 2011

Business Week - A group of attorneys representing children and young adults began to file legal actions Wednesday in every state and the District of Columbia in an effort to force government intervention on climate change.

The courtroom ploy was backed by activists looking for a legal soft spot to advance a cause that has stumbled in the face of stiff congressional opposition and a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court.

The goal is to have the atmosphere declared for the first time as a "public trust" deserving special protection. That's a concept previously used to clean up polluted rivers and coastlines, although legal experts said they were uncertain it could be applied successfully to climate change.

The spate of lawsuits, led by an Oregon-based nonprofit called Our Children's Trust, were based on "common law" theories, not statutes adopted by state or federal lawmakers. Documents in the cases were provided in advance to The Associated Press.

Conservative opponents warned the effort could overload the judicial system and paralyze the economy with over-regulation.

Attorneys involved in the lawsuits said a victory in even one or two cases would give environmentalists leverage, leading to new regulations to rein in greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are driving global temperatures higher.

State-level lawsuits were planned in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, organizers said. A federal lawsuit was to be filed in California, while regulatory petitions filed elsewhere would ask state environmental agencies to tighten restrictions on vehicle and industrial plant emissions.

A 16-year-old climate activist listed as a plaintiff in one of the cases, Alec Loorz of Ventura, California, said he latched onto the effort because he thought "it would give us teeth, give us a bigger voice than just yelling and marching."

"People have tried pushing legislation and that hasn't worked. Obama hasn't been able to push anything through. The only option we have is the judicial system -- taking this to the courts," said Loorz.

Loorz said he began giving public presentations on climate change when he was 13, soon after seeing former Vice President Al Gore's movie, "Inconvenient Truth."

Another case that relied on unconventional legal tactics to address climate change got a tepid reception during arguments last month before the U.S. Supreme Court. That matter involved several states that sought to rein in power plant emissions by declaring them a public nuisance.

A ruling is pending, but Harvard Law School professor Jody Freeman said justices had questioned whether courts were the appropriate forum for the issue.

"I am generally skeptical the plaintiffs will succeed in the courts pressing for common-law remedies from judges," Freeman said.

Columbia University law professor Michael Gerrard described the public trust suits as a "bold move" by activists looking to use all available options to impose greenhouse gas restrictions. Still, he joined Freeman in saying the pending decision in the public nuisance case would heavily influence the outcome of the state-level lawsuits.

A more optimistic view came from Gus Speth, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President Jimmy Carter.

Speth, now at the Vermont Law School, said public trust litigation over climate change could work if its backers can find a judge willing to innovate a new area of law. Yet that outcome could only result if a judge is willing to buy into what conservative analyst Hans von Spakovsky called "a creative, made-up legal theory."

"This is a complete violation of our whole constitutional system. These kinds of public policy issues are up to either the state legislatures or Congress to determine, not judges," said von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Eddy and others involved in Wednesday's lawsuits credited University of Oregon law professor Mary Christina Wood as laying the legal groundwork for their litigation. Wood told the AP that mainstream environmental groups had approached climate change with the same tactics used to combat industrial developments or protect endangered species. But she said lawsuits based on existing environmental laws had come up short.

What is needed, Wood said, is a sweeping challenge to the government's failure to address climate change. And having young people as plaintiffs in the cases gives added moral authority, she added.

The plaintiffs include college students, high school activists, and children of conservationists and attorneys, along with at least one environmental group WildEarth Guardians.

"We should be getting youths in front of the courts, not polar bears," Wood said, referring to widely publicized attempts to have courts declare polar bears endangered as rising temperatures melt Arctic ice.

Say No to Cap & Trade

Watch out, America. Somewhere hidden under all the nice words are new taxes.

April 23, 2011

Comment by Cricket at Yahoo! News - Obama created the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) while on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation 1994-2002. He help create the Cap & Trade Bill that if passed will make CCX a 10 Trillion a year money maker. Many of the people that helped him create CCX and are helping fund the lobbyists are former members of Goldman Sachs.

He's creating a ponzi scenario to bilk the taxpayers out of Trillions and to make his rich friends even richer.

Europol, the European criminal intelligence agency, announced that Emissions Trading System fraud had resulted in about 5 billion euros in lost revenues. Europol said:

“In announcing the raids, the agency said that as much as 90% of Europe’s carbon trades were the result of fraudulent activity.

“Carbon markets are highly susceptible to fraud, given their complexity and the fact that it’s not always clear what is being traded,” says Oscar Reyes of Carbon Trade Watch.”

This is the system that Crime Ink wants to force on us, that puts all the burden on the common people and does nothing whatsoever for the environment.

This is a scam to enrich the corrupt.

The way Obama and his crime syndicate will get rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams is simple. When a non-producing entity wants to sell a "credit," they will have to do that on the Chicago Climate Exchange. Along the same lines, when a productive member of society needs a "credit" in order to remain a productive member of society, they will have to purchase this "credit" through the Chicago Climate Exchange. Of course, Obama and Crime Inc. will make commissions from both the seller and the buyer. It’s a beautiful scam!

Look, a few years back when these reprobates started this activity, it was a menace. But now we have one of the conspirators, sitting in the Oval Office, with the ability to sign into law legislation that will actually make this criminal enterprise a reality.

As this will effect the price of pretty much every thing you buy. You can expect the cost just to survive to be unsustainable. Obama has actually bragged that under his plan energy prices would "necessarily sky rocket." This is "necessary" so that Obama and the rest of his criminal enterprise can become wealthy!

If this outrageous scheme is allowed to become reality, it’s over. As pretty much everything we do needs energy, and pretty much every business will be effected by the carbon credit trading scam, absolutely every product we buy will cost more, a lot more. Energy prices, already out of control due to inept government policies, will double, and possibly triple. So will the price of everything else. Even the most basics like food, clothing, and shelter will be priced out of reach for many — right down to the last morsel of bread.

Read more here and here.