A California Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the state has adequately justified its selection of a cap-and-trade greenhouse gas market, removing one of the major hurdles to implementing the first-in-the-nation economywide program.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith handed down an order approving the California Air Resources Board's updated analysis of alternatives to cap and trade. Environmental justice groups sued in 2009, arguing that the original 2008 proposal was in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act because it failed to consider alternatives in enough detail, as the law requires (ClimateWire, March 22).

The order lifts a "writ of mandate" that Goldsmith had levied against the plan in May that essentially stopped work on cap and trade. An appellate court had stayed that decision, and the state Supreme Court declined to review it, so the ARB has been proceeding with its plan despite the initial injunction (Greenwire, Sept. 29).

The plaintiffs are still appealing the part of Goldsmith's original decision that found the overall "scoping plan" substantially complied with A.B. 32, the law setting an emissions target of 1990 levels by 2020. That proceeding is in the 1st Appellate District of the California Court of Appeal. Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment General Counsel Brent Newell declined to comment on Goldsmith's decision.

"We are pleased with the court's decision and will continue to implement the full range of climate programs designed to clean our air, reduce greenhouse gases, drive innovation and move California toward a clean energy future," ARB spokesman Stanley Young said in an email.

Tim O'Connor, director of the Environmental Defense Fund's California climate and energy program, said he was optimistic the state would win the pending appeal. The appellate court would have to find the Superior Court committed some abuse of discretion, he said. "Granted, new hurdles may be placed in front of the program over the course of the next year, but this was the last remaining hurdle we saw to implementation."