Local communities critical of California’s cap and trade program

This week California’s cap and trade program went into effect. The program is central to the state’s 2006 AB 32 law, which aims to cut 30 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. Supporters call it the most comprehensive program in the nation that strives to make the social and economic costs of pollution part of production.  But the program has drawn criticism for relying on a market-based system to rein in emissions and granting too much influence to corporations.  For more, we’re joined by Jesse Marquez, executive director with the Coalition for a Safe Environment (CFASE), based in Wilmington, CA, a community in the heavily industrialized section of south Los Angeles.

CFASE is part of a statewide coalition of community groups, the California Coalition Against Toxics, that oppose cap and trade: http://stoptoxics.org/