DOJ Expands Claim California-Quebec GHG Trading Link Unconstitutional

摘要

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is expanding on its claim that California's greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program link to Quebec violates the Constitution's Foreign Affairs Doctrine, bolstering the argument that the link conflicts with President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.'California's Agreement and Arrangements with Quebec unmistakably conflict with the United States' decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and to seek to renegotiate a new international agreement requiring real concessions from the world's polluters,' states a June 8 DOJ reply brief in support of its motion for summary judgment in United States v. State of California, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.'First, Canada's declared desire to use compliance instruments bought from California to satisfy its obligations under the Paris Agreement would literally put the United States in the conflicting position of involuntarily maintaining and advancing that same agreement,' the brief adds. 'Second, the Agreement and Arrangements, if expanded as California clearly has in mind, would functionally continue the United States' support for the very agreement that the President has exited pending possible renegotiation or replacement.'