Futures

According to the Environmental Markets Newsletter, the Chicago Climate Exchange has begun trading in futures that will require, for contracts expiring in 2013 and later, the delivery of greenhouse gas emission allowances that would be usable for compliance with a mandatory U.S. greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program. (If there is no program by then, then other allowances may be delivered.) These contracts allow companies to hedge today against a future cap-and-trade program.

-Morgan

ABA Survey

The American Bar Association is conducting a very brief survey of lawyer attitudes towards the recession. I will be interested in the results if for no other reason than to see how long lawyers as a group think a legal recession will last. If the "wisdom of crowds" research holds true, this collective prediction may be worth reading.

-Morgan

California's Price Tag

The LA Times reports today on a study by two UC Berkeley researchers that puts the annual costs to California from climate change at $300 million to $3.9 billion. About $2.5 trillion of real estate assets in California are subject to threats associated with global warming.

-Morgan

Cap and Trade News

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601072&sid=aa8POBVmixHg

California's blueprint to address global warming won't include details of an emissions-trading program as regulators try to build consensus on how best to organize the market-based system.
The California Air Resources Board will begin a rule-writing process after next month's approval of the so-called scoping plan and is seeking outside help from experts to recommend ways to build a cap-and-trade system, said Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the rule- making panel. Under state law, the program must be ready to begin by 2012.