The attempt to lift an intermediate court’s stay of the writ halting California’s Cap & Trade program has predictably failed in the California Supreme Court. See http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/29/BARF1LAT96.DTL
Hard to reverse a discretionary stay pending a hearing on the merits.
The Appeals Court still has yet to rule on the merits of the challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act. Meanwhile, the agency implementing Cap and Trade has redone its environmental analysis, perhaps rendering that case moot (mootness is a complicated question here) and will finalize its regulations in October. At that point, judging from the comments from plaintiff’s lawyers, there will likely be a new challenge in Superior Court.