California High-Speed Rail Suffers Setbacks With 2 Top Officials Leaving - Bloomberg

Plans for bullet trains to crisscross California (STOCA1) at 220 miles per hour (354 kilometers per hour) face new questions after the chief executive officer and board chairman of the project both said they would leave their positions. Roelof van Ark, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority since June 2010, will step down in about two months, Rachel Wall, a spokeswoman, said yesterday by e-mail. Tom Umberg will relinquish his position as chairman, while remaining a board member, she said. California is the only state working to build tracks for high-speed trains, which are to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2033. A review panel on Jan. 3 recommended against selling bonds for the $98.5 billion project. This week, Republicans in the Legislature introduced a bill to prevent the bond sales, calling the train service a “lemon.” Governor Jerry Brown said the state should move forward with the project.

GreenX Emissions Volumes Quadrupled in 2011; Market Share Gained - Bloomberg

Green Exchange LLC quadrupled the volume of emission allowances and credits it traded, boosted by a surge in the European Union. The bourse, which has operations in London and New York, handled 451.8 million metric tons, compared with 104.5 million in 2010, according to data in an e-mailed report. EU-allowance futures were 83 percent of the 2011 total, the data show. The exchange’s market share rose to an average 5.8 percent from 1.6 percent in 2010, GreenX said. The market leader is ICE (ICE) Futures Europe, which handled 5.4 billion tons of EU carbon futures last year, according to its data. GreenX volumes picked up this week after a slow start to the year, Sara Stahl, managing director of global marketing in London and a former ICE executive, said today by phone. “Yesterday, we had a strong day,” when volumes were 2.4 million tons compared with last year’s average of about 1.8 million a day, she said.