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Why carbon taxes trump cap-and-trade

Yesterday Gristmill ran a curious article by Bill Chameides of Environmental Defense, attacking a carbon tax strawman that no one is advocating, least of all the Carbon Tax Center (CTC).

Chameides stated that the "government would use additional tax dollars to subsidize the development of selected low-carbon technologies." We invite him to look at CTC's proposed carbon tax, which is revenue-neutral. Revenues will go to reduce regressive taxes or to finance progressive, equal rebates to all U.S. residents. Contrary to Chameides' charge, we have never advocated targeting tax revenues to any technology, privileged or otherwise. Nor, to our knowledge, have the Washington Post's Anne Applebaum, whom he also took to task, or the dozens of columnists, economists, scientists, and other public figures who support taxing carbon.

Ha x 2

Not his best work, but pretty funny:

Energy Dept. gets solar system on roof

From a press release out of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee: Today, the House of Representatives approved by voice vote legislation calling for the installation of a solar energy system at the Department of Energy building in Washington, D.C. The bill had been marked up and reported by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure […]

Who could forget Obama?

… here’s Barack Obama’s announcement speech:

It’s bad for the planet, we’re afraid

I wish that I had something nice to report on rugby, because the one game I’ve watched was fascinating. But alas, Brits with too much time on their hands have crunched numbers for the 2006 Six Nations match between Wales and Scotland, and found it alarmingly eco-unfriendly. And they didn’t even account for the face […]

Lordy

Is it me or does Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) seem slightly crazed? Maybe it’s the wide eyes and the errant tuft of hair: (via Hugg) (More from ThinkProgress, which, as it happens, does use our Skeptics Guide to refute Rohrabacher.)

Global warming ’tis merely a flesh wound

As Pedro Moura Costa, founder of the carbon credit trading company EcoSecurities, explained:

If you pick a winner in the right technology in the search for a low carbon economy you are talking about potentially billions. It is really the holy grail.

The EU's Emissions Trading Scheme is giving investors in the carbon market a glimpse of the future, and it's a "green goldrush."

Cool video

Here’s a cool video from Dow Jones Online about Via Verde, the new green low-income housing project in the Bronx: (via WSJ)

Toyota hypes Prius as sales flatten, nations blame each other for climate change, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Sir Richard to the Rescue? D, None of the Above It’s All Ova Hybrid Lowdown Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Feeling the Heat Buena Vista? Soar Winner Honey and Vinegar Open Mouth, Insert Soot

Smells like menthol to me

In the House Oversight Committee's hearing on political interference with the scientific evidence of climate change, Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) proclaimed in disbelief and frustration that, "Today we have a planet that's smoking!" He, like many before him, likened the campaign to cast doubt on global warming with the tobacco industry's campaign in the 1990s to distort information on the health impacts of smoking cigarettes.

In early 2007, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report along those same lines, exposing the disinformation campaign by ExxonMobil which used tobacco industry-like tactics. They also published an online periodical table that serves as an A-Z Guide to Political Interference in Science, which one of the witnesses to the House hearing brought up in her testimony.