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If 100 percent auctioning is done right, the trade component will be trivial

If all permits are auctioned, where is the need for large-scale trading? With modern electronics, there is no reason most permits can't be bought directly by those using them.

Yes, there will be some trading: people will buy too many and need to resell, or engage in hedging, or use a broker for convenience's sake. But if the auctioning process is not made a major pain, these should be trivial in scale compared to direct purchase. Our short name should not emphasize the role of trade.

Why is the terminology important? If you refer to support for 100 percent auctioning as a variation on cap-and-trade, you make political judo easy for giveaway advocates. They can take all the political effort that was put into building support for 100 percent auctioning and use it to win support for giving free permits to large corporations. After all, it is all cap-and-trade, the giveaway advocates will say. Only extremists, the gifts-for-Big-Coal supporters will say, would make a fuss about the exact form cap-and-trade takes. Seriously, brand differentiation is important in politics. If you think 100 percent auctioning is important, don't use a term that lets your opponents pretend there is little daylight between you and them.

Duplicitous sand dollars and tenacious sea worms

A federal appeals court ruled that a Hong Kong company should not have been forced to give up the proceeds from 32 tons of shark fins seized by the U.S. Coast Guard in 2002 from the vessel King Diamond II. The 64,695 pounds of shark fins were valued at $618,956 ...

... a three-year study found a thriving reef fish community around three freighters sunk off the coast of Florida ...

... a graduate student discovered that sand dollar larvae can clone themselves in an effort to escape predation ...

Friday music blogging: Kathleen Edwards

Sometimes an artist you’ve categorized and filed away surprises you. So it is with Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards. Her 2003 debut Failer introduced her as a total kick in the pants — an Americana-tinged female singer who combined disarming vulnerability with raspy, almost confrontational bluntness. The follow-up, Back to Me, sounded less varied and more […]

World Water Day, Grand Canyon film highlight water crisis

Saturday is World Water Day, a time set aside by the U.N. during which member nations are encouraged to address the worldwide water crisis. This year’s theme is the “International Year of Sanitation” (sexy!), which is aimed at “accelerat[ing] progress for 2.6 billion people worldwide who are without proper sanitation facilities.” For more on this […]

Richardson endorses Obama

Bill Richardson, who aspired to be the “energy president,” has endorsed Barack Obama. In his endorsement letter, he cites race and this stuff: To reverse the disastrous policies of the last seven years, rebuild our economy, address the housing and mortgage crisis, bring our troops home from Iraq, and restore America’s international standing, we need […]

Weak brew in Maryland

Maryland climate bill passes state Senate after being severely weakened: The Global Warming Solutions Act would require a 25 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions from Maryland businesses by 2020. But under the amendment approved Thursday, the state’s environmental agency would have to get the General Assembly’s approval each time it issued rules to cut […]

A roundup of news snippets

• Wal-Mart will sell milk without rBST. • John McCain discusses climate with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. • California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boots Clint Eastwood off the California parks comission. • Skeptics raise questions about Norway’s quest for carbon neutrality. • Home Depot donates $30 million to Habitat for Humanity to build green.

The Kansas City Star: New coal plants are expensive

The Kansas City Star reports:

Electric bills are poised to soar for customers of utilities building coal-fired power plants.

Coal-based electric utility executive responds:

We're moving forward regardless of what you namby-pamby, cheap-energy-loving hippies think.*

Michael Dworkin then raises the obvious question:

You've got to ask: "Do you think we have reached a point where it economically doesn't make sense?"

It will be interesting to see how this affects the Sunflower Electric debate, since the state does now seem to be getting beyond the false belief that coal is cheap.

*Italicized text implied but entirely fabricated by the author.

As Corps series ends, big questions remain about the future of the Mississippi

There are 8 million stories in the Mississippi Basin, and this week we’ve told only a few. As lead editor of this Army Corps series, I’ve been immersed for the last few months in all things Mississippi River. Coming out the other side, I have a few answers, yes, but even more questions to explore. […]

From Emo to Ego

Thnks fr th GHGs What will be the fallout from Pete Wentz and Co.’s green-themed flight to Antarctica? Tons of carbon, a Guinness record — and, quite possibly, emo copypenguins. Photo: iStockphoto Against the grain Young McHipster has a farm, e-i-e-i-o. And on her farm, she has organic produce, e-i-e-i-o. With a CSA here, and […]