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Borrowing and banking carbon — the new black

So you want to have greenhouse gas standards with teeth, but you want to minimize the risk they take too big a bite from the economy. And, of course, like me, you don't like the safety valve idea. What do you do? Banking and borrowing, of course.

With "banking," the right to emit carbon can be saved for future use. With "borrowing," current emissions are extended against future abatement.

What is fascinating is that today a detailed banking and borrowing proposal, "Cost-Containment for the Carbon Market," was put forward by four moderate senators -- Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and John Warner (R-Va.) -- with the help of Duke University's environmental program.

A Greenwire piece (sub. req) notes "a top environmental group also didn't shy away from the latest idea":

"This is an interesting proposal to help address cost concerns while maintaining the integrity of the emissions cap," said David Doniger, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Borrowing and repayment is far preferable to the safety valve, which breaks the cap by allowing firms to increase emissions with no payback requirement.

I agree. Kudos to the Senators for moving the debate forward. Here are more excerpts from the piece:

Marching for climate action in the Granite State

Remember all that hubbub about Step it Up? Though we haven’t heard much about it since the successful event back in April, in many communities across America, the momentum continues. As part of the fallout, groups are working to “reenergize” communities with more actions and events, especially in states that will play a big role […]

For reducing the climate crisis

There are ongoing debates about the best way to address global warming, with most centering on whether a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme is best (or some combination of the two). There are also some lively, though less extensive, debates about the extent to which we should balance our attempts to reduce global warming with mitigating its effects.

I would like to shift the focus a little and ask the question: which policies will best promote technological innovation? Simple demographics and economic trends make it impossible to significantly curtail greenhouse gas emissions without major technological advances.

Lieberman-Warner bill — draft language

Available here.

How coal CO2 is different from oil CO2

Our top climate scientist has sent out a really, really long email (where does he find the time?), mostly discussing comments on his recent essay on coal. I think Hansen is the clearest thinker on climate among the top scientists in the field, so I will reprint the email, breaking it up into several postings. The first one addresses "Coal-CO2 versus Oil-CO2":

And demonstrations

One of punk's great anthems was one of the Clash's first great songs:

White riot
I wanna riot
White riot
Riot of my own.

This was a sincere wish on the late Joe Strummer's part, and to some extent, his wish came true.

The punk movement was a riot in music. His audiences were uncontrollable and he liked that, mostly. He saw a few riots and wanted more, to get people stirred up, showing their desires, demanding change.

Could the ferment in present-day environmental interest be showing up in spontaneous demonstrations?

I have seen a few examples in the news of what sounds -- at least from afar -- like environmental riots.

This kind of demonstration of environmental rage rarely, if ever, seems to happen in the this country, so perhaps we -- including reporters -- aren't primed to expect it and report on it.

But consider:

15 Green Religious Leaders

These men and women represent many different religions, but they’re all spreading the eco-gospel. Read about them, then tell us which spiritual leaders have inspired you to greener heights in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Photo: Nikolaos Manginas Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I “Crime against the natural world is a sin,” says […]

GM will offer clean diesel passenger cars in 2010

GM is planning to bring diesel Saturns and Caddies to the U.S. market in 2010. (A Caddie that gets decent mileage? Who'd have guessed?) They join Nissan, Honda, DaimlerChrysler, and of course Volkswagen in planning to market clean diesels that will meet the new 2008 regulations on NOx and particulate emissions from diesel vehicles.

Missing from this list of diesel adopters is Toyota, which is saying that clean diesels "... would end up being more expensive than gasoline-electric hybrids," a market segment which it dominates.

Oh, the excitement!

Speaking of the Lieberman-Warner hearing on carbon legislation: it’s going on right now, and Brad over at HillHeat is liveblogging it.

Like Christmas for nerds

For the hardcore dorks out there, the U.S. EPA has just finished an extensive economic analysis of Senate Bill S.280, the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act. This analysis is likely to carry considerable weight as Lieberman and Warner put together their new cap-and-trade bill. I’m going to look at this a bit later and […]