Articles by Eric de Place
Eric de Place is a senior researcher at Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based sustainability think tank.
All Articles
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“It’s too expensive to price carbon,” the entrenched interests like to say
Once the pending climate legislation gets active in the Senate, Americans can look forward to another outpouring of concern about low-income families. What’s especially fun is that we’ll get to hear it from political players who aren’t usually too concerned about equity — from record-breaking profiteers like Exxon to the same elected officials who slash social services. Now […]
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Cap and trade works!
Congressman Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) on the radio last week: You have to believe in a tooth fairy to believe that we can regulate a cap-and-trade system. Say what?! That’s an odd thing to say. Cap and trade markets have been in existence for well over a decade — and the programs have worked quite well. […]
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McDermott’s cap and trade alternative may have unintended consequences
Washington’s Congressman Jim McDermott just released a new climate plan, but I can’t quite wrap my head around it. It gets some things right, but it may cause some relatively serious problems too. Here’s how he described it in a recent blog post: In brief, here’s how it would work: Producers of products and resources […]
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Regional climate policy is still moving forward in the Northwest
Over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about the state of climate policy in the Northwest. Washington’s citizen-backed renewable energy standard is in jeopardy and neither Oregon nor Washington appears close to implementing the Western Climate Initiative. Even British Columbia’s pioneering carbon tax is taking fire. Freak out! Everybody panic! […]
