Articles by Joseph Romm

What the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill debate tells us

No, 450 is not politically possible today.

Okay, that was clear before. But the debate over the Climate Security Act made it clear that it won't be politically possible anytime soon, for two reasons:

1. The vast majority of conservatives have not budged an inch on climate science even in the face of now overwhelming direct scientific observation and a much deeper and broader scientific understanding of the dangerous impact of unrestricted human greenhouse gas emissions on the climate.
2. Equally important, conservatives now have a very potent political issue to beat back advocates of an economy-wide cap-and-trade system -- high gasoline prices. And gasoline prices are probably going to be much higher over the next few years (see "Must read CIBC report: $7 per gallon gas by 2010"). That is one reason I would leave transportation out of an economy-wide cap-and-trade, but that will be the subject of another post.

I live-blogged the debate at the time. Here are the highlights -- or, rather, lowlights -- from the GOP side that make clear just how far conservatives are from understanding climate reality:

What drove the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007?

Funny you should ask. That is the title of an analysis published this month in Geophysical Research Letters ($ub. req'd) by four scientists from the Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. What did they conclude?

Bush places moratorium on new solar projects on public land

In a parting shot at the competition for its fossil fuels supporters, the uber-lame (duck) Bush administration "has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years."

• Drilling for oil and gas, even in pristine areas -- hey, we’re former oil company executives.
• Leveling mountains in beautiful West Virginia -- we’re all for it.
• Toxic metals from mining -- bring ‘em on!
• Logging old-growth forests -- what so you think forests are for?

But solar power on publicly owned desert land? We need to study that for two years. Wouldn’t want to risk a rush to clean energy. As Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, this is "the wrong signal to send to solar power developers, and to Nevadans and Westerners who need and want clean, affordable sun-powered electricity soon."

The only upside of this lame last-minute attack on renewables is that it can be overturned on January 21, 2009.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

McKinsey report shatters myths on cost of curbing climate change

The McKinsey Global Institute has published another terrific piece of analysis, "The carbon productivity challenge: curbing climate change and sustaining economic growth."

MGI is best known for its comprehensive cost curve for global greenhouse gas reduction measures (reprinted below), which came to the stunning conclusion that the measures needed to stabilize emissions at 450 pppm have a net cost near zero. The new report has its own stunning conclusion:

In fact, depending on how new low-carbon infrastructure is financed, the transition to a low-carbon economy may increase annual GDP growth in many countries.

The new analysis explains that "at a global, macroeconomic level, the costs of transitioning to a low-carbon economy are not, in an economic 'welfare' sense, all that daunting -- even with currently known technologies." Indeed, 70 percent of the total 2030 emissions reduction potential (below $60 a ton of CO2 equivalent) is "not dependent on new technology."