Climate Politics
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Rationality, welfare, and public policy
In response (I think) to my post on efficiency and economists, Matt Yglesias cautions against abandoning the presumption of rationality just because people don’t consistently maximize profit. It may be rational in some circumstances to sacrifice profit for gains in time and attention. There’s more to personal welfare than money. Anyone who advocates efficiency runs […]
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France rejects carbon pricing policy
One of the purported advantages of a carbon tax over cap-and-trade is that it would be simple, as simple as grandma and apple pie and just as hard to frak with. That view has taken a bit of a blow from the latest news out of France. The French Constitutional Council has rejected a tax […]
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Economics as pathology
I’m technically on vacation, but the wife and kids are watching Chicken Little up in the hotel room right now, so I’m going to sneak in here for a quick post. Ted Gayer — senior fellow and co-director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution — has an article in Forbes today, ostensibly […]
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Dear NGO leader: Still want my $100? Answer these five questions
Whoa! This is much harder than I thought. Not only did I receive several new email solicitations since I asked how each of us should spend $100 to support the climate movement; my head is spinning as I read the many persuasive responses to that post. Why the confusion? All these green groups do seem […]
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How environmentally friendly is Washington’s congressional delegation?
The following was submitted by Environment Washington. Today, Environment Washington is releasing our annual scorecard on Washington’s congressional delegation — documenting the lawmakers’ environmental votes over the past two years. These scorecards are an important tool to educate the public about the voting records of their elected officials and to help citizens learn who is […]
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New EPA map shows the year in eco-enforcement
‘Tis the season for the annual year-in-review column, beloved by writers and editors desperate to fill pages and screens of blank space during these slow news weeks. I’m going to forgo that annual holiday journalism tradition — sort of. While perusing various year-end and year-ahead trend story pitches that had popped into my in-box since […]
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Which green groups should get your last $100?
If you’re like me, your inbox has recently been inundated with cheery, post-Copenhagen greetings from green groups of all kinds. Bless their hearts, they’ve all suddenly developed an interest in wishing me well. And let me confess: I love ’em all. Classics like NRDC and WRI, innovators like Clean Air-Cool Planet and 1Sky, hybrids like […]
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Copenhagen coal in the stocking?
As a kid in Milwaukee, my parents told me that Santa would leave coal in my stocking if I was naughty. As the post mortem of Copenhagen is written, was it a lump of coal in our 2009 holiday stocking — or could this global chunk of carbon actually be a diamond in the rough? […]
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Time to bust the filibuster
I have been one among many in the progressive world trying to draw more attention to the dysfunctions of the U.S. Senate, in particular the now-routine use of the filibuster, which has put a default 60-vote requirement on legislation that amounts to a fundamental change in U.S. governance — and not a positive change. It […]
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What you need to know following the Copenhagen climate summit
Co-authored by Rebecca Lefton. The international negotiations on climate change wrapped up Dec. 19 in Copenhagen. The conference achieved an interim agreement, known as the Copenhagen Accord, which could put the major polluting nations on a pathway to reducing global warming pollution, and it continues to set the expectation for U.S. domestic action on climate […]
