American Power Act
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Me, on BloggingHeadsTV with Andy Revkin
A few days ago I did a BloggingHeadsTV episode with Andy Revkin, formerly environment reporter for The New York Times, now senior fellow at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University. (He still writes the indispensable DotEarth blog in NYT.) We talked about the oil spill, nationalizing BP, the climate change bill, […]
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Prez pumps up the volume on climate-bill push
Pump, pump, pump it up. Photo: Mike Schmid via FlickrAt last, Obama brings the love: The president’s public display of affection yesterday for Senate climate and energy legislation made sponsor John Kerry (D-Mass.) happy. And Obama’s gambit to frame a vote for the bill as a vote against Evil Big Oil may be the only […]
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A ‘BP spill bill’ instead of a climate bill? [UPDATED]
Update below Will Democratic leaders try to merge climate legislation with politically popular get-tough-on-BP measures? This morning Politico hints as much: the strategy now will be to include climate provisions in a BP SPILL BILL tightening industry controls, on the theory the bill will be hard to oppose. No such bill exists yet; this is […]
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The Senate climate bill gives EPA authority over both old and new coal plants
Yesterday I explained how the American Power Act would both curb and expand EPA’s authority to clamp down on greenhouse gases (to net positive effect, or so I argued). I ended with this teaser: Now, there is one extremely good reason to want to preserve Clean Air Act stationary source tools for greenhouse gases: America […]
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Domestic offsets in the American Power Act: preserving the integrity?
This post was co-written with Sasha Lyutse. NRDC staff have posted assessments of a number of key elements of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act discussion draft. Here, we’ll take a closer look at the domestic offsets program. I’ll give a brief overview of the program, as outlined in Part D of the bill (Sec. 731-741), […]
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Obama on the climate bill: “We will get it done”
Tell it, Obama.Photo: Pete Souze / White HouseA must-read article in The Hill details a classic rift among Senate Democrats: On one side are Democrats who want to use public anger at oil companies to pressure Republicans to support the American Power Act; on the other are “centrists” who want to be nice to Republicans […]
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Does the Senate climate bill “gut” the Clean Air Act?
Zombie senators will gut your laws and eat your brains!kzamani via Flickr Creative CommonsDoes the Senate climate bill tie the EPA’s hands? You increasingly hear from progressives that the American Power Act — the energy and climate bill introduced by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) — “guts” the Clean Air Act. Some […]
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American Power Act: Allowance allocation
Following up on last week’s preliminary analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman climate bill, here’s a closer look at how allowances are distributed under the cap-and-trade program. High level: the allowances allocated over the life of the program, from 2013 to 2050, heavily favor consumer benefits. Smaller chunks are dedicated to deficit reduction, industry, and other objectives. […]
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A chat with energy analyst Trevor Houser about how to assess climate legislation
Trevor HouserPhoto: Peterson Institute for International EconomicsTrevor Houser is a green energy wonk’s green energy wonk. In the last few years, he has produced, among other things, congressional testimony on greening the stimulus bill, an astute take on the market failures around energy efficiency in buildings (PDF), and a comprehensive assessment (PDF) of the Copenhagen […]
