carbon trading
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Why Cantwell-Collins is best — and how it just might win
As U.S. climate legislation creeps forward, Senators now have two frameworks to choose from. One is from Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.); the other is from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine). Both begin with descending carbon caps that, along with supplementary policies, promise to reduce carbon […]
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What to make of the Cantwell/Collins CLEAR Act
Maria Cantwell Last week saw two interesting developments in the ongoing saga of the U.S. Senate’s struggle with a climate/energy bill. First, Sens. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman released the framework for the bill they’re working on, which basically amounts to the bill the House and the Senate Environment committee passed plus a […]
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Cantwell’s cap-and-trade bill: almost genius
Sen. Maria Cantwel (D-Wash.)To borrow Dave Eggers’ book title, the novel approach to cap and trade proposed by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Genius, because it is an innovative plan to create a best-case version of cap and trade. And heartbreaking, because by design and by omission it undermines […]
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NASA climate scientist should come back to earth
Eric’s take on Jim Hansen’s opposition to cap and trade is exactly right. Hansen is a renowned NASA climate scientist. But on climate policy, he’s just lost in space. Now, I’m not going to call Hansen’s support for carbon taxes misguided. Remember, we LIKE carbon taxes. We’ve given BC’s pathbreaking carbon tax lots of sloppy […]
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How James Hansen gets cap-and-trade wrong
Climate scientist James Hansen has gone on the warpath against cap-and-trade. (See this op-ed in the NYT, among other recent examples.) Perhaps what’s most alarming is that, for all his intelligence, Hansen doesn’t appear to grasp even the basic elements of cap-and-trade systems. In a blog post last weekend, economist Paul Krugman took him to task: … […]
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The economics of renewable energy certificates
Tom Stoddard, cofounder of carbon offset firm NativeEnergy, sent along the following response to a recent blog post by Auden Schendler: Auden: In your post entitled “Why Buying Cheap Energy Certificates Worsens Climate Change,” you take the position people shouldn’t buy what are now relatively inexpensive renewable energy certificates (RECs) because $2 per megawatt hour […]
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Cataloguing the errors in “The Story of Cap-and-Trade”
Just colossally ignorant. That was all I could think to say on viewing the latest eco-video web sensation, “The Story of Cap-and-Trade” by Annie Leonard and Co. No one does a circular firing squad like the Left and this contribution is a potential Hall of Famer. Leonard has a disarming Every Gal schtick, but it masks […]
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Market oversight in the Western Climate Initiative
Though most climate policy wonks are now focused on U.S. federal legislation or the summit in Copenhagen, the Western Climate Initiative is soldiering on — and doing good work too. The WCI’s Markets Committee recently released a white paper on carbon market oversight that is worth a read. While the paper doesn’t draw many conclusions about WCI’s final […]
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How cap-and-trade markets work for acid rain and smog
Contrary to claims that cap-and-trade is untested or uproven, there are a half dozen or so operational cap-and-trade programs already functioning in the United States. Of these, the most significant are the Acid Rain Program and the NOx Budget Trading Program. Both have large vibrant trading markets, both have been extremely successful in achieving environmental aims, […]
