complementary policies
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Is cap-and-trade to blame for the death of the climate bill?
Pundits say cap-and-trade is the reason for the green movement's lack of success and that a different policy is key to moving forward. I don't buy it.
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Why aren’t more economists backing win-win climate solutions?
I’ve been reflecting a bit on this post I wrote yesterday on Paul Krugman’s primer on climate economics. Long story short, I wish I hadn’t written it. Not because I’m not interested in (and obviously somewhat exercised by) the role of rational choice theory in mainstream economics, but because it wasn’t the main point I […]
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Hey Paul Krugman: How about less econ theory and more econ mechanics?
Illustration by Michael Freimuth and Kyle PoffMany people, including me and, um, Al Gore, have recommended Paul Krugman’s primer on climate economics. It’s a top-notch introduction and a welcome antidote to the ignorance and hysteria that characterize most media coverage of climate policy. Read it! In describing environmental economics, however, Krugman simply passes along many […]
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The other half of Kerry-Graham-Lieberman is weak too
The second half could be enough to make you cry.Sens. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman (KGL) are supposedly going to unleash their long-awaited tripartisan climate/energy bill soon. Based on the (extremely tentative) information that’s gotten out so far, it looks like it will implement some sort of cap-and-trade system for electric utilities, […]
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How the cap-and-trade controversy could lead to good clean energy policy
On Wednesday, bipartisan groups of legislators from both houses of Congress joined together to support a bill: the Rural Energy Savings Program, which would make low-interest loans available to rural homeowners to fund efficiency retrofits. The loans would come with no upfront cost and would be paid off with a small surcharge on utility bills […]
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Economics cage match: Stavins’ minimalism vs. Houser’s full-court press
Whenever I criticize economists I get yelled at by economists because I’m no economist and what do I know. So I’m trying a different approach: I’m going to compare and contrast two economic perspectives on climate/energy policy. See if you can guess which one I prefer! Textbook economics Representing what he calls the “textbook economics […]
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A report on stimulus investments in clean energy and the jobs they create
On Tuesday, the Vice President’s office will send Obama a progress report on “The Transformation to A Clean Energy Economy” (PDF). It’s a wide-angle assessment of the stimulus spending that has gone to clean energy projects, the private capital that has been leveraged by those investments, and the jobs that will be saved or created […]
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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 […]