complementary policies
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Annie Leonard misses the mark in her new video, “The Story of Cap-and-Trade”
The greenosphere is all abuzz about a new video from Annie Leonard, creator of semi-famous anti-consumerism video/book The Story of Stuff. It’s being billed as a definitive debunking of cap-and-trade, but it’s more like a perfect representation of all the confusion and misplaced focus that plagues the green left right now. Here it is: Now, […]
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The Kerry-Boxer bill is not “more ambitious” than Waxman-Markey
I’m sure Steve Mufson and Juliet Eilperin didn’t choose the headline, but whoever did, I think it’s a real mistake to refer to the Kerry-Boxer bill as “a bit more ambitious” than its Waxman-Markey counterpart in the House. This became conventional wisdom almost immediately, but it seems to me both wrong and pernicious — the […]
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CBO: Waxman-Markey pollution cuts cost little
This piece was co-written with Andrew Jakabovics, Associate Director for Housing and Economics at the Center for American Progress. Opponents of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, H.R. 2454, are acting like out-of-control auctioneers. They’re trying to defeat the bill by raising cost estimates for the bill’s clean-energy and global warming pollution reduction programs. […]
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CBO: Household costs under Waxman-Markey likely much lower than report reflects
Last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office answered some questions from Sen. John Kerry about its much-discussed report (PDF) on the costs of cap-and-trade. You’ll recall the report’s principle conclusion: a cap-and-trade program would reduce the deficit over the next decade. Despite that positive outcome, the report contained some scary numbers, like the fact that the […]
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Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein gets climate bill wrong
In a laudable attempt to draw more elite media attention to the Waxman-Markey bill — which, like all things “environmental,” has not exactly been a preoccupation of the political cable/blog/op-ed axis — Washington Post business writer Steven Pearlstein makes a hash of a few important facts. Pearlstein says the Waxman-Markey bill will create “create dozens of […]
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Waxman-Markey bill would do more for climate without cap-and-trade provision
Waxman-Markey is a big split personality of a bill. Its efficiency and renewable requirements would make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions, even if not a very big one. But the cap-and-trade at the heart of the legislation is another story. Why do we need cap-and-trade or a carbon tax or something similar? If we […]
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Cap-and-trade vs. carbon tax: a bird in hand is worth two on Alpha Centauri
Tax! Cap! Tax! Cap! Pant … I find it really hard to believe, but the perennial “carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade” debate is still going on. It goes on and on and on and it never changes. It’s like everyone’s following a script now. I’ve been over this territory so many times that I hardly know […]
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Why mandate renewables if we already have a cap on CO2?
A question I hear frequently (in wonk circles anyway): If the U.S. implements a declining cap on CO2, why does it also need a national Renewable Portfolio Standard? (For non-wonks, some basic background: a declining cap on CO2 emissions would, theoretically, force electric utilities to find low-carbon alternatives. An RPS would dictate that utilities generate […]