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  • Giveway's in Climate Bill still unfair, inefficient

    Peter Dorman, a strong cap-and-trade supporter points out why Stavins’ defense of giveways is wrong. The key paragraphs: To arrive at his judgment, Stavins lumps together the bulk of the free allocations and says, “about 80 percent of the value of allowances [accrue] to consumers, small business, and public purposes.” Hmmmm. So free handouts to […]

  • Kerry-Boxer muddies handling of international offsets

    It’s great that climate change returns to the Senate agenda this week. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, introduced by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) seems to be gaining some momentum, but the slow pace in the Senate makes it extremely unlikely that a vote will occur before the forthcoming […]

  • 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 […]

  • Confusion in the Senate regarding allowance allocation

    According to an October 22nd  story in Environment & Energy Daily (“Climate:  GOP Fence Sitters Voice Concerns Over Allocations” by Darren Samuelson), several key swing-vote Senate Republicans — including Senator Lisa Murkowski, ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee — are voicing skepticism about the Senate’s Boxer-Kerry climate bill’s cap-and-trade system because of […]

  • Put a cap on it, America!

    Tim Flannery says the U.S. Senate absolutely must pass some form of carbon cap before the Copenhagen talks in December.Mark Coulson, 5th World Conference of Science JournalistsDon’t let the perfect be the enemy of the absolutely essential. That’s the message author and climate campaigner Tim Flannery brought to Grist’s Seattle office today. By that, he […]

  • EPA analysis appears doubly flawed

    Midwesterners are operating under the misimpression that the allocation formula in the House bill is unfair to them.  It doesn’t, although a new, flawed EPA “analysis” (”here“) suggests otherwise. Certainly the formula is a tad ambiguous and that will no doubt be fixed in the Senate.  The figure above shows the results of analysis by […]

  • Climate bill breakdown

    We’ve taken a good long look at CEJAPA, the 801-page Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act that was introduced recently by Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). Now, it’s time to see how the Senate bill compares with ACES. the American Clean Energy and Security Act co-sponsored by House members Henry Waxman […]

  • Mike Castle (R-DE) to run for Biden’s seat

    Republican Rep. Michael Castle announced at a press conference today in Wilmington, Del., that he will seek the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President Biden last year — instantly boosting the GOP’s chances of capturing a Democratic seat. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which handicaps congressional races, called Castle’s candidacy a “major recruiting victory” […]

  • Economics of climate legislation deserve honest accounting

    The debate over the Kerry-Boxer bill has picked up where Waxman-Markey left off: the economics of climate legislation. Perhaps empowered by the “death panel” misinformation campaign, climate bill obstructionists are reviving rumors of economic disaster in the hopes of panicking the public and eviscerating or blocking final legislation. Just as no one was every going […]