Terry Tamminen’s Posts

• If past is prologue, this new regulation will drive innovation and exciting new technologies that can be adapted into other products.

  A Penny Saved Is… 0

  Posted 1 day, 21 hours ago

  California is at it again. State regulators just set energy efficiency standards for new TVs, mostly the big flat panel models that gulp kilowatts. As a result, consumers will save about $8 billion in the next decade in the form of lower electricity bills and carbon pollution will drop equal to removing 100,000 cars from the road. As my dad used to say, “a penny saved is a penny earned” - - so why doesn’t the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) want you to get your share of that saved carbon or those 800,000,000,000 pennies?
  
  The CEA fears that TV… Read More

• Given the high value of the morning brew you can bet that this commodity will soon have carbon insurance percolating around somewhere.

  Would You Like Carbon Insurance With That Latte? 0

  Posted 1 week, 2 days ago

  You might not hear that exact question any time soon, but don’t be surprised if companies start shifting carbon risk from their balance sheets to someone else’s, using the time-honored marketplace tool of insurance. And when that happens, expect the price of products to reflect the new reality.
  
  China, India, and other emerging economies argue that we became prosperous using up the atmosphere and must now bear a disproportionate share of the burden to fix the problem, at least in the first few years of any new global deal. One proposal floating around before the global climate talks in… Read More

• ...reducing carbon will be very good for our economy overall...

  Why Does Oklahoma Want To Drown New York? 0

  Posted 2 weeks, 5 days ago

  As the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee began hearings on carbon regulation, debate ran along traditional battle lines, but with a new script. Democrats Barbara Boxer (CA) and John Kerry (MA) moved away from discussing the environmental impacts of climate change - - and the reason, therefore, to take action to reduce carbon emissions - - and focused instead on the economic benefits of a domestic clean energy economy. Meanwhile, Republicans James Inhofe (OK) and Lamar Alexander (TN) complained that energy bills would rise and Americans would lose jobs.
  
  It’s a good thing that Congress is finally looking… Read More

• ... is it a good idea to tax workers and businesses more, penalizing hard work, or is it better to essentially tax waste and thereby encourage conservation?

  Paterson’s Bold Carbon Gamble 0

  Posted 3 weeks, 5 days ago

  California’s state budget gap was about $40 billion this year. New York’s some $50 billion. Every state in the Union is struggling with drastically lower revenues and higher costs for services of every kind, washing state capitals with red ink. At the polls next year, governors who are facing elections - - including Governor David Paterson of New York - - may find themselves politically drowned by such gargantuan deficits.
  
  So, faced with closing schools, hospitals, fire stations, and kicking struggling families off of welfare roles, governors are turning instead, like the famous bank robber Willy Sutton, to wherever… Read More

• Nothing like a good profit motive to accelerate public policy

  Performance anxiety 0

  Posted 1 month agoIt’s not just the ads showing a baby-boomer couple sitting in matching bathtubs on a beach at sunset where you can find performance anxiety these days. Try looking in the hardware aisle and at the gas station.

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