Jag4331’s Recent Comments

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  Foodprovider, you suggest giving offsets to the clean energy users, but where does the money come from? clean energy users can only realize savings if there is downward pressure on dirty energy. that pressure comes from what you call a tax--call it what you want, but the cap-and-trade system is a tool for pushing the market in a certain direction. in this case, towards innovation that favors efficient and renewable energy sources. we all bear, and will continue to bear, the cost of NOT changing our energy sources. it happens to be the case, however, that you can't point to that cost and call it a tax. Also, your example of the European cap-and-trade system has a false premise. GhG emissions have risen because the system was not given the fullest opportunity to succeed. One big reason: the credits were not auctioned off but given away based on what turned out to be erroneous estimations of EU members' relative emissions. Hopefully, a U.S. cap-and-trade system will not make the same mistakes, if the system is not debilitated by nay-sayers. In fact, I agree with you. A cap-and-trade system is not the best solution. It has potential loopholes for graft and corruption. But that's also the nature of business-as-usual, and I'm guessing you don't have many anarcho-Marxist leanings. Rather, we should put in place a flat levy on carbon that applies to all taxpayers. For those who are able to reduce their emissions over time (by changing lifestyle and consumer choices), they will see increasing savings over time as the levy rises. This seems to be the simplest, most effective and, hopefully, equitable way to promote clean alternatives and make real the existing, and invisible, cost of a dirty energy system.On What the EPA announcement did (and did not) say posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 17 Responses

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  Copenhagen is EXACTLY where Obama should be going...only not for Olympics lobbying, but to pound the pavement with a promise to attack greenhouse gas emissions.On Obama's absurd Olympic boosterism posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 2 Responses

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  Dave, your emphasis on low-income folks is correct, yet I don't agree with your assessment of how to address it. Poverty runs much deeper than income, especially when you're talking about how to help people become financially stable and secure. Simply raising income does not address the long-term, underlying causes: thin savings, shallow social networks, socioeconomic exclusion and discrimination. Therefore, we need to develop an energy infrastucture that incentivizes innovation without privileging those who already have access to (often cost-prohibitive) renewable technology. There's a good example of this in Colorado (http://www.voteyes1a.org/voteyes1a.org/Home.html), where there's a model for financing voluntary home-energy improvements with loans that do not raise property taxes for non-participants. Again, you're right to focus on income, but it seems that these entrenched problems require innovative solutions.On G20 cans fossil-fuel subsidies, but fails to make other climate-conserving moves posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago 7 Responses

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  Ah yes, that sounds like an experiment done at Middlebury. Clearly it left us with a similar impression.

  On Saying goodbye to a common--and toxic--antimicrobial chemical posted 4 months ago 9 Responses

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  Splashy, good point about the Home Ec classes. I took them too, but you might be surprised to hear that at the public middle-school I attended (a decade ago, to give some perspective), Home Ec classes were mandatory for boys and girls. I thoroughly enjoyed those classes and learned many valuable cooking skills (not to mention some sewing skills that may or may not come in handy in the future). Not everyone was equally enthused about the classes, but I think school, especially at the 10-14 year-old age range is an ideal place to teach practical skills that encourage independence, responsibility, healthfulness and awaken an awareness of the world of foods.

   

  On Not much convenience in "convenience foods" posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago 6 Responses