Climate Policy

the real track record

Myths and realities of cap-and-trade 0
Posted 3 Mar 2010 11:09 AM Worries about “gaming” or market manipulation often crop up as objections to climate and energy legislation. While these concerns are understandable, they are not warranted – and they can be addressed in a well-designed system. So let’s look at some of the most common myths.
Principles

Policy fixes to unleash clean energy, part 4 0
Posted 11 Feb 2010 2:48 PM Thus far, we've reviewed the five questions that ought to be answered before addressing any energy policy, identified the key regulatory barriers to clean energy deployment, and reviewed the political obstacles to good energy policy. Let's now move on to the simplest -- but potentially most controversial -- question. What principles ought to guide good policy?
Dispatches from the Flat Earth

Utah solves climate change by voting it down 7
Posted 12 Feb 2010 9:19 AM Utah's state House this week adopted a resolution the casts climate science as a conspiracy.
convention without representation

Any hope for meaningful U.S. climate policy? A somewhat positive view 6
Posted 8 Feb 2010 4:16 PM The current conventional wisdom – broadly echoed by the news media and the blogosphere – is that comprehensive, economy-wide CO2 cap-and-trade legislation is dead in the current U.S. Congress, and perhaps for the next several years. Watch out for conventional wisdoms!
Annie get your facts

The facts of cap-and-trade [VIDEO] 9
Posted 21 Jan 2010 12:45 PM In response to Annie Leonard’s December hit video on cap and trade, Nat Keohane, economist for Environmental Defense Fund, gives a thoughtful and friendly defense of cap and trade -- why it’s sound policy and why now is the time to act.
Shared fate under the ‘fault lines’ 0
Posted 8 Dec 2009 2:09 PM We hear plenty about the divisions that make reaching a global climate agreement in Copenhagen daunting. "Negotiators at Climate Talks Face Deep Set of Fault Lines," as the New York Times put it on Sunday. Indeed, the opening salvos from the negotiators confirm that they have a long way to go in less than 2 weeks.
The Story of 'The Story of Cap-and-Trade'

‘The Story of Cap-and-Trade’: This moment demands better solutions 23
Posted 4 Dec 2009 1:28 PM Annie Leonard's new video The Story of Cap-and-Trade has stirred up lots of controversy and conversation on Grist. A content advisor for the video responds to all the hubbub.
How carbon markets work in Europe 0
Posted 2 Dec 2009 9:12 AM In spite of what you may have heard, Europe's carbon market is working beautifully. The E.U.'s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has been operational since 2005 and we're now getting a good look at how it functions. It turns out, it's a remarkable success story, both environmentally and economically.
Market oversight in the Western Climate Initiative 1
Posted 2 Dec 2009 9:25 AM Though most climate policy wonks are now focused on U.S. federal legislation or the summit in Copenhagen, the Western Climate Initiative is soldiering on -- and doing good work too. The WCI's Markets Committee recently released a white paper on carbon market oversight that is worth a read
How cap-and-trade markets work for acid rain and smog 0
Posted 2 Dec 2009 9:19 AM Contrary to claims that cap-and-trade is untested or uproven, there are a half dozen or so operational cap-and-trade programs already functioning in the United States. Of these, the most significant are the Acid Rain Program and the NOx Budget Trading Program.
Setting the Story Straight

Cataloguing the errors in “The Story of Cap-and-Trade” 37
Posted 2 Dec 2009 1:45 PM Just colossally ignorant. That was all I could think to say on viewing the latest eco-video web sensation, The Story of Cap and Trade by Annie Leonard and Co. No one does a circular firing squad like the Left and this contribution is a potential Hall of Famer.
‘Subprime carbon’: Risk or hype? 1
Posted 10 Nov 2009 4:00 PM Friends of the Earth argues that carbon trading could bring down the economy, putting climate policy into the hands of Bernie Madoff-style Wall Street bankers. Of course, this isn’t true. It’s not even sort of true. It’s just an attempt to torpedo the Kerry-Boxer clean-energy bill by sowing confusion about an important and sensitive issue.
Don't worry, be happy

Gaming cap-and-trade: Should we worry? 3
Posted 4 Nov 2009 4:21 PM Worries about “gaming” or market manipulation sometimes crop up as an objection to cap-and-trade, often with reference to recent shenanigans in the financial markets. While distrust and concerns about scamming a carbon market are understandable, they’re not warranted.
China steals Cimate Week spotlight, but U.S. still in the hot seat 1
Posted 23 Sep 2009 8:07 AM The U.S. was given a starring role at the United Nations Climate Summit on Tuesday, but China stole the show.
Power from the people

People pressure is key to action on climate change, say two climate movement leaders 4
Posted 21 Sep 2009 9:43 PM Activist Kumi Naidoo and economist Lord Nicholas Stern are cautiously optimistic about international action  on climate change. And they both agree that citizen pressure is the key.
Clean Energy Economy

Is China winning the clean energy race? 7
Posted 17 Jul 2009 11:31 AM
Industrialized nations may find themselves borrowing and begging for new technologies that China has been busy perfecting all along.
In plain english

‘Citizen’s Guide’ primes readers for climate activism 2
Posted 14 Jul 2009 9:28 AM
Two Middlebury students have authored a guide to climate policy to help every American understand the details and political context around the climate debate in Congress. The result is "The Citizen's Guide to Climate Policy."
Duelling diatribes

Hansen versus Romm 0
Posted 12 Jul 2009 9:41 AM
For all of Waxman-Markey's faults, I think it gets two things right: (1) allowance set-asides to fund tropical forest conservation, and (2) a meaningful price floor...However, they leave W-M with no coherent policy foundation, because its other regulatory mechanisms -- the cap, trading, economy-wide linkage, banking, borrowing, and offsets -- all operate to achieve the converse objective of minimizing costs within limits of a predetermined (and unsustainable) emission cap.
More on Waxman-Markey

Revised and updated: Things I love—and hate—about Waxman-Markey 4
Posted 10 Jul 2009 2:50 PM
The original version of this post originally appeared June 11, 2009. It was based on the version of the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act (H.R. 2454, or "Waxman-Markey") approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. By June 26, when the bill passed the House and headed to the Senate, it had grown by almost 480 pages. What changed?
Glowing on us

Nuclear + cap-and-trade = bipartisan climate bill? 16
Posted 7 Jul 2009 6:59 PM
Four members of the Obama administration appeared before the Senate committee charged with crafting climate change legislation on Tuesday in support of passing a strong bill out of the upper chamber. The hearing marked the Senate's first venture into climate policy this year.