Grist | Topics | 34 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 25 of 34
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Headline	Author	Published	Section
Inside WCI: Federal pre-emption What happens with a new president?	Eric de Place	22 Aug 2008	Gristmill
This is part of a short series of posts that explain some important but often overlooked policy issues in the Western Climate Initiative -- the West's regional cap-and-trade system. (Much to readers' delight, this is the last installment I'm planning to write.) You can't talk about regional cap-and-trade very long before someone brings up the subject of pre-emption. What happens if the federal government creates a national cap-and-trade program? Would the regional p ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, elections, presidential race 08 (all these topics)

The high cost of low energy prices The cheaper the power, the more we use	Eric de Place	30 Jul 2008	Gristmill
I'm going to geek out for a second. But first, check out this graph: I suppose there are two lessons: Price and consumption are not perfectly correlated. Clearly there are many non-price factors affecting electricity consumption. (These include, at least, the local climate, building size and type, and local energy efficiency policies.) But still ... Price definitely affects use, and the fit gets better as you move up the price axis. The more expensive e ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, utilities (all these topics)

WCI's new proposal What the Western Climate Initiative does right -- and what it could do better	Eric de Place	24 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Draft is here [PDF]. Just the major points. First off, the proposal is basically pretty good. We should keep in mind that what WCI is doing represents a big -- gigantic -- step in the right direction for the climate. So I'll raise a glass to everyone who's worked so hard on the WCI proposal so far. But there's room for improvement. Below, I highlight the core areas of the proposal. These are bedrock issues that make me concerned.Transportation is in. Sort of. It ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, state politics (all these topics)

Nagging our way to climate stability Forget a carbon cap; try guilt instead!	Eric de Place	21 Jul 2008	Gristmill
This is quite possibly the most idiotic argument I've ever heard against cap-and-trade. Why is it bad? By turning carbon emissions into commodities that can be bought and sold, cap-and-trade policies could remove the stigma from producing such emissions ... the purchase of the right to emit greenhouse gases would likely reduce any stigma associated with doing so. Emission levels, consequently, could rise. Oh, lordy, that's a good one. But that's from an op-ed in ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

A New England auction Can the West match the Northeast?	Eric de Place	17 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Next week, the Western Climate Initiative will release a proposal outlining the program's cap-and-trade design.* In the proposal, we should expect to learn what share of carbon permits will be auctioned (and will therefore generate public revenue) and what share will be given away for free to emitters. Auctioning is important -- extremely important -- because, among other virtues, it is the best way to promote fairness for people with moderate incomes. We've had lot ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

'There is no box' Lester Brown unveils plan for 80 percent cuts by 2020	Jon Rynn	02 Jul 2008	Gristmill
Lester R. Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute and author, most recently, of Plan B, Version 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, released a new study today called 'Time for Plan B: Cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2020.' I was invited to participate in a conference call in which Lester explained many of the highlights of the plan; I will do my best to share what he said (any mistakes are my own). First, it appears that the only comprehensive plan to ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, public transportation, renewable energy (all these topics)

Is 450 ppm politically possible? Part 6 What the Boxer-Lieberman-Warner bill debate tells us	Joseph Romm	30 Jun 2008	Gristmill
No, 450 is not politically possible today. Okay, that was clear before. But the debate over the Climate Security Act made it clear that it won't be politically possible anytime soon, for two reasons: The vast majority of conservatives have not budged an inch on climate science even in the face of now overwhelming direct scientific observation and a much deeper and broader scientific understanding of the dangerous impact of unrestricted human greenhouse gas emissio ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Climate change ideas for On Day One Day five of the UN Dispatch-Grist collaboration	Ideas for On Day One	27 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The UN Dispatch - Grist collaboration concludes today with discussion of an idea submitted by On Day One user James Hansen -- yes that Dr. James Hansen! Tony Kreindler of the Environmental Defense Fund, Nigel Purvis, Kate Sheppard, Timothy B. Hurst, and David Roberts respond below the fold. Tony Kreindler, media director of the National Climate Campaign at the Environmental Defense Fund As usual, great issues raised ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, climate science, James Hansen, video (all these topics)

We must tax carbon Hansen's message to the planet	Charles Komanoff	25 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Maybe it was the thought of two decades of climate-crisis exhortation, little more heeded than words shouted at a hurricane. Photo: germuska via Flickr.Maybe it was the temporizing of the Democrats and the obstructionism of the GOP. Or it might have been the images of cities, houses and farmland of his native Iowa drowned by the latest '500-year' floods. Perhaps it was all three. Whatever the reasons, the climate crisis' Paul Revere turned it up ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, James Hansen (all these topics)

Green coal baron? NYT Magazine's fawning piece on Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers	Frank O'Donnell	22 Jun 2008	Gristmill
There's no doubt about it: Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers is the most adept figure in corporate America at making himself look better than he is. He's proven it again in an extremely flattering profile in The New York Times Sunday Magazine. The piece refers to Rogers as 'one of the electricity industry's most vocal environmentalists.' Indeed, the piece reports that many 'prominent environmentalists' are his 'friends' and quotes in particular Eileen Claussen, he ...
Topics: business, cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Moral obligation, patriotic duty State poll shows Oregonians ready and willing to do what it takes to halt climate change	Anna Fahey	17 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The National research firm Public Opinion Strategies recently conducted a survey of 500 likely Oregon voters to assess views on the issue of climate change and to gauge support for the basic principles of policy measures like the proposed cap-and-trade system in the Lieberman-Warner Act (a.k.a. the Climate Security Act -- legislation that was recently defeated last week in the U.S. Senate, but marked a step forward on national climate policy.) The survey, which presents ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, economy, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, Nature Conservancy, Oregon, politics (all these topics)

No justice, no cap National environmental justice coalition blasts cap-and-trade, backs carbon tax	Charles Komanoff	16 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Condemning carbon trading as 'fraught with uncertainties, lack[ing] transparency and creat[ing] large opportunities for emitting facilities to engage in fraud,' a national coalition of environmental justice organizations has called for a federal carbon tax to address 'the most critical issue of our time' -- the climate crisis. Photo: Brooke Anderson. The June 2 statement from the Climate Justice Leadership Forum is the latest sign of mounting disaffe ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, fossil fuels, grassroots activism, politics (all these topics)

Who you callin' a carbon tax, buddy? The political chances of carbon taxes	Eric de Place	16 Jun 2008	Gristmill
There's an ecumenical rift in the carbon policy world. Some favor taxes, while others prefer cap-and-trade. I'm in the latter camp, though I'm sort of a carbon Unitarian: I like carbon taxes too. From a policy perspective, they fit together nicely. Among the reasons I'm on the c&t side is that taxes can be radioactive, at least in U.S. politics. Now, this isn't really a substantive objection to carbon taxes as a policy instrument, but the worry seems warrante ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, politics (all these topics)

Against cap-and-dividend Peter Barnes' carbon policy proposal would not spur the economic changes we need	Guest author	13 Jun 2008	Gristmill
This is a guest essay from Jim Barrett, an economist and Executive Director of Redefining Progress. ----- I should preface by saying that I am a fan of Peter Barnes. He's an emeritus board member of Redefining Progress. He's a smart and thoughtful guy. But I'm not a fan of his cap and dividend idea, mostly from an economic perspective. First, the idea that a price on carbon would be transformative, and that we should do that first and then come in with other ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, climate, energy, politics (all these topics)

Why not a revenue-neutral carbon cap? The silver-lining of Lieberman-Warner's demise	Peter Barnes	11 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The demise of the Lieberman-Warner climate bill may not be a bad thing if it spurs environmentalists and politicians to ask: Is this the best way to cap carbon? Let's be clear what Lieberman-Warner was. Yes, it contained a carbon cap. But mostly it was about spending or giving away trillions of dollars. It was, as Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) put it, 'the mother and father of all earmarks,' and every lobbyist in town was at the trough. The bill sought to allocate a vast ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Stronger, simpler, fairer Upward from the Climate Security Act	Patrick Mazza	11 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Climate Solutions Policy Director K.C. Golden has some thoughts on where to go with national climate legislation after last week's down vote on the Climate Security Act. As thunderstorms and tornadoes ripped through the nation's capital last week, the U.S. Senate tied itself in a procedural knot, preventing a vote on the substance of the Climate Security Act -- the first meaningful climate legislation to reach the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid c ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation (all these topics)

Revkin: Can tax-and-dividend break the political deadlock? Now that L-W is dead, Barnes' sky trust is looking good	Gar Lipow	07 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Revkin speculates that Barnes' proposal is a way to break the deadlock stopping climate change legislation. I think he may be right. Tax emissions. (Or cap them and auction permits.) Refund the revenue to everybody. It has the following political advantages: It is simple and easy to understand. It puts a price on emissions without really penalizing anybody. It is a no-hair-shirt solution. This last point is worth emphasizing. It does not punish consumers, be ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

C.A.R.E. (Cap & Auction, Refund Everything) Peter Barnes on cap-and-dividend in U.S. News & World Report	Gar Lipow	06 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Peter Barnes' proposal is popping up everywhere these days, most recently in U.S. News and World Report. The idea is simple: Put a cap on emissions, and divide that cap into permits. Sell those permits upstream -- mostly to just a few hundred fossil fuel producers and importers. They in turn will pass the cost of those permits on to consumers. Divide the revenue from the auctions among consumers, which makes up for the higher prices. Read the article for details. Upd ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, fossil fuels (all these topics)

The strange case of Bob Corker Conservative senator offers two progressive amendments to climate bill	David Roberts	02 Jun 2008	Gristmill
One of the more ambitious and progressive proposals in the climate debate is Peter Barnes' 'cap-and-dividend,' which would take the revenue from carbon permit auctions and distribute it evenly to every U.S. citizen on a monthly basis. Another common progressive/enviro position on climate legislation is that it should minimize the use of offsets, particularly international offsets that originate in programs like the Clean Development Mechanism with a questionable reco ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, climate, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Dear Governor Greenwash Hansen: Governors aren't getting it	Guest author	29 May 2008	Gristmill
The following is a guest essay from noted climate scientist James Hansen. ----- My recent experience with governors raises a question about whether this is an effective way to communicate about climate change. (Apologies for the length -- you may skip the three tales and go to the bottom line.) Dear Governor Pawlenty [PDF] Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty presides over a population that appreciates nature. Explorer Will Steger has done a marvelous job of informing the pub ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, climate, Minnesota, Nevada, politics, state politics, Virginia (all these topics)

Reich for auctioned permits	David Roberts	29 May 2008	Gristmill
Robert Reich -- former Clinton Secretary of Labor, current economics public policy prof at Harvard -- was on public radio's Marketplace yesterday, stumping for 100 percent permit auctions and even, toward the end, something that sounds like cap-and-dividend: Our atmosphere belongs to all of us, and polluters should have to pay to use it. The citizens of Alaska and Alberta, Canada get yearly dividends from the oil companies that take away their natural resources. Why ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate (all these topics)

Carbon policy dilemma, 3 Trading efficiency for inevitability	David Roberts	30 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is the third in a series; see parts one and two. To briefly recap: Simplicity, efficiency, and political buy-in are important elements of climate policy, but if you want the first, you can only get one of the other two. Peter Barnes' cap-and-dividend proposal gets simplicity and political buy-in; Sean Casten's output-based standards get simplicity and efficiency. Which should we prefer? The answer depends in part on how you think about climate policy, ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Carbon policy dilemma, 2 Two simple, effective, and diametrically opposed climate policy proposals	David Roberts	29 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is the second in a series; see part one. I said in my previous post that of the three goals of climate policy -- simplicity, political buy-in, and efficiency -- it is possible to get only two at once. You can get simplicity and buy-in. You can get simplicity and efficiency. But when you start trying to get buy-in and efficiency together, you lose simplicity (see: Lieberman-Warner). I'll describe two proposals, one of which focuses on buy-in and one on efficienc ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Carbon tax shifts? The only obstacle to more state carbon taxes is politics	Alan Durning	28 Apr 2008	Gristmill
One of Washington State's conservative think tanks has just proposed a carbon tax shift. Interesting. (Read it here.) The Washington Policy Center has garbed its tax shift proposal in anti-government clothing. Some of the rhetoric makes my skin crawl. But the proposal itself is sensible if modest. It includes a starter carbon tax that pays for a small sales tax reduction. As a bonus, it throws in a business and occupations tax reduction on all capital investment. It's ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, climate, Washington (all these topics)

Fortune Brainstorm Green Peter Barnes sprints through cap-and-dividend	David Roberts	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Peter Barnes was given exactly five minutes (!) to explain cap-and-dividend to the audience. Everybody's so tired and frazzled that I don't think it sank in very much. However, I talked with Barnes for a good while outside, before the session, and I came out of it far more convinced of the wisdom of the idea that I was before. Much more on that later as well.
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon trading, climate (all these topics)

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