Grist | Topics | 149 Results

RESULTS		Results 26 – 50 of 149
Page:1 2 3 4 5 6
Headline	Author	Published	Section
The price isn't quite right yet Carbon pricing is about tweaking the little, everyday decisions we make	Ryan Avent	03 Jun 2008	Gristmill
I'd like to add one quick addendum to my previous post on cap-and-trade. When we consider the extent to which we need to reduce our emissions in the abstract, it can appear quite daunting. This is especially the case when we look at the needed reductions and then focus on how big a role coal and petroleum currently play in energy generation and transportation. And it is absolutely true that getting coal and oil out of the economy will be a challenge, and will be a proud ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, shopping (all these topics)

Fear of the day	David Roberts	03 Jun 2008	Gristmill
What if the anticipation of carbon legislation has driven more investment away from coal than actual carbon legislation will?
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, coal, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation (all these topics)

Post hack How not to inform readers about cap-and-trade	Ryan Avent	02 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson has long impressed me as one of the most hackish economic columnists not associated with the Wall Street Journal and not named Ben Stein, but today's piece on cap-and-trade is dismally, embarrassingly stupid. Its essential premise is that consumers and producers of energy don't respond to price signals, something so incredibly, obviously wrong that even the dolt editors of the Post opinion section should have wondered what was u ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate (all these topics)

4.4 Cents and Sensibility Bay Area initiates first-of-its-kind fee on biz greenhouse-gas emissions		22 May 2008	News
Posted at 8:18 AM on 22 May 2008 Businesses in nine San Francisco Bay Area counties will pay 4.4 cents for every ton of greenhouse gases they spew, after the district air-quality board voted 15-1 Wednesday to approve the fee. Set to take effect July 1, the fee will affect more than 2,500 businesses; the district estimates that perhaps seven power plants and oil refineries will have to pay more tha ...
Topics: business, California, carbon tax, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions, news, regulation, San Francisco (all these topics)

Safety pin Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing to stoke fear about the costs of climate legislation	Kate Sheppard	19 May 2008	Gristmill
Speaking of cost-containment and the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow on 'recent reports analyzing the energy and economic impacts of climate change legislation.' Many political observers see this as a move intended to scare up concern among Senate Democrats that meaningful action on global warming is just too dang expensive. Why interpret it that way? Because the committee is chai ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, legislation, Muckraker, news, politics, US Senate (all these topics)

Permit auctions: the mark of progressive cap-and-trade	David Roberts	19 May 2008	Gristmill
I missed this last week, but Kevin Drum is doing God's work explaining the difference between cap-and-auction and cap-and-giveaway to the progressive masses. I did the same thing here, but as usual used way too many words.
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Electric shock Big increases coming in electric costs	Sean Casten	14 May 2008	Gristmill
From the 'Things Grist readers already knew' file comes this report from ClimateWire ($ub. req'd) that price shocks are looming for power plant operators, even before the costs of carbon are factored in. A few excerpts below the fold:[F]rom the utility industry's point of view, the coming price on a ton of carbon dioxide pollution couldn't have come at a worse time. ... 'There's one really basic, I think really important fact, which is that we don't really have full t ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, coal, energy (all these topics)

McCain's answers A Q&A on John McCain's climate platform, issued by his campaign	David Roberts	13 May 2008	Gristmill
The following is a Q&A on John McCain's climate platform, released on Monday by the McCain campaign. I'm posting it here because it gets into more detail than any other published material I've seen. ----- Q&A: John McCain's Climate Platform How does cap-and-trade work? Cap-and-trade is a mechanism that would set a limit on greenhouse-gas emissions (GHG) and create permits or rights to emit equal to the limit on GHG emissions. Entities that are ...
Topics: carbon sequestration, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate equity, John McCain, national security, politics (all these topics)

The carbon lobby is big enough already Carbon trading creates perverse incentives	Gar Lipow	12 May 2008	Gristmill
I've said before that one problem with greenhouse-gas emissions trading (as opposed to a carbon price) is that it creates a whole new lobby with incentives to build the emissions market at the expense of actual emissions reductions. Speaking at the Carbon Expo trade fair in Cologne, Germany, Ken Newcombe, a pioneering carbon trader who currently works for Goldman Sachs provided an example: He described the concept of additionality -- the idea of proving that a projec ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation (all these topics)

Follow the money Carbon costs and energy prices, NC edition	Sean Casten	04 May 2008	Gristmill
As the most ardent Gristophiles know, this site is hosting a lively debate over the degree to which prices imposed on carbon emissions will impact energy costs. To recap, if prices do impact costs, then a carbon tax provides an investment incentive. If they don't, then we need some carrots to go with the stick of a tax. Hot off the presses comes this bit of news from Greenwire ($ub req'd): Duke Energy Ohio is asking federal regulators to approve the transfer of its O ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Passing on taxes Empirical data and theory both show that emissions taxes get passed to consumers	Gar Lipow	01 May 2008	Gristmill
Sean asks, 'If you put a price on GHG emissions, will it raise the cost of energy?' and answers, 'Mostly, no.' I wish he were right, because I really dislike carbon taxes and was only gradually convinced to support them by overwhelming evidence. But pretty much every empirical study that has ever been done about sales tax and other broad-based taxes on gross revenue shows that such costs do get passed along. A fairly typical survey of such studies would be this artic ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

One hand clapping Economic na�vete on carbon prices	Sean Casten	30 Apr 2008	Gristmill
If you put a price on GHG emissions, will it raise the cost of energy? That question goes to the core of carbon policy. Unfortunately, many people inside and outside the environmental community consistently get it wrong, with potentially disastrous results. Consider: if the answer is yes, then we don't need any incentives for GHG reduction. The costs of carbon-intensive energy will rise, giving we energy users the incentive they need to lower consumption. But if ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions (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)

Recycling a carbon tax into carbon fighting Perpetual montion does not work any better in economics than it does in technology	Gar Lipow	30 Apr 2008	Gristmill
In David Roberts' post on the carbon policy dilemma, David defines an 'efficient' carbon policy as follows: First, in a given sector, you set up a system that transfers capital directly from those over-emitting to those reducing emissions, in an agnostic fashion -- that is, preferencing no particular set of technologies or practices. A ton of CO2 ought to be worth the same no matter how it is emitted or prevented, and there should be no net loss of capital in the sector ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Markets vs. emission reductions Why secondary carbon markets should be minimized in climate legislation	Gar Lipow	29 Apr 2008	Gristmill
It is fine and necessary to put a price on carbon, via either a carbon tax or 100 percent auctioned cap-and-trade permits. But in the latter case, when those permits are not sold directly to polluters but are released into a secondary market (either via auctioning or, worse, via giveaways), those markets tend to prioritize maintaining their own existence over reducing emissions. In short, a price is fine; an actual market is not. Part of this is that creating such marke ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate (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)

Waiting for a techno miracle: not the fastest way to cut emissions Government-financed construction plus carbon pricing is the key	Jon Rynn	21 Apr 2008	Gristmill
With NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof's seeming endorsement of Roger Pielke Jr.'s ideas about mitigating global warming, it seems that we have two main arguments developing: the 'breakthrough' argument, which says we must have technology breakthroughs in order to solve the problem, and, as articulated (for instance) by Joseph Romm, the 'just do it' argument that we have the technologies now to minimize global warming. Most of my posts have been an attempt to show how current ...
Topics: carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, green jobs, greenhouse-gas emissions, placemaking, urban planning (all these topics)

Carbon tax loses a congressional voice Dingell takes his 'hybrid tax' off the table	Charles Komanoff	16 Apr 2008	Gristmill
The carbon tax camp lost a powerful congressional voice yesterday when Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) announced he was taking 'off the table' the hybrid carbon tax proposal he floated last fall that featured a national carbon fee, supplemental increases in taxes on gasoline and aviation fuel, and a reduction in the mortgage interest deduction for super-large houses. In a prepared statement, the Michigan lawmaker, who for much of his 54 years in Congress has chaired th ...
Topics: cap-and-dividend, carbon tax, climate, energy, gas prices, John Dingell, legislation, politics (all these topics)

A decarbonization story: Part 1 Why a carbon price beats technology breakthroughs	Joseph Romm	15 Apr 2008	Gristmill
The decarbonization data makes clear that if you want to beat 450 ppm and avoid catastrophic climate impacts, a significant price for carbon (plus aggressive technology deployment) is much more important than technology breakthroughs. That is a central point of this post. That is what I learned in the mid-1990s when I helped to run the billion-dollar office at DOE in charge of federal clean energy technology breakthroughs and deployment -- and had the chance to wor ...
Topics: carbon tax, climate, climate science (all these topics)

When does additionality matter? Part 4 The carbon offset market needs additionality	Adam Stein	12 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This post is the slightly tardy conclusion of a series (see parts one, two, and three). Let's wrap this up by shifting gears a bit. Additionality is central and essential part of the carbon offset market. Additionality is also, in the long term, probably not relevant to the energy efficiency market. The reason hinges on the difference between carbon offsets and carbon allowances. Both are often lumped together under the term 'carbon credits,' but they're different in ...
Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy (all these topics)

Let me boil it down for you ... When additionality always matters	Gar Lipow	01 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Sean Casten and Adam Stein have been discussing when it is important that a carbon savings be additional -- that is, when it is important that we not pay for a saving that would have happened anyway. You guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Iron-clad additionality is critical when you're selling a permission for someone else to pollute. If you are reducing emissions, generating a financial instrument from that fact, and then selling it to some ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 4 Spots vs. strips	Sean Casten	31 Mar 2008	Gristmill
This is the fourth post in five-part series on the details required to get carbon policy right. See also parts one, two, and three. We now get into an issue that will seem a bit arcane, because no one's talking about it, at least not explicitly. But it's a real choice, and in many conversations about carbon policy we are implicitly getting it wrong. Should we price carbon in spots, or strips? Or, to take it out of financial jargon, should we: set up markets ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 3 Carbon taxes vs. carbon trading	Sean Casten	28 Mar 2008	Gristmill
This is the third post in a series about details we are still getting wrong in the climate policy discussion. See also part one and part two. There is no shortage of economic analysis and policy discourse that shows that carbon tax and cap-and-trade methodologies can deliver economically equivalent outcomes. The general consensus -- at least today -- seems to be that since they're equivalent, it really comes down to politics, and it's politically difficult to do anyt ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Windfalls Why consumer protection means selling carbon permits	Eric de Place	27 Mar 2008	Gristmill
One of the thorniest problems in cap-and-trade programs is deciding how to distribute the carbon permits. Should the public sell pollution privileges or give them away for free? Some folks worry that if we make polluters pay for carbon permits, they'll just raise prices for consumers. That's a perfectly legitimate concern. Unfortunately it turns out to be true, whether we sell the permits or give them away for free. Prices rise by the same amount in either scenario ...
Topics: business, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, economy (all these topics)

Page:1 2 3 4 5 6		Results 26 – 50 of 149

Stories About: carbon tax