Grist | Topics | 7 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 7 of 7
Headline	Author	Published	Section
RGGI: Not dead yet Pulitzers await the enterprising journalist who digs into the RGGI efficiency story	Adam Stein	26 Sep 2008	Gristmill
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the first legally binding cap-and-trade system in the hemisphere, kicked off yesterday with the world's largest carbon credit auction. The program immediately failed. I don't know anything about the results of the auction, which won't be made public until Monday, but I do know that whatever happened, RGGI is a great big failure. I know this because journalists prepared its obituary weeks ago. The New York Times recently explaine ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, economy, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions (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)

GHG policy thoughts, economics edition The goal of climate policy is not high GHG prices	Sean Casten	15 Jun 2008	Gristmill
There's an implicit assumption in much of the climate policy debate that to meaningfully lower greenhouse-gas emissions, we need a high price on carbon. The assumption is wrong. Economics 101 In a market setting, price is a function of supply and demand. For a given commodity, prices will be high when demand outpaces supply and low when supply outpaces demand. Thus oil, for instance, is expensive. And autographed copies of my pen and ink cartoons are cheap ( ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, economy, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 5 The solution: Output-based standards	Sean Casten	03 Apr 2008	Gristmill
This is the fifth and final post in a series on the details required to get carbon policy right. See also parts one, two, three, and four. So far, I've done a lot of complaining -- which, in and of itself, is just, well ... whiny. Here, then, is a solution. First, a very brief review: A test of good carbon policy is whether it encourages the private sector to invest capital in projects that will reduce GHG emissions. 'Additionality' confuses carbon policy, by ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, economy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Joe Barton: Pork lover	Sean Casten	02 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Joe Barton (R-Texas) spoke to the U.S. Energy Association yesterday and made it clear ($ub req'd) that he's going to do everything he can to block cap-and-trade legislation from coming out of Congress:As the Democrats move to pass climate change legislation this year, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, will be there to fight them, he told the U.S. Energy Assn's annual membership meeting yesterday. As a senior member of the House Energy Committee, that's not a threat to be taken l ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, Congress, dumbassery, economy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 2 Does additionality matter?	Sean Casten	27 Mar 2008	Gristmill
The first follow-up to my recent post on carbon policy details. First, a note to non-carbon-wonks: 'Additionality' is a term of art in the world of carbon policy. It describes the degree to which a given activity causes additional carbon reductions -- the idea being that we shouldn't pay for carbon reductions that were going to occur anyway. As a fantastic oversimplification, suppose your car broke down and you had to ride your bike to work. The principle of additio ...
Topics: carbon trading, climate, economy, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics)

Carbon policy details: Part 1 Carbon policy is close to getting the macro right, but plenty of smaller decisions remain	Sean Casten	26 Mar 2008	Gristmill
My recent exchange with Gar has made it clear that there is a wide gulf between those details of carbon policy that are theoretically optimal and those which actually impact carbon reductions. Or, to be blunt, those that come up in our weekly staff meetings as actually affecting our decision to consider potential carbon reduction projects and those which simply elicit groans around the conference room of the 'great intent, why did they screw up the execution?' variety.* ...
Topics: climate, carbon trading, greenhouse-gas emissions, economy (all these topics)

Stories About: carbon trading AND climate AND economy AND greenhouse-gas emissions