| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Election news Second Repub. candidate backs cap-and-trade |
David Roberts |
22 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Somehow last week I missed Huckabee becoming the second Republican presidential candidate to support a mandatory carbon cap-and-trade system: 'It goes to the moral issue,' the former Arkansas governor said at a climate-change conference [Sat. Oct. 13] in Manchester, New Hampshire. 'We have a responsibility to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, to conserve energy, to find alternative forms of energy that are renewable and sustainable and environmentally friendly.' The ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, elections, energy, politics, presidential race 08 (all these topics) |
|
|
Donning his cap Dingell endorses a cap-and-trade climate plan |
Brian Beutler |
03 Oct 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Just days after releasing his carbon-and-gas tax proposal for public comment, House Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell (D-Auto) -- along with Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Coal) of Virginia -- has released a report [PDF] endorsing an economy-wide cap-and-trade program. In an odd but welcome turn, the 22-page white paper reads:The United States should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by between 60 and 80 percent by 2050 to contribute to efforts to address climate chan ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, John Dingell, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Disinterested analysis Banks want a cap-and-trade system |
David Roberts |
27 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| A coalition of banks, which stand to benefit enormously from the new business created by a cap-and-trade system, believe that a cap-and-trade system is the preferable climate policy. In other news, dog bites man. |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Quote of the day Dingell gets off a zinger in a testy interview |
David Roberts |
27 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| "I run a legislative committee. Mr. Markey runs around the world watching glaciers melt." -- Rep. John Dingell Ouch. That comes from a characteristically testy interview Dingell did with Newsweek. It's worth reading the whole thing. I don't know what his intent is with this carbon tax bill, but I will say that the tenor of his message on global warming is politically disastrous. It is, paraphrasing, this: "Global warming is a serious problem. Solving ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy, John Dingell, legislation, politics, quotables (all these topics) |
|
|
Clinton Global Initiative: Clinton chats with the press Bill Clinton wanted a carbon market back in the day, and he still does |
Brian Beutler |
27 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Bill Clinton just gave a short speech and took a few questions from reporters. Some highlights: When they were in office, Bill Clinton and Al Gore wanted to create a global carbon market. At the time, Europe thought the idea undesirable and unfeasible and didn't offer any support. The effort failed. Now, years down the line, the world is a different place and the idea has much more purchase. Clinton, when asked for his thoughts on this, managed to turn all of his ... |
|
| Topics: Bill Clinton, carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, international politics, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Lehman on the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme European cap-and-trade program gets a positive review |
Joseph Romm |
26 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| At the end of their recent climate report, Lehman Brothers has one of the best brief discussions of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) that I have seen. Since the EU ETS is often viewed in this country as a failure, I thought I would reprint their somewhat different perspective in its entirety: The EU ETS, which came into effect in January 2005, was constructed on the basic premise that setting emission caps and allowing them to be freely traded w ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Mmm ... kiwi ... New Zealand sounds nice |
David Roberts |
26 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| New Zealand: New Zealand has long had a reputation for being "clean and green" and has a proud record of conservation, with around 30% of its total land area being protected from development. Last week it announced bold plans [PDF] to tackle climate change, following up on a goal set by prime minister Helen Clark at the start of the year for New Zealand to become the world's first carbon neutral country. Among the stated targets, to be legisla ... |
|
| Topics: carbon neutral, carbon trading, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, New Zealand, renewable energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Capping carbon: Is nothing better than something? On whether to advocate weaker climate change bills |
Joseph Romm |
22 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Action Project. How fearsome must the headlines be about tomorrow before people change their ways today? -- Nancy Gibbs, TIME In Greenland today, the ice is thawing at a pace that is alarming climate scientists. Meanwhile in Washington, D.C., Congress remains frozen on the issue of carbon pricing. And that may be a good thing. Carbon pricing, as most r ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy, grassroots activism, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Alan Greenspan is very overrated: Part II Greenspan on climate change |
Joseph Romm |
22 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| If you thought Greenspan was confused about energy, his discussion of global warming in The Age of Turbulence is downright stupefying. He opens well (p. 454): There can be very little doubt that global warming is real and man-made. But the next sentence is (I kid you not): We may have to rename Glacier National Park when its glaciers disappear, in what now looks to be 2030, according to park scientists. That's what all the fuss is about -- we'll have to r ... |
|
| Topics: books, carbon trading, climate, climate change impacts, climate change mitigation (all these topics) |
|
|
Green world unites behind auctioning carbon allowances New U.S. Pirg report recommends 100 percent of allowances be auctioned |
David Roberts |
21 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Speaking of auctioning the permits under a cap-and-trade system, yesterday U.S. PIRG released a new report: 'Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter: The Case For Auctioning Pollution Allowances In A Global Warming Cap-and-Trade Program.' It argues for auctioning 100% of permits: Auctioning all allowances under a cap-and-trade program is fair, reduces the societal cost of achieving emission reductions compared to giving allowances to polluters for free, and promotes a transitio ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Greens actually change someone's mind Greens helped convince Lieberman that auctioning permits is the way to go |
David Roberts |
20 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| As I noted earlier today, Sen. Lieberman indicated that he'd be open to moving toward 100 percent auction of pollution permits under his and Sen. Warner's cap-and-trade proposal. I called David McIntosh, Lieberman's counsel and legislative assistant for energy and the environment, to find out why this potentially tectonic shift has suddenly become a live option. He said: The environmental community and Senators whose views are going to be important have effectivel ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Non-sucky cap-and-trade now a possibility? Lieberman expresses openness to auction all carbon permits |
David Roberts |
20 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| A cap-and-trade system begins by placing a cap on carbon emissions and distributing permits (permission to emit a certain amount of CO2) equal to the capped amount. The notion is that permits will be bought and sold, allowing market forces to determine where emission reductions can be made fastest and easiest. The question is how to distribute those initial permits. When the EU carbon trading system was established, permits were given away based on emissions, meani ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Discover Brilliant: The business of climate change
|
David Roberts |
17 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The final session of the day (hooray) is about "the business of climate change." On the panel: Climate Change Journal, Grant Ferrier, Editor (Moderator) Climate Solutions, K.C. Golden, Policy Director Sterling Planet, Alden Hathaway II, Senior VP, Business Development Environmental Resources Trust, Gordon Smith, EcoLands Director We start with Smith, who begins by, of all things, talking about forestry credits in carbon markets! He says they aren' ... |
|
| Topics: business, carbon offsets, carbon trading, climate, energy, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Tackling climate: Beltway tone-deafness edition On subsidizing 'green' energy R&D |
Brian Beutler |
17 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| In its 'green' issue this week, The New Republic features an excerpt from Ted Nordhaus and Michael Schellenberger's new book, Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility. Their basic point is that the emphasis of the political debate is all wrong. I'm not sure they really understand how things are shaping up, but they're saying that politicians should spend less 'time' talking about regulatory approaches, and more time reiterati ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, coal, energy, innovation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Sky Trust explained Peter Barnes looks at carbon-capping methods |
Gar Lipow |
13 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Peter Barnes has a guest post on the Step It Up blog giving a good brief description of how a Sky Trust would work: Carbon capping comes in three varieties: cap-and-trade, cap-and-auction, and cap-and-recycle. In cap-and-trade, permits are given free to historic polluters. This is called 'grandfathering.' The more a company polluted in the past, the more permits it gets in the future -- not just once, but year after year. As the descending cap raises th ... |
|
| Topics: business, carbon trading, climate, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Which way to screw the consumer WSJ on the carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade debate |
David Roberts |
13 Sep 2007 |
Gristmill |
| People keep emailing me this Wall Street Journal piece on the debate between carbon tax and cap-and-trade, but as far as I can tell there's nothing new in it. This is well-trod ground on sites like Grist. The one interesting thing about it is this graphic: For reasons Sean has well-described, I don't believe these kinds of figures. They are undergirded by tons of arguable assumptions. More to the point: as long as every story about fighting climate change is about ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Risk mismanagement Bjorn Lomborg's new book misunderstands risk and investment |
David Roberts |
23 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from Jon A. Anda, President of the Environmental Markets Network, an organization within Environmental Defense focused on legislation to create an efficient carbon market. He was previously a Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley. ----- Bjorn Lomborg's forthcoming book says to Cool It about global warming. I am anxious to read the detailed rationale when the book is released in September. Based on his interviews about the book, as well as insigh ... |
|
| Topics: books, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
|
|
What should Congress do on climate? Go big or play it safe |
David Roberts |
14 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I've had the Lieberman-Warner climate bill proposal (PDF) printed out for a couple weeks now, but still haven't gotten around to reading it. Bad blogger! The general assessment from other quarters seems to be: eh. Medium. The big flaw is that it gives around 25% 75% of its permits away. Bad, bad, bad, but maybe necessary to get coal-state legislators on board. On the positive side, it's got a cost-containment mechanism that, unlike Bingaman's escape hatch, would hold ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Why cap-and-trade or carbon taxes alone won't solve global warming, and why we still need them Correcting two misunderstandings |
Gar Lipow |
13 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| As we discuss 'cap-and-steal' (aka 'cap-and-trade'), 'cap-and-sell' (aka 'cap-and-auction'), and carbon taxes -- three ways of putting prices on carbon -- it is worth remembering that putting a price on greenhouse-gas emissions is not enough to bring them under control. Gristmill is full of posts showing ways to save carbon at a profit. David posted an interview on Recycled Energy today that points to something that has been known, but mostly ignored, for over thirty year ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
What makes a good cap-and-trade system? A short guide |
David Roberts |
08 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Lots of economists and analysts on both sides of the aisle prefer a carbon tax to a cap-and-trade system, but political reality is such that the former is exceedingly unlikely and the latter has become all but inevitable. So it's time to focus on doing it well. One question that came up in the panel Q&A was this: what makes for a good cap-and-trade system? This subject is both enormously complex and enormously relevant to current politics. We need the grassr ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
|
|
Repetto argues for upstream cap-and-trade More on carbon trading |
Joseph Romm |
07 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| August is a time to catch up on reading. A good place to start is 'National Climate Policy: Choosing the Right Architecture' [PDF], by Yale's Robert Repetto, one of the country's leading experts on environmental and resource economics. He argues for an upstream cap-and-trade system, and against a safety valve. Other views can be found here, here, and here. This is Repetto's conclusion:It is extremely important that the U.S. adopt a good policy architecture for gr ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Pricing carbon Give away rights or sell them? |
Gar Lipow |
03 Aug 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Joseph Romm in his post on Dingell's carbon tax proposal says: Politically, you can't raise carbon prices high enough to raise gasoline prices since even $1 a gallon -- probably the minimum to significantly change fuel economy if Europe is any evidence -- would require a carbon charge of $400 per tonne of carbon -- which would be very harsh to coal, adding more than 10 cents per kilowatt-hour to coal electricity, and politically impossible (I'll post more on this late ... |
|
| Topics: carbon tax, carbon trading, climate, energy, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Economic effect of cap-and-trade: A wager Will you take it? |
David Roberts |
25 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| So, Reuters took a look at the EPA's economic analysis of the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act (so I didn't have to!). In case your memory is hazy, the CSA is a cap-and-trade bill that would cut emissions 65% by 2050. Here's the nut: The EPA found that the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 would shave up to 1.6 percent, or $419 billion, off a baseline forecast for U.S. gross domestic product in 2030 and up to 3.2 percent, or $1.332 trillion, by ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, legislation, politics, climate, energy, climate change mitigation (all these topics) |
|
|
Cost containment for the carbon market: A step toward cap-and-trade Moderate senators are ready to get on board |
David Roberts |
25 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| As Joe mentioned yesterday, four moderate-to-conservative senators -- John Warner (R-Va.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) -- just proposed a measure to achieve "Cost-Containment for the Carbon Market." I wanted to spend a bit of time on what's in it and what it means. You might think, given the business-friendly senators involved, that the measure's going to be a gimmick to let industries off the hook. Happ ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, energy, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Dick, Dick, Dick Just stay out of it, won't you? |
David Roberts |
23 Jul 2007 |
Gristmill |
| In an article about the Bush administration's halting, grudging baby steps toward maybe, somewhat, possibly considering the eensiest-beensiest mandatory restrictions on carbon emissions, perhaps, some day, if it doesn't cost any industry any money, we get this beautiful capper of a final paragraph: A number of big businesses, including some oil, chemical and utility companies, view a cap-and-trade system such as Europe's as inevitable. Opposition to caps -- led by V ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
|
|