When streamlining environmental review really means undermining it
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has unanimously endorsed S 601, the Water Resources Development Act of 2013. Although it's nice to see some bipartisanship in the capitol -- S 601 is co-sponsored by Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and ranking minority member David Vitter (R-LA) -- the bill as approved by the Committee would badly undermine environmental review of federally funded water projects under the guise of streamlining. Congress periodically...
CONTINUE READINGThe Case for Carbon Austerity
Many people are worried that a high national debt imposes a burden on future generations, though not all economists agree. But carbon emissions are also a burden on later generations -- the CO2 will stay in the atmosphere many decades to come, causing damaging climate change. If we're worried about burdens on later generations, is it better to use money to pay down the national debt or to reduce carbon emissions? The answer depends on how much it costs to reduce carb...
CONTINUE READINGMajor Progress on Climate Legislation
Well, I certainly didn't expect this one: Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) announced today that is reconsidering his long-held position that climate change represents "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." Oklahoma is currently suffering under the worst drought since the Dust Bowl, and thousands of farmers across the state have gone bankrupt. "The evidence is simply too overwhelming to reject," said Inhofe. "We talk a lot about protecting our gra...
CONTINUE READINGDomestic Manufacturing Worker Chemical Exposure and OSHA
We seek more manufacturing jobs in the United States and we want these jobs to be high paying and low risk. Is this "win-win" achievable? The NY Times has a long article about long term toxic exposure risk in North Carolina manufacturing plants. "A chemical she handled — known as n-propyl bromide, or nPB — is also used by tens of thousands of workers in auto body shops, dry cleaners and high-tech electronics manufacturing plants across the nation. Medical researc...
CONTINUE READINGThe Economic Approach to Handling Water Scarcity in New Mexico
The New York Times alerts its urban readers in the Northeast (including my Manhattan parents) about drought in the West and in particular in New Mexico. To an economist, its a pinch surprising that the vaunted Times doesn't mention the price of water in New Mexico. Being an adept user of the Internet, I spent 5 seconds searching and I found this valuable article about New Mexico water prices. If you scroll down to Table 1 on page 10, you will see that cities suc...
CONTINUE READINGWe Forgot The Horse!
It's been a while since we discussed Great Environmental Songs. But we missed an important one. In 1972, when I was seven, if your radio was not playing Don McLean's "American Pie," it was playing "Horse With No Name" by a new band called "America" -- a somewhat ironic name since the band was in fact from England. America was hardly a one-hit wonder, but that song is seared into my mind, especially its highly articulate refrain: "La-la-la la-la-la-la la-la-la LA-la....
CONTINUE READINGClear Views in the High Desert
If you are looking for a politically progressive city, Lancaster, California would not make it on your list. Located in the deeply conservative Antelope Valley of north Los Angeles County, it has attracted attention by, inter alia, 1) electing Pete Knight, one of the most vicious anti-gay politicians in the country, to a series of state legislative positions; 2) being sued by the NAACP for a pattern and practice of discriminating against Section 8 housing voucher reci...
CONTINUE READINGThe Demand for Temperate Climate and The Quality of Life Impacts Caused by Climate Change
Some good friends of mine have written an important paper on the economic costs of climate change with a focus on its impact on amenities and the "good life". In a nutshell, will San Francisco continue to be "San Francisco" as climate change plays out? What would we lose if it becomes Fresno? This is an academic paper written for other academic economists but I believe that a broad audience can skim the paper to get a better sense of how economists speak to ...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Adaptation and the Two Chinas (and the Two Brazils, and the Two Indias….)
The world used to be divided into developed countries and developing countries, but a third group has now taken the stage: emerging economies like China, India, and Brazil that are growing very rapidly but haven't yet attained developed country status. But development in these countries is uneven. In China, for example, there has been explosive economic growth in urban areas but the countryside still remains very poor. International climate law has long had the conc...
CONTINUE READINGIf It Quacks Like a Duck: Intermittent Renewables and the Grid
At an energy policy conference that I attended on campus recently, one of the speakers asked how many people in the audience were familiar with the Duck Chart. As someone who tries to stay on top of things in the energy world, I was surprised by how many people raised a hand to express familiarity with this thing I had never heard of. Fortunately, with the benefit of the Internet, I was staring at a duck-evoking image within a few minutes. It’s a bit of a Rorschach te...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
