So much for “consensus climate solutions”
Our friend Jon Adler has taken many of us and most progressives to task for not pursuing "consensus solutions" to climate change. What might these consensus climate solutions be? Well, Jon insists that it would look something like a revenue-neutral carbon tax (such as is proposed by the superb Carbon Tax Center) instead of a "big government solution" like Waxman-Markey. I'm quite sympathetic to a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Unfortunately, Jon's allies on the right...
CONTINUE READINGA poor grade for California’s new Rigs-to-Reefs law
Ever gaze up from a Southern California beach and wonder about the fate of the oil and gas rigs dotting the horizon? Fellow blogger Sean Hecht has just published, with UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, an assessment of California's new law governing "rigs-to-reefs" conversions--and suggests that lawmakers have much more work to do to get rigs' fates right. AB 2503 authorizes the State, for the first time, to consider allowing oil and gas d...
CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and Providential Irony
Jed suggests that "the belief that climate change can’t be real because God made the earth for us to use is just one instance of a deep and old American practice of enlisting nature to uphold our cultural and political identities – to prove that the world is made for people like us." That may be what people believe, but if so, they have a lousy definition of their own relationship with God. The world can indeed be made for "people like us", but that hardly implie...
CONTINUE READINGWhose Nature? God, the GOP, and Everyone Else
Some Americans say they don’t believe in climate change because they believe in God – or, more exactly, because of what they believe about God. A few weeks ago, the New York Times quoted some Indiana Tea Party activists who explained that, because the world was created for human use and benefit, using its mineral wealth couldn’t possibly be harmful. Then a Republican would-be Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee turned out to believe that Noah’s ...
CONTINUE READINGGuest blogger Jed Purdy
We're pleased to host Professor Jedediah Purdy of Duke Law School as a guest blogger. Jed is an accomplished scholar and big thinker with a distinctive voice: in his own words, he is a "farm boy (providential laborer), high-country devotee (Romantic), law professor (progressive technocrat), and student of environmental problems." We've had only one guest blogger before - Ken Alex of the California Attorney General's Office - who posted about energy policy, renewabl...
CONTINUE READINGThe Four Corners Coal Plant and Regional Climate Policy
The results of the recent elections in California and elsewhere suggest that the Golden State may be flying solo for many years when it comes to regulating greenhouse gas emissions. While Congress and elected officials in most states have grown even more partisan and climate-theory skeptical, Californians have soundly rejected efforts to cut back on climate regulation. As a result, concerns about “leakage” are likely to grow. Leakage is the term often used to descr...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Cap-and-Trade Math
In late October, California Air Resources Board (CARB) released their draft regulations for cap-and-trade under AB 32. I looked at CARB's proposed allocations: the cap, the offset percentage, the reserve percentage and the projected emissions level. Running the numbers allows a few general observations: If covered emitters take full advantage of the 8% allowed offsets, the first year when emitters will need to reduce their actual business as usual (BAU) emissions i...
CONTINUE READINGUCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP): New interdisciplinary program of UCLA Schools of Law and Public Health
The UCLA Sustainable Technology and Policy Program (STPP) has just launched its new website. STPP is an interdisciplinary program based in the UCLA School of Law and the School of Public Health, with partners and affiliated faculty across the UCLA campus. The program's goal is to promote public health and environmental protection by developing and promoting hazard identification methodologies, alternatives analysis techniques, and innovative chemicals policies to ...
CONTINUE READINGMelting the Ice (But Not in a Fun, Life-of-the Party Way)
The Ny Times has a lengthy article about glacial melting and sea level rise, with bad news: But researchers have recently been startled to see big changes unfold in both Greenland and Antarctica. As a result of recent calculations that take the changes into account, many scientists now say that sea level is likely to rise perhaps three feet by 2100 — an increase that, should it come to pass, would pose a threat to coastal regions the world over. And the calculations ...
CONTINUE READINGWhy the Feds Should Pay the Administrative Costs of Implementing AB 32
There's been a lot of discussion of whether Prop 26 interferes with the use of fees to pay the administrative expenses for AB 32. I would like to suggest an alternative solution: the Feds should pick up the tab. This may seem a little far-fetched, given the current political situation, but it makes real sense in terms of policy analysis. The reason is simple: California's experiment with climate change regulation will produce valuable information that benefits the w...
CONTINUE READINGJoin Our Mailing List
Climate policy is changing rapidly. Stay in the loop with expert analysis via email Monday - Friday.
