cap-and-trade

California Air Resources Board releases draft cap-and-trade plan

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) today released the preliminary draft cap-and-trade regulation. CARB staff would like to have comments by January 11th of next year. A new proposal based on the comments will then be issued in Spring 2010. Some quick key points: 1) The proposal limits a covered entity’s use of offsets to …

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A Lot of Hot Air

One of the arguments that pro-“cap and traders” like to make against a carbon tax is that the outcome of a tax is too uncertain.  Like Goldilocks, you may end up with a tax that is too weak or too strong.  If it’s too weak, the desired environmental emissions targets may not be met; too …

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To auction or not to auction

In the comments to a recent post, Red Desert raises a good question about the application of cap-and-trade to greenhouse gases. Red points to this report in The Wonk Room of a letter signed by 14 Democratic senators asking that the leadership “ensure that emission allowances allocated to the electricity sector – and thus, electricity …

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Environmental “Poetry” (Yet Again)

There once was a coal company, Which fought cap-and-trade mightily. “Costs too much,” they complained, “Emissions can’t be contained, Or our profits will face jeopardy.” There once was a scientist (or two), Whose work couldn’t pass peer review: “It’s all cosmic rays, Or perhaps high-level haze, Or something else besides plain CO2.”

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Optimism on a Climate Bill?

At least, optimism  seems to be the White House message, according to a TPM report: On Friday the president urged speed in the broader shift in U.S. energy priorities and said he believed lawmakers — many of whom are skeptical of the energy bill — are following. “It is a transformation that will be made …

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More Environmental “Poetry”

A couple of ditties sent to us by some friends: There once was a climate denier Who said, “Let the carbon go higher. From the facts let us run, ‘Cause coal’s cheap by the ton, And who cares if the planet’s on fire?” There once was a man named Inhofe, Whose knowledge of science was …

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Jackson Announces Proposed New Stationary Source Rules for Greenhouse Gases

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, speaking at the California Governor’s Global Climate Summit, has announced a proposed new Clean Air Act rule requiring new and modified stationary sources to install the best available control technology to control greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).  The text of the proposed new rule can be found here. According to a press release about …

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Duke Energy Leaves ACCCE But Who Remains?

Duke Energy, one of the largest electric utilities in the midwest and southeast and a prominent memeber of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership,  announced this week that it has quit the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.  ACCCE, as it is known, is a trade group recently exposed as the front group that sent bogus letters on …

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An Indian Cap-and-Trade System?

Well, here’s something potentially significant: India has approved in principle new trading plans centred on energy efficiency as part of efforts to shift to a greener economy to fight climate change, opening up a potential market worth more than $15 billion by 2015. … The plan involves creating a market-based mechanism that would allow businesses …

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Specter on Board for Climate Legislation

Grist reports that Senator Specter says that he will vote for cloture and expects to support climate legislation on the merits.  This is a shift from his position last year.  That’s one step closer to sixty votes.

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