Climate Change
The Climate Gamble
Paul Krugman has a review of a new book by William Nordhaus about climate policy. By way of preface, I should say that Nordhaus is not particularly popular with environmentalists, who have generally considered him as too conservative in his policy recommendations. Nordhaus does, however, more or less define the mainstream view — he’s very …
Continue reading “The Climate Gamble”
CONTINUE READINGMore Musings on the Cert Petition Grant in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case
Does Regulating Greenhouse Gases Lead to Absurd Results and What Happens Once the Court Rules?
In follow up to my early morning post of this morning, here are a couple of additional points. 1) A related but different argument petitioners are making about why the PSD provisions don’t apply to the regulation of greenhouse gases is that the application of the provisions would lead to absurd results. The absurd results …
Continue reading “More Musings on the Cert Petition Grant in the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case”
CONTINUE READINGDenial As a Way of Life
Climate denial is closely related to debt-ceiling denial.
As it turns out, many of the same people who deny that climate change is a problem also deny that government default would be a problem. No doubt there are several reasons: the fact that Barack Obama is on the opposite side of both issues; the general impermeability of ideologues to facts or expert opinion; …
Continue reading “Denial As a Way of Life”
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Review of Free Trade Agreements
Why aren’t we talking about climate change?
Last week, the period for public comment on an interim environmental review of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement closed, marking perhaps the last significant opportunity for public input on the environmental impacts of the proposed agreement. The review was conducted to identify potential environmental effects of the TPP, as required by an Executive Order …
Continue reading “Environmental Review of Free Trade Agreements”
CONTINUE READINGThe New IPCC Assessment, Carbon Budgets and the Role of the U.S.
National Academy Study Used the Carbon Budget Approach Taken in New IPCC Report to Show How the U.S. Could Limit Emissions
Today’s major environmental news is, of course, the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report addressing the physical science basis for climate change. The findings are strong and alarming: warming of the climate system is unequivocal and unprecedented; atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions “have increased to …
Continue reading “The New IPCC Assessment, Carbon Budgets and the Role of the U.S.”
CONTINUE READINGToday’s House Subcommittee Hearing on Climate Change
President Obama’s recent announcement on climate change irritated some in Congress—but we didn’t need a hearing to find that out.
Today, Republican leaders in the House Energy and Power Subcommittee called a hearing to discuss climate change. Has the Right suddenly taken an interest in responding to climate change? As you might anticipate, the answer is no. The hearing, entitled “The Obama Administration’s Climate Change Policies and Activities,” focused on attacks to the President’s Climate …
Continue reading “Today’s House Subcommittee Hearing on Climate Change”
CONTINUE READINGWhy coal cares about FERC
I’ve written before about how fossil fuel industries have a strong incentive to kill (or at least stop the rise of) renewable energy now, so that it doesn’t become a powerful political force. If renewable energy does become a strong enough political force, then there is a risk that it might provide support for ending …
Continue reading “Why coal cares about FERC”
CONTINUE READING(Tentative) ruling in cap-and-trade case looks good for CA: ARB has auction authority
It’s never over till it’s over, but for now California is breathing a little easier as it defends its cap-and-trade allowance auctions from two high-profile industry challenges. The cases, which Ann has discussed here and here, were filed by the California Chamber of Commerce and the Pacific Legal Foundation, and they make both statutory and …
CONTINUE READINGClimate change and insurance
I’ve made this point before, but here’s a challenge for “climate skeptics.” The insurance industry is a competitive, profit-oriented industry. They should have little room for believing in the hoax of climate change: After all, if they did, then a smarter competitor wouldn’t bet on climate change and would clean their clock. And yet, in …
Continue reading “Climate change and insurance”
CONTINUE READINGRoping in the GOP on conservation
In few policy contexts has the right’s shift rightward been more apparent, over the last few decades, than on environmental issues. Not that long ago, environmental values fit nicely within the GOP. Teddy Roosevelt created the national parks; the National Environmental Policy Act, one of our mainstay federal environmental statutes, passed the Senate unanimously, won …
Continue reading “Roping in the GOP on conservation”
CONTINUE READING