Climate Change
Breaking News: California Chamber of Commerce Sues over AB 32 Auction
The California Chamber of Commerce has launched the first industry lawsuit against the auction portion of California’s cap-and-trade program on the basis that auctioning off allowances constitutes an unauthorized, unconstitutional tax. The complaint was filed today in Sacramento Superior Court and seeks to stop the auction and have the auction regulations declared invalid. The Chamber argues …
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CONTINUE READINGWhat Do You Do With a Supermajority? Be Very Careful!
As Cara observes, California Democrats seem to have achieved the unachievable in Sacramento — a 2/3 majority, allowing them to raise taxes without permission of the GOP. It’s not quite there, because a couple of state Senators were elected to Congress, and as soon as they take their seats, special elections will need to be …
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CONTINUE READINGMaking Climate Policy While Congress Sleeps
In our system of government, Congress is the institution with the greatest power to address issues of national importance. Unfortunately, Congress has been AWOL on the issue of climate change. The election has made it marginally more likely that Congress might wake up and take action on climate change, possibly even including a carbon tax …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change May Be More Severe Than Previously Expected
The Washington Post reports on a new study with grim implications about climate change. The study suggests that temperature increases by the end of the century will be at the upper end of predictions — 8°F. (Keep in mind that this is the global average — the change will be lower over the oceans but …
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CONTINUE READINGNate Silver Denialism & Climate Change Denialism
It’s perhaps unsurprising that some of the same people that deny the overwhelming data on climate change also happened to deny the overwhelming data presented by Nate Silver of the New York Times about the likely outcome of the election yesterday. Silver, the sports-statistician-turned-poll-analyzer, used aggregate poll data and analysis to show that Obama had …
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CONTINUE READINGMeanwhile, On Planet Moron….
The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 6, 2012
CONTINUE READINGClimate Denial and the Republicans: The Poor Man’s Anticommunism
Why is the Republican Party so wedded to climate denial? As Dan has noted, not a single Republican candidate in the 2010 Senate elections could acknowledge the reality of climate change. Shortly after taking the majority in the House, the House Energy and Commerce Committee declared climate change to be a hoax. But this seems …
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CONTINUE READINGAn Inconvenient Treaty
Should the U.S. join an international treaty to limit carbon emissions? The little-known answer: we already have. No, this wasn’t a secret Obama Administration initiative. The treaty was signed by none other than President George H.W. Bush. The treaty is called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change or UNFCCC. The word “framework” can …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Adaptation Heroes
Megan’s piece highlights that government may not be up to the job of helping us to adapt to “the new normal”. As the token economist here, permit me to celebrate competition as a friend of climate adaptation. Suppose that a coastal city doesn’t figure out how to adapt to climate change. The shocks to …
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CONTINUE READINGRewarding Climate Adaptation Heroes
Earlier this week, Mother Jones posted a piece on how the public rewards politicians for disaster response instead of disaster prevention: Politicians get much more credit for their reaction to disasters like Sandy than they do for trying to ensure disasters don’t cause so much damage in the first place. The post cites a 2009 …
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