Climate Change
Allowance distribution in California’s cap-and-trade program (Part I)
Yesterday, I described California’s GHG cap-and-trade auction and the likely constraints on the auction clearing price. Today I want to switch gears to the allowance distribution. As summarized in our recent paper on California’s auction revenue, once you know the number of allowances available at auction and the auction clearing price, you can estimate revenue. …
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CONTINUE READINGAuction prices in California’s cap-and-trade program
This week, the Emmett Center released a new paper on the potential legal constraints on revenue generated from California’s upcoming greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade auction. In that paper, we provide a general overview of the cap-and-trade auction mechanism and discuss the potential revenue raised. I would like to expand on that discussion in a series …
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CONTINUE READINGWill California’s cap-and-trade program get 85% of its reductions from offsets?
Will California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) cap-and-trade program meet 85% of its required reductions with offsets? That is the claim made in a complaint recently filed in a California Superior Court, seeking to throw out California’s offset regulations. (Citizens Climate Lobby v. CARB.) The complaint cites a NY Times article from 2011, in which someone from …
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CONTINUE READINGNew paper on California’s cap-and-trade auction revenue
The Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment has just released a new paper that describes how California law may limit the ability of California’s legislature to allocate revenue from the upcoming cap-and-trade auctions. Written by fellow bloggers Cara Horowitz, Sean Hecht, Ann Carlson and myself, the paper is titled Spending California’s Cap-and-Trade Auction …
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CONTINUE READINGBreaking Ice, Rising Waters
The latest issue of Nature contains an interesting article about climate change — not the current warming but the last one, at the end of the Ice Age. Here’s the editor’s summary: A rapid sea-level rise occurred towards the end of the last ice age, during an event known as meltwater pulse 1A. The precise …
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CONTINUE READINGWill California’s Cap and Trade Program Stimulate Innovation?
Holly’s latest post about a new study showing that cap-and-trade programs have not led to technological innovation ends with a cautionary note that raises the key question about innovation and cap-and-trade programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: These results [showing no innovation] don’t mean that cap-and-trade has no role to play in policies directed at climate …
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CONTINUE READINGPollution markets haven’t stimulated innovation
One of the early claims in favor of a cap-and-trade approach to pollution control, as opposed to traditional command-and-control innovation, was that market incentives would better encourage innovation in pollution control techniques and technologies. On the other hand, legal scholars such as David Driesen have long contended that pollution markets can actually reduce innovation incentives. …
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CONTINUE READINGEPA Unveils Carbon Standard for New Power Plants
This morning, U.S. EPA released its anticipated rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new power plants. The proposed Carbon Pollution Standard for New Power Plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act purports to set national limits on the amount of carbon pollution new power plants can emit. Today we’re taking a common-sense step …
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CONTINUE READINGWish-I’d-Said-That Department
Slacktivist (h/t RBC): The nefarious global conspiracy promoting the climate-change hoax continues to spread: The oceans are in on it. So are the maple trees of New England. And both Dakotas.
CONTINUE READINGDavid Owens Overstates the Rebound Effect’s Relevance
Here is an impressive blog post. I didn’t write it! Shakeb Afsah and Kendyl Salcito present a data filled post that takes David Owen’s Rebound Effect quite seriously. I respect hypothesis testing! Owen’s sexy hypothesis is that the Prius actually contributes to climate change! How could this happen? The Prius has such a high MPG that it effective …
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