Climate Change
The Best Defense….
Ann cautions about downplaying the findings that the IPCC report erred in predicting the melting of Himalayan glaciers by 2035, and in the resistance of researchers to respond to FOIA requests from a climate skeptic site. She’s right. We shouldn’t downplay the reports: instead, we should ridicule them. So the glaciers won’t actually melt by …
Continue reading “The Best Defense….”
CONTINUE READINGBad Few Months for Climate Science
The bad news for efforts to persuade the public and policy makers that climate change is happening and is human-caused continues. Since the revelation that hackers were circulating emails from climate scientists from the University of East Anglia, two new developments promise to stoke skepticism about climate science and scientists even further. The first is …
Continue reading “Bad Few Months for Climate Science”
CONTINUE READINGExtreme Events
I spent yesterday at a conference at RFF on managing “tail risks” — the low-probability but extreme events that are on the tail of the probability distribution. Some probability distributions have what are called fat tails, meaning that the extreme events are more likely than you would expect from a normal distribution. One way of …
Continue reading “Extreme Events”
CONTINUE READINGThe Obama Administration’s Push for High-Speed Rail
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJhM3BpBPp8] Fresh from a State of the Union Address that focused heavily on domestic economic issues, President Obama and Vice President Biden journeyed to Tampa, Florida last week to announce federal support–and $8 billion in government funding–for high speed rail projects across the country. That’s a most welcome development. American train buffs who’ve traveled in …
Continue reading “The Obama Administration’s Push for High-Speed Rail”
CONTINUE READINGUS reportedly submits Copenhagen Accord pledge today
Reuters is reporting that the US has officially notified the UN today of its intention to associate itself with the Copenhagen Accord negotiated at last month’s FCCC Conference of Parties. No surprises in the content of the pledge: Todd Stern, the top U.S. climate negotiator for the Obama administration, also gave notice that, as expected, it will …
Continue reading “US reportedly submits Copenhagen Accord pledge today”
CONTINUE READINGObama’s SOTU speech on climate change
Last night, President Obama devoted a chunk of his state of the union speech to climate change and energy issues. He focused on the economic benefits of making our society more energy efficient and bringing more renewable power on-line, particularly the job-creation potential. Surprisingly, he didn’t mention the national security benefits of reducing our dependence …
Continue reading “Obama’s SOTU speech on climate change”
CONTINUE READINGThe Corporate Side of Climate Change
I was surprised a few years ago when one of the speakers at a conference on climate change turned out to be a lead partner at a Wall Street law firm who counseled corporations about disclosure of climate risks. He may have been just a few years ahead of the curve. According to E&E News, …
Continue reading “The Corporate Side of Climate Change”
CONTINUE READINGPriming the Political Pump for Climate Legislation
Dan, Rick, and Jonathan have all discussed the implications of the political events of the last week for climate change policy. Certainly, it seems clear that both from a vote-counting perspective and from a political momentum perspective, the special election last week made passage of a climate change bill through the Senate generally harder. And …
Continue reading “Priming the Political Pump for Climate Legislation”
CONTINUE READINGMurkowski May Have Another Tactic to Defeat Climate Change Legislation
As Holly previously described, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) has introduced a resolution to express disapproval over the EPA’s greenhouse gas endangerment finding. Murkowski is also considering a different tactic to wreak havoc with efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She may introduce an amendment to the Senate bill to raise the debt ceiling. The amendment would force an up or …
Continue reading “Murkowski May Have Another Tactic to Defeat Climate Change Legislation”
CONTINUE READINGMurkowski seeks to block EPA GHG regulation
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has introduced a resolution under the Congressional Review Act to disapprove EPA’s Clean Air Act endangerment finding for greenhouse gases, which in turn would remove the basis for Clean Air Act regulation. It’s not going to pass or be signed by the President, of course, but the resolution is designed to …
Continue reading “Murkowski seeks to block EPA GHG regulation”
CONTINUE READING