Climate Change
Obama to Go to Copenhagen
Greenwire reports; President Obama will attend U.N. global warming negotiations in Copenhagen on Dec. 9, according to a White House aide. The White House also confirmed today that Obama will propose that the United States plans to curb its emissions by 2020 in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels — which is the …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Climate “Partnership” with India
At least that’s what the White House is calling it. (Okay, okay: technically, the White House calls it the “Green Partnership to Address Energy Security, Climate Change, and Food Security.”). Does it mean anything? Maybe. Essentially, it provides for some technical assistance to improve governance capacity and scientific knowledge, and some new initiatives to foster …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia 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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CONTINUE READINGWar Tax=Carbon Tax
Congressman David Obey yesterday called for a war tax to pay for troops in Afghanistan. While the idea of a war tax makes all the sense in the world (if health care can’t add to the deficit, why should our wars?), Obey’s proposed tax on upper-income earners is aimed at the wrong source. Instead of …
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CONTINUE READINGA 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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CONTINUE READINGUpdate on DeChristopher trial
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson has ruled that Tim DeChristopher, the student who bid on federal oil and gas leases to protest global warming, cannot present a necessity defense in his criminal trial. The decision is not a surprise. The necessity defense typically faces a high bar in US courts, which require that the defendant …
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CONTINUE READINGEverything You Always Wanted to Know About China But Were Afraid to Ask
As President Obama heads to China, the World Resource Institute has launched a very interesting new website devoted to China, energy, and climate change. The chart above is an example of the kind of information on the website. Notice for example the important role of manufacturing emissions on the Chinese side versus transportation emissions on …
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CONTINUE READINGTo 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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CONTINUE READINGMore on the recent Pew poll and on debating the science
My colleague Steve Weissman writes well here about the recently released Pew poll on Americans’ beliefs about climate change. Like Steve, I find the most troubling statistics from the poll to be the plunging numbers of people who seem to believe the underlying science. This is from Pew’s write-up: 57% [of all respondents] think there is solid evidence that the …
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