Environmental Economics
The cromulent economics blog
recent posts
Category: Cap-and-Trade
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The "conservative" carbon tax proposal seems like a long time ago: A little over a year ago, 195 countries signed on to the historic Paris Climate Accord to limit global warming pollution. This year, the United States pointed a loaded gun at its own foot, and President Trump pulled the trigger, announcing he will withdraw from…
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Climate federalism: Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday directing regulators to formulate rules cracking down on electricity sector carbon emissions. The order requires state officials to convene a working group on carbon emissions and issue a report by the end of the year on potential regulations to limit power plant…
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Charles Komanoff (of the Carbon Tax Center) at The Nation: Carbon-tax haters can relax. The proposal for a national carbon tax released on February 8 by high-level Republicans, including über-GOP consigliere James Baker, isn’t going anywhere. Financially and ideologically, the American right is wedded to carbon fuels. Trumpism runs on and reeks of them. Predictably, not…
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Strategic retreat or minimizing cost hassle? With little warning or explanation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently canceled a major climate change conference that had been scheduled for next month in Atlanta. The Climate and Health Summit, which had been in the works for months, was intended as a chance for public health…
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Curious and Curiouser: When Patriot filed for bankruptcy in 2015 — its second time in three years — environmentalists and regulators were prepared for the company to figure out ways to shunt liabilities and maximize returns. But no one could have envisioned what happened next. Patriot handed over millions of dollars of environmental obligations to…
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I do and was reminded again this week: Eight years ago, when Mr. Obama ran for president against Senator John McCain of Arizona, both men had essentially the same position on global warming: It is caused by humans, and Congress should enact legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions and force polluters to buy and trade…
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Michael Wara, Adele Morris and Jerry Taylor: California’s cap-and-trade program to restrict greenhouse gas emissions has hit a major political roadblock. Extending the current program beyond its 2020 expiration most likely requires new action on the part of the Legislature, and majority support looks dubious. And even a majority might not be enough. Many legal and…
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Meredith Fowlie (Time to unleash the carbon markets): This preference for using prescriptive policies –rather than market mechanisms- to coordinate abatement helps explain why carbon prices are so low. Some simple graphs summarize the basics behind this cause and effect. In the cartoon graph below, each colored block represents a different abatement activity (e.g. coal-to-gas…
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Definition: The act of doing something you know you'll regret immediately after. "I always knew it was a terrible idea to vote 'leave', I guess I was just behaving British." And seriously, how will this affect the EU ETS? Did they ever think of that? No, the big stupidheads.
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Mark Thoma on "the conservative bias in economics": I have a new column: Yes, Nick Kristof, There Is a Conservative Bias in Economics: Nicholas Kristof recent reignited the debate over liberal bias in academia with his claim that “universities risk becoming liberal echo chambers and hostile environments for conservatives.” He does single out my profession, economics,…
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