cap-and-trade

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A new report released this week by the Legislative Analyst’s Office recommends that the California Legislature develop a comprehensive strategy for meeting the state’s energy efficiency and alternative energy goals. Included in the report are recommendations for the state to specify its energy efficiency and alternative energy goals, determine how programs should fit together to achieve the state’s goals, and clarify how to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs.[read more]

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Chris Christie removed New Jersey from the Northeast's Cap-and-Trade Initiative - will he now pay the price?[read more]

As Grist’s David Roberts might remind us, Bob Inglis’ recent climate change commentaries are a throwback to an era when policy and appeals to self interest had a role in national politics. A year after reasoned debate abruptly surrendered to unhinged anti-environmental sentiment, Bob Inglis’ perspective is barely heard by the most vocal members of his Republican party, for whom “policy [is] merely an instrument to reinforce the status quo and punish out-groups.”[read more]

Jeffrey Sachs spoke at the Future of Energy public lecture series at Harvard University. He called for an epistemic community, composed of academics, engineers and researchers to come up with a technically detailed, scientifically based plan on how we will decrease our carbon emissions over the next 50 years. He motivated this call by detailing our government's failures to act and the inherent difficulties of the climate problem.[read more]

"Energy Innovation 2010" keynote presentation delivered by Nobel laureate physicist Dr. Burton Richter on December 15, 2010. (Richter's Keynote begins at 5:56 in the video below)   I have been asked by the organizers to be provocative at this discussion of energy innovation - the more provocative the better, I was told. So far, the...[read more]

This being the night before Christmas, the question of what the advanced battery industry should ask for from the Administration and the Congress in 2011 strikes a certain cord. Old St. Nick, it seems, is still in a giving mood, but finds himself short of funds. Here is my list for Santa:[read more]

As the new UK government passes 100 days in office, it is clear that one issue high on the agenda of the Department of Energy and Climate Change is the shape of the power generation sector and its investment strategy. Both an Emissions Performance Standard and a carbon floor price are proposed to help chart the future.[read more]

Now that Obama has officially opened the door to alternatives to the conventional cap and trade framework, Congressional Democrats are finally willing to admit the policy is dead and focus on finding an economically and politically viable Plan B. According to E&E (subs. req'd), efforts to formulate that Plan B have just begun and...[read more]

Cap and trade didn't make the cut in President Obama's address to the nation earlier this week regarding the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon offshore oil spill. As Breakthrough Senior Advisor Teryn Norris noted: Instead of using last night's prime-time opportunity to push cap and trade in the form of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power...[read more]

  Last week, 41 Republican senators and six Democratic Senators voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from unilaterally regulating carbon dioxide emissions on up to six million businesses around the country. I was among the 47 votes, because I believe Congress, not an administrative agency, should be writing the laws...[read more]

By Teryn Norris Cross-posted from Americans for Energy Leadership The biggest news from President Obama's Oval Office address is that cap and trade legislation is probably dead for the foreseeable future, and the administration is seeking new ideas. Instead of using last night's prime-time opportunity to push cap and trade in the form...[read more]

Cross-posted from Roger Pielke Jr's Blog. The Financial Times has a realistic and sobering article [subs. req'd] on the state on international climate negotiations: Christiana Figueres startled delegates when she addressed the United Nations climate conference in Bonn last week: "I do not believe we will ever have a final agreement on...[read more]

I have spent very little time on this blog delving into the US political debate about climate policy.  Frankly, in the short to medium term, it doesn't matter very much for security policy what any nation does.  Most scientists say that we're locked-in for the next 30 years or so with an escalating concentration of carbon and...[read more]

Not only did Lindsey Graham (R-SC) withdraw from talks surrounding a climate and energy bill eventually released by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) in early May, yesterday he announced that he wouldn't vote for the legislation should Kerry and Lieberman successfully bring it to the Senate floor. Graham cited...[read more]

Costs, risks, and lack of a price on carbon all play in their decisions Two of the nation’s largest nuclear utilities are sounding a retreat from building new nuclear reactors in the near-term. In separate speeches Entergy (NYSE:ETR) CEO J. Wayne Leonard and Exelon (NYSE:EXC) CEO John Rowe said they do not want to take the risk of...[read more]