Grist, making my case:
This may piss off some people I respect a great deal. Nonetheless, after hearing it in several off-the-record conversations in D.C. last week, I believe it's something that needs to be said publicly:
The 111th U.S. Congress is not going to pass a carbon tax. Calls for a carbon tax, to the extent they have any effect, will complicate and possibly derail passage of carbon legislation.
It's possible that a carbon tax (and/or cap-and-dividend) bill will be introduced. One or both might even make it to a full vote, though I doubt it. But they won't pass. If you want carbon pricing out of this Congress, cap-and-trade is what you're getting. It follows that your energies are best spent ensuring that cap-and-trade legislation is as strong as possible.
Them's the facts.
Continue reading "Carbon tax is a poison bill" »
Marc Gunther puts it best:
The very brainy people at McKinsey & Co. have figured out how we can to cope with global warming.
All we have to do is:
1. Make buildings, cars, trucks, trains planes and factories a whole lot more energy efficient.
2. Generate 70 percent of global electricity from low-carbon fuels, including wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and so-called clean coal which doesn’t (yet) exist.
3. Avoid the deforestation of 170 million hectares of forest, equivalent to twice the land area of Venezuela, and plant new forests on 330 million hectares of currently marginal land.
And what would that accomplish? Here’s what a new McKinsey report says:
Continue reading "McKinsey's crack at showing the world how to limit the damage from climate change" »
From the inbox:
Hello, Expert Reviewers of the Climate Change Science Program Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.1 - As you may know, the report you reviewed for us in the Fall of 2007, Coastal Sensitivity to Sea-Level Rise: A Focus on the Mid-Atlantic Region, was released on January 16, 2009.
...
The pre-layout version of the report is posted at
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/effects/coastal/sap4-1.html
Continue reading "I've been acknowledged!" »
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