My latest post at the Energy Collective

Titled "The costs (and benefits) of climate change policy -- without all the hoopla" begins list this:

If you are tired of all of the nonsense about the recent climate nonsense (SuperFreakonomics, Climategate) and want to read something reasonable about climate change economics, try the latest CBO Economic and Budget Issue Brief [PDF] titled “The Costs of Reducing Greenhouse-Gas Emissions.” If you aren’t into 12 pages of summary of economic models here is a summary on the CBO Director’s Blog. Or, you can read this post for my summary of the summary.

That said, here is my short and sweet summary, with all of the CBO caveats and other sensitivities left out. Incentive-based policy:

1. … would change people’s behavior (a lot).
2. … is cheaper than command-and-control.
3. … revenues don’t much matter (in terms of #1).
4. … would lower overall economic activity (a little).
5. ... also creates benefits.

Read the whole dang thing for some explanation of 1-5 (as if you haven't heard it before around here).