Get Energy Smart! NOW!

This guest post comes from the eloquent and thoughtful Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse. After DC failed to enact comprehensive climate change legislation, it was good to see states take the lead on regional cap-and-trade programs. We now have 3 regional initiatives to address greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) involving more than 30 states. That so many […]

[Read more →]

If the US Senate has, collectively, any substantive understanding of science, concern about American security, and desire for American prosperity into the future, there will be climate legislation. Sadly, with Anti-Science Syndrome suffering Haters Of a Livable Economic Society dominating one of America’s two major political parties and with Climate Peacocks mewing their way around […]

[Read more →]

Senator Claire McCaskill, who has been anything but a shining star on thoughtful thinking for creating a prosperous and climate-friendly America, has let loose with another doozy. “I think it’s still a work in progress,” said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, who worries that a cap would be a loser for Democrats in November. “You know, […]

[Read more →]

“The Social Cost of Carbon may be the most important number you’ve never heard of” according to Frank Ackerman and Elizabeth Stanton in a recent publication from the Economics for Equity and the Environment Network. The Social Cost of Carbon (pdf) analyzes the efforts within the U.S. government to develop a value of the economic […]

[Read more →]

When seeking paths for creating an environment for a prosperous America in the reality of a carbon-constrained future, many see the most business friendly general approach as “Cap & Trade”. Society (politicians) determine a “cap”, a top level, of total emissions and then people (businesses) can buy and trade emissions totaling to that cap. This […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday, a lone Republican, Representative Ahn Cao, voted for the (very weak) House health care reform bill. I read the versions of the House [health reform] bill. I listened to the countless stories of Orleans and Jefferson Parish citizens whose health care costs are exploding – if they are able to obtain health care at […]

[Read more →]

There are many things being lost in the discussion of the cost-benefit equation when it comes to mitigating global warming. When doing cost-benefit analyses, organizations like the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are constrained to consider just one quadrant of what could be considered (in simplified form) the four-quadrant cost-benefit analysis […]

[Read more →]

Earlier this afternoon, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) held a press call to discuss climate legislation.  There were those who were holding their breath, seeing Alexander as moving toward supporting the legislation if it met his desires when it came to nuclear power development.  Based on this press event, it seems that they might be holding […]

[Read more →]

This is a guest post from NB41, who is top-notch in the wind energy world and on how to integrate renewable power into the energy system. Senator Kerry and Boxer introduced, yesterday, the Clean Energy, Jobs, and American Power Act. This bill is an alternative to/similar to the so-called ACES bill (Waxman-Markey Bill) which recently […]

[Read more →]

Well designed, a cap with a collar can be a truly gorgeous thing. To spark movement away from our carbon addiction, for business (financial) planning, and to gain enough support to pass climate legislation, any “Cap and Trade” structure almost certainly will have to have a “collar” to go with its “cap” on carbon emissions. […]

[Read more →]