Last week, I wrote a piece for the newspaper (adwalled) about the difficulties faced by greenhouse reduction advocates in New Mexico in getting their Western Climate Initiative legislation moving: The difficulty in passing legislation here is mirrored in other states. Efforts in Montana, Arizona, Utah and Washington, which are also part of the Western Climate …
Continue reading ‘Is the Western Climate Initiative tanking?’ »
Pietro Nivola at Brookings has a new discussion paper that provides, among other things, a useful discussion of where the American public is on climate change. Superficial polling suggests relatively strong support, but when you probe deeper, the cracks show: Majorities, in sum, dutifully nod at abstractions-for example, “doing more” to combat climate change. They …
Continue reading ‘People Seem to Favor Action on Climate Change Until….’ »
Sat down with my favorite search engine’s news goober this evening to see what’s up with cap-and-trade, and I can report that the sweep of coverage had a certain consistent flavor. Some representative headlines: US Might Not Benefit from Cap-and-Trade Cap-trade on carbon may push up costs Cap and Trade: A Huge, Regressive Tax Cap-and-trade …
Continue reading ‘My Random and Totally Unscientific Cap-and-Trade Headline Survey’ »
New Mexico’s cap and trade bill failed. What happens next?
From today’s business section (adwalled): “There is no bigger risk that can impact you long term in our business than climate change,” Sterba, chief executive officer of PNM, told the Journal in an interview.
Climate scientists, apparently, are a dour, grumpy bunch, while economists have the cheerful demeanor of a plucky role model heading enthusiastically into the future.* This, at least, is the impression left by Jean-Marie Macabrey’s account** of last week’s Cophenhagen climate fest: At the congress, it seemed that all the scientists had to share with their …
Continue reading ‘The Difference Between Climate Scientists and Economists’ »
Over on the work blog, I pronounce New Mexico’s Western Climate Initiative legislation not quite dead but almost.
Economist Edward Glaeser (based on work he’s done with Matthew Kahn) argues in the LA Times for the environmental benefits of relaxing anti-growth measures in Southern California’s temperate climes: Much of America struggles with cold winters and hot summers. Making such difficult climates comfortable for humans requires a lot of energy. By contrast, much of …
Via Green Inc., the answer (sorta) to a question I posed a while back: Shoppers sitting in their living rooms and ordering items like hair-dryers or cameras online used 35 percent less energy, the study found, than people who shopped the old-fashioned way. “Customer transport” — in other words, driving to and from the mall …
Clearing out some old piles of reading material, I ran across an old CBO report from a year ago on gasoline prices. It seems so long ago, my obsession with elasticities (short term and long) and the effect of rising energy prices on behavior large and small. Many drivers have responded to higher gasoline prices …