The European Union’s carbon emission cap and trade policy is a colossal failure. It’s failure has not only been well documented, but has also been admitted by key EU climate leaders. When the EU tried to address the failure of their cap and trade system the price of carbon only fell further and by the end of 2007, EU carbon emissions had only risen again. At the core of cap and trade’s failure is the impossibility of verifying reductions in carbon to the point that they can then be commodified. …
Environmentalists had a busy month trying to force federal government action on global warming. In the Senate, Environment and Public Works Committee chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) grilled the Interior Department over delays in deciding whether or not to list the polar bear as an endangered species. In the courts, some liberal state AGs and activist groups sued the EPA in federal court for their decision to seek public comment on whether or not carbon emissions qualified for an endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act. One wishes they would try …
There’s plenty of anger at major oil companies right now, especially in Congress. But does acting on that anger make for smart energy policy? Will it lead to the kind of measures likely to bring down high pump prices? The answer is a clear no, and in fact there’s a strong track record showing that Washington’s “stick it to big oil” instinct ends up hurting consumers instead. Judging by the rough treatment given to oil industry executives by Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence …
The Lieberman-Warner (S.2191 – America’s Climate Security Act) could cost the United States between 1.2 and 1.8 million jobs by 2020, according to a study conducted by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). An estimated 3 to 4 million jobs could be lost by 2030. The goal of Lieberman-Warner is to cap-and-trade man-made greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in the United States at the 2005 level of emissions by 2012 and subsequently lowers the cap between 2012 and 2050. Under the bill the EPA would be responsible for allocating emission allowances and …
Possibly the scariest outcome from Super Tuesday is that the top three candidates to become president all support a cap-and-trade approach to global warming. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are all smart and capable leaders, but they also have been completely engrossed in White House politics for more than a year. Hopefully when they have the time to examine recent evidence they will reject their current proposals, which include costly carbon limits that will harm our economy without positively affecting the climate at all. …
On energy and environment, the President offered no big policy changes for his final year, and in particular declined to endorse any major climate change legislation targeting greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Such cap and trade bills would do more economic harm than environmental good, and it is best that this administration run out the clock on them rather than try to win 11th hour plaudits from environmentalists. Those environmentalists will certainly be displeased and criticize Bush for not doing enough. But the President is continuing with a number …
