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Let’s call it pollution reduction, plain talk from Senator Kerry
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
So often politicians obscure their message with caveats, euphemisms and wonky references to elaborately named legislation.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) took the conversation a different direction yesterday when speaking to student activists assembled for an online teleconference Tuesday night sponsored by Consequence09.org.
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Tags: · BarbaraKesslerBlog, cap-and-trade, Carbon Emissions, Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, controlling carbon emissions, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, pollution reduction, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Sen. John Kerry
Poll finds that a majority of Americans support climate change regulation
From Green Right Now Reports:
A majority of Americans – about 75 percent – support regulating greenhouse gases from power plants, cars and manufacturing that would reduce global warming, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But only a bare majority – 52 percent – support a cap-and-trade approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and 42 percent oppose such a program, which is the type of approach taken in the Waxman-Markey climate legislation expected to be voted on in the US House of Representations, possibly Friday.
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Tags: · ABC News, Air Pollution, American Clean Energy and Security Act, cap-and-trade, Climate Change, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, poll, Washington Post, Waxman-Markey
Making sense of Waxman-Markey
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
The first full day of hearings on that proposed law known as Waxman-Markey, which would promote clean energy, foster green jobs and set up a system to curb greenhouse gas emissions, began today, fittingly, on Earth Day.
 But how do we make sense of this sweeping piece of legislation that affects everything from the air you breathe to the refrigerator you use? You could watch the hearings on C-Span over the next few weeks. (If you are unemployed, have all day long to plop in front of the tube and can remain alert for extended periods while people discuss abstractions like “carbon allowances” and “international offsets” this might be for you!)
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Tags: · American Clean Energy and Security Act, cap-and-trade, Carbon sequestration, clean coal, clean energy, Climate Change, economy, Emissions, Fossil Fuels, global warming, Green jobs, petroleum, Waxman-Markey
No math needed: A look at global warming by the numbers
By Laura Elizabeth May
Green Right Now
One
One degree Fahrenheit. On average, that’s how much the Earth’s temperature has increased over the past century, according to a report by the EPA. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that during the 21st century the global temperature will increase by 2-6° C.
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Tags: · 350, 350.org, Barack Obama, cap-and-trade, Congress, EU, global temperatures, hurricane katrina, James Hansen, Polar Bears, Renewable Energy, science, sea ice, The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, Waxman-Markey, Wind energy
Steelworkers, environmentalists call for carbon cap
By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Get ready for a new ad campaign pushing for a carbon cap. This one, though,  comes not from policy wonks in D.C., but is a direct appeal from the steel belt. And it will yank at your heart strings.
The United Steelworkers and the Blue Green Alliance, in partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund, have assembled four video spots featuring steel workers appealing for a carbon cap. Yes you heard that right.
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Tags: · Blue Green Alliance, cap-and-trade, carbon cap, Climate Change, Congress, Environmental Defense Fund, Pew Center on Global Climate Change, steel workers, United Steelworkers
Can cap and dividend fight global warming?
By Ken Miguel
KGO-San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — By 2011, California is expected to begin trading carbon credits on an open market. It is a potentially valuable commodity that even Congress wants a slice of. But what if they gave you cash instead?
Scientists increasingly say our planet is heating up largely because of carbon dioxide emissions.
Watch Now
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Tags: · cap-and-trade, carbon credits, Ken Miguel, KGO, Peter Barnes, San Francisco, Working Assets
University of Houston to train carbon trading experts
October 20th, 2008 · 1 Comment
By Julie Bonnin
The U.S. energy policy may be in flux and economic uncertainty at an all time high but a “cap and trade” policy on greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. is likely to be a major initiative not long after the upcoming presidential election.
While emissions offset trading is active in Europe and Asia, and some voluntary trading has begun in the U.S., American energy corporations are anticipating tougher emission reduction regulations and a corresponding need for traders, lawyers and other business people to work within the system as it evolves.
Thus far no one’s come out with “Carbon Trading for Dummies.” But the University of Houston, through a joint program of the C. T. Bauer College of Business and UH Law Center, will offer what is thought to be the country’s first comprehensive carbon trading course in spring of 2009.
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Tags: · cap-and-trade, carbon trading, Green jobs, University of Houston
Going, going, gone for first carbon credits
By John DeFore
The first-ever RGGI auction, which we reported on last week, has concluded, and now begins the long process of seeing how it works.
Critics are skeptical, saying the emissions caps were set too high and therefore led to allowance prices that were too low. GOOD Blog contributor Ben Jervey calls it a “doomed-to-failure program (or, at least, doomed-to-very modest success)” while allowing that it “will prove invaluable, mostly for the lessons learned from what goes wrong.”
But RGGI members, who never claimed they’d fix the world immediately, are taking a brighter view: The six states involved in the first round raised $38.5 million from the auction, money RGGI says they’ll invest in “energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies, and programs to benefit energy consumers.” That’s something by itself, even if it takes time for the cap-and-trade plan to have much impact on emissions.
The going rate for a single allowance, once the gavel fell, came to $3.07 per ton of emissions. All twelve million-plus of the allowances put up for sale were sold, not just to power-plant operators but also to financial and environmental organizations.
Fifty-nine buyers took part in the auction, presenting a demand (close to 52 million allowances) that was four times as much as the available supply. Maryland, putting the most allowances up for sale, took home a hefty $16.4 million. According to Deputy Director of Communications Dawn Stolzfus, the state passed a law this year to determine exactly how that money will be spent (even if the categories are broad) — allocating, for instance, 10.5% to “clean energy & climate change programs, outreach & education.”
The next RGGI auction is December 17, and they’ll be held on a quarterly basis for the next three years.
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Tags: · cap-and-trade, carbon credits, Carbon Emissions, RGGI
NE regional greenhouse gas initiative begins
September 26th, 2008 · 1 Comment
By John DeFore
This week, for the first time in the United States, an auction was held allowing power plants to bid against each other for the right to spew carbon dioxide into the air.
The goal, of course, is to reduce atmospheric carbon by finding the best way of putting a price tag on it for polluters. Ten Eastern states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (or RGGI, pronounced “Reggie”) to coordinate their efforts by placing mandatory overall caps on emissions levels, then auctioning off allowances for CO2 emissions that can be traded between companies. As a result, companies will have a financial incentive to clean up their own act as quickly as possible.
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Tags: · cap-and-trade, Carbon Emissions, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, RGGI, Rhode Island, Vermont
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