Earlier this week, Curtis Brainard at CJR’s The Observatory wrote an excellent appraisal of the cacophonous debate over the Waxman-Markey climate bill. Brainard neatly summarized the two contradictory narratives and the main protagonists. To help navigate what Andy Revkin recently called “the fog of climate policy,” Brainard suggests that newspaper editorial boards should be weighing…Continue Reading…
The indispensable one, boxed into a corner by Roger Pielke, Jr., and The Breakthrough Institute, does something rare: Yes, my thinking on rip-offsets has evolved, primarily because I have spent the last few months talking to leading experts, domestic and international, including the chief climate negotiator for a major European country. As one reader to…Continue Reading…
Sure, Waxman-Markey has left the station, and that’s going to be reason enough for cap and trade fence-sitters to hop on. But as Grist’s Kate Sheppard reminds us, the ride is going to get pretty rough, with plenty of agonizing stops along the way. So with that in mind, if anybody wants to hop off,…Continue Reading…
If all the main players and policy instruments in the congressional debate over climate change were represented in a demolition derby, here’s what it might look like: In a brand new Lexus GS, a Democratic politician (Waxman-Markey) is behind the wheel, clumsily groping at an anorexic cap and trade bill in the front passenger seat….Continue Reading…
If you thought the debate over cap and trade legislation (as embodied in the Waxman-Markey bill) was already overheated, ridiculous, and divisive, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The real fun begins today, with amendment madness unleashed by the Republicans. That will amount to little more than a sideshow, but as the markup process plays out…Continue Reading…
What I like most about the folks at Real Climate is that they’ll engage their adversaries. And these exchanges reveal an important dimension to the climate debate. So with that I recommend this seething caldron, where Gavin Schmidt and Chip Knappenberger go mano a mano over the latter’s economic assessment of the Waxman-Markey bill.
Imagine that: an actual debate on the merits of cap and trade versus a carbon tax breaks out in the blogosphere, courtesy of James Hansen. That doesn’t hurt so bad, does it Joe?
Nothing bugs me more than when so-called progressives have their own litmus test on political issues. In the last two days, blogger Joe Romm has taken his fellow climate advocate, Jim Hansen, to the woodshed (see here and here), because of Hansen’s vocal opposition to cap and trade. One irony is that Hansen, in this…Continue Reading…
So is this what it comes down to in environmental debates, who is more successful at manipulating the public? As the N.Y. Times reports, EcoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. Among…Continue Reading…
This morning, Michael Shellenberger assessed the cratering political landscape for cap-and-trade legislation, and his analysis strikes me as an accurate picture of where things stand now. Among the many he took to task was the President: If there is a strategy coming from the White House, it’s not obvious what it is. Well, a few…Continue Reading…