Research and commentary by Tim Benson A bill introduced in the Washington House of Representatives would give the state Department of Ecology (DOE) the authority to create either a carbon-dioxide tax or cap-and-trade system, or both, in the Evergreen State. If passed, DOE could establish each program without any sort of legislative approval. “Department of…
Guest essay by Eric Worrall Chilling mission almost complete press release from the United Nations. UN CLIMATE PRESS RELEASE / 29 NOV, 2019 COP25 to Be the Launchpad for Significantly more Climate Ambition Bonn/ Madrid, 29 November 2019 – As the global climate emergency intensifies and greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow, governments will gather in Madrid…
Guest nostalgia by David Middleton When writing my last post on Nancy Peolosi’s Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, I ran across this gem… CLIMATE 7 years later, failed Waxman-Markey bill still makes waves Amanda Reilly and Kevin Bogardus, E&E News reporters E&E Daily: Monday, June 27, 2016 It’s been seven years since the House passed…
Guest essay by Larry Hamlin, Existence of humanity rests on extending Governor Brown’s cap and tax law. Just watch Jerry Brown in his rant over the issue on July 14th: California Governor Brown presented testimony in hearings where he demanded that the California’s cap and tax law which is the centerpiece of the state’s…
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I’ve crossposted this from my blog, “Skating Under The Ice“. The unscientific enterprise called the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is a thinly disguised political attempt to justify some kind of a “carbon tax”. Of course calling it a “carbon tax” or the “social cost of carbon” is doublespeak, or…
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I see that Andrew Revkin continues to try to keep the climate pot bubbling. In this case, he’s issued dire warnings about reducing the so-called “Social Cost of Carbon” (SCC). He starts by defining the SCC This value is the government’s best estimate of how much society gains over the…
Guest essay by Eric Worrall Remember back when Australian voters thought they were electing a government which was committed to abolishing carbon taxes? The following are the words of Australia’s Environment Minister Greg Hunt, who under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott vigorously opposed carbon pricing; Environment Minister Greg Hunt says he will likely allow the…
Guest essay by Eric Worrall Back in 2009, Obama said that his energy plan will cause energy bills to skyrocket. In 2015, Obama says his energy plan will save you money (from 14:45) The following is a condensed version of the relevant parts of the speeches (note the full 2015 speech contains additional material of…
OPINION By Craig D. Idso, Ph.D. In his State of the Union address, President Obama advocated an energy policy aimed at reducing emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), which he claims are causing catastrophic changes to the earth’s climate and “harming western communities.” In his policy prescription, the president advocates a combination of increased regulation of…
From Reuters (h/t to reader John) U.S. justices to hear challenge to Obama on climate change Tue, Oct 15 11:06 AM EDT By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a blow to the Obama administration, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a challenge to part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s first wave…
While the EU carbon trading market began its death spiral this week, much like the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) where it ended up at a nickel per ton when the exchange died and closed per good, CARB’s director, Mary Nichols, is obliviously pushing forward with the cap and trade program for California. But wait there’s…
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach President Obama continues his Global War on Cheap Energy™, this time under the guise of avoiding “spikes” in gasoline (petrol) prices. He wants to pass gas without regrets and move post-haste to electricity and biofuels, although both are more expensive than gasoline and diesel for road and rail transport. According…
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach I was reading an interview with Adrian Bejan (worth taking a look at), and I got to musing about his comments regarding the relationship between energy use and per capita income. So I pulled up GapMinder, the world’s best online visualization software. Here’s a first cut at the relationship between…
From the I’ve been telling you so for some time now department comes this headline from Bloomberg. And it is getting desperate in the carbon market. Readers may recall last week I reported two new record lows on the EU carbon price, where Friday saw a 10% drop in a single day to add to…
Guest post by Ric Werme Things have been pretty quiet in the northeast’s the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). New Jersey has gotten out and remains out, New Hampshire didn’t get out, but most of the money collected will be going back to ratepayers. Between the recession and the collapsing price of natural gas, electric…
John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, writes on his Facebook Page: I will be presenting a skeptical report on the new California Cap and Trade law on the KUSI News at 6 PM and 10 PM today. It will be posted on the KUSI.com webpage shortly after it is telecast. . In connection I…
Strong headline, I know, but I didn’t believe this was true until I researched it myself. First some background; I once served as an elected official on my local school board. During orientation and virtually every annual CSBA meeting after that, along with numerous public meetings and letters to the editor where people constantly reminded…
Thousands Petition Gov. Brown To End Cap And Trade By Amy Quinton, California Capitol Network Californians Against Higher Taxes and business groups delivered the petitions against what they call an illegal and hidden energy tax. The cap and trade program would limit greenhouse gas emissions by requiring polluters to purchase pollution credits at auction.
Well, duh. From the DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory New research suggests cap and trade programs do not provide sufficient incentives for innovation Cap and trade programs to reduce emissions do not inherently provide incentives to induce the private sector to develop innovative technologies to address climate change, according to a new study in the journal…
From the University of East Anglia some news that a Major shake-up of carbon markets is called for. To that I ask: what carbon market? Seems they are pretty much DOA now. Research from the University of East Anglia calls for a major shake-up of carbon markets Research from the University of East Anglia and…
When you can’t sell this on the green left coast, you know its gotta fail worldwide. Gotta love this quote, one of the best denials of reality I’ve ever seen:
While California has committed economic suicide with their ridiculous carbon trading plan that nobody wants, Maryland seems to think that magically, green jobs and non baseload power sources will “improve reliability” of electric power. From my perspective, seeing how well such ideas have worked out elsewhere, they are living in la-la land. They should ask…
A mass exodus of business and jobs out of California will be the likely result of this madness. From the San Franscisco Chronicle:
From the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research a call to bring on the carbon trading and other tools. Of course, its all just modeling again. 09/19/2011 – To cost-effectively protect the climate, not only an emissions trading scheme but also financial support for new technologies is needed. Economising on targeted funding, for example for…
Guest post by Ric Werme Too long title: New Hampshire stays in, NJ probably gets out, 3rd quarter auction sells less than 18% of allowances, secondary market moribund, RGGI soldiers on. RGGI is short for the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, America’s premier Cap and Trade program serving higher electricity bills to everyone in ten northeast…
It was essentially dead when we announced on WUWT Chicago Climate Exchange(CCX) was halting carbon futures trading last year. Note the flatlined final price of 5 cents per ton: My only question now is “what took them so long”? From the Wall Street Journal: ICE to Close Chicago Climate Futures Exchange CHICAGO—IntercontinentalExchange Inc. told traders…
Guest post by Ric Werme Ten state RGGI Region It’s time for an update on the efforts of states interested in leaving RGGI, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. RGGI is a Cap and Trade system set up by ten northeastern states to reduce CO2 emissions by 10% by the year 2018. In the past year…
Guest post by Ecotretas CO2 tumbling down Once upon a time, carbon trading was supposed to be the salvation for Earth’s climate problems. But as time went on, people started realizing that something was wrong. As usual, financial markets anticipated the move. Late last year, US carbon trading crashed. Two weeks later, it closed. In…
The northeast US’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative sells CO₂ allowances through quarterly auctions. The intent is that both electric power producers will buy some because they have in order to emit CO₂, and speculators will buy some in hopes of selling them later to power producers that didn’t plan well and are willing to pay…
Guest Post by Ira Glickstein What should a responsible Skeptic say to an astute audience? When recently invited by the “Technology, Engineering, and Science Plus” group in my community to give a talk and answer questions, I knew I would have an attentive room of tech-savvy professionals. However, they might not be fully tuned in…
In a press conference moments ago in Trenton, Gov. Christie announced his support for repealing the state’s cap-and-trade law and withdrawing from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a 10-state regional compact in the Northeast that implements a cap-and-trade energy tax scheme from Maine to Maryland. “It’s a failure,” Christie said today. “RGGI has not…
Time to get outta Dodge:
Back from the brink A sudden outbreak of sanity seems to have taken hold Canada. Firstly the idea of a carbon tax appears to have been killed off for good: Conservatives kill carbon tax Conservatives have kiboshed a carbon tax, Environment Minister Peter Kent confirmed Thursday. “It’s off the table,” he told reporters Thursday after accepting…
(Aside to non-USA readers: my apologies for all the two character state abbreviations, especially NH which here does not mean Northern Hemisphere! RGGI is our Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a Cap and Trade program in the northeast USA.) I wasn’t expecting to create a full post today after the New Hampshire senate Energy and Natural…
The New Hampshire House of Representatives, the third largest legislative body in the world, voted yesterday to end the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative cap-and-trade program. The House voted 251-108 after less than 5 minutes of debate to repeal the law under which the state joined RGGI. A number of Democrats refused…