Energy, Climate and the 2020 Election
The Green Old Deal
By William S. Becker Here is a question: To what extent is each Congress bound to honor the intentions of past congresses when they are expressed in the nation’s laws? The question is not academic. It has direct relevance to
Bad Move, Mr. Chairman
By William S. Becker The chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee had a difficult decision last week, and he blew it. Under pressure from other Democrats, Rep. Richard Neal disinvited a former Republican congressman who was going
Thoughts on a Carbon Fee
By William S. Becker Economists say it’s the most important single thing we can do to lower America’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal global-warming gas. Conservatives are said to like it because it engages market forces rather than
We Are Tearing the Web of Life
In just a few decades, we are likely to see many fewer species on the planet than we see today. That is the grim message in a May 7, 2019, report from the United Nations on the status of species
Real Referenda in 2020
By William S. Becker It appears that “socialism” will become the most overused word during the 2020 election season. It’s the label that President Trump is using, and that Sen. Mitch McConnell thinks other Republicans should use, against Democrats who
What is the Social Cost of Carbon?
Reprinted from MIT Technology Review By David Rotman In contrast to the existential angst currently in fashion around climate change, there’s a cold-eyed calculation that its advocates, mostly economists, like to call the most important number you’ve never heard of.
An Election Challenge: What’s Your Green New Roadmap?
By William S. Becker Yogi Berra is said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Lewis Carroll wrote, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Author Lou Adler
A Mission to Earth
By William S. Becker The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. That quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald is worth
What’s New?
Getting to 1.5C
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued a comprehensive analysis of different fiscal policies for achieving the goals of the Paris climate agreement. It assess the possible impacts of carbon pricing in the U.S. and other nations, as well as carbon-cutting options that would not raise consumer energy prices. It is a report that presidential candidates and members of Congress would do well to read.
Natural Sinks
If the United States is to achieve a net-zero carbon economy by mid-century, the restoration and care of soils, grasslands, forests and wetlands will be critical. The consulting firm Breakthrough Strategies and Solutions has issued a comprehensive guide on what must happen to maximize the use of these natural carbon sinks. Conservation and changes in land management can provide more than a third of the cost-effective mitigation the world needs to keep global warming below 2oC, the company says. The guide is written for philanthropies, but it contains idea for government policies, too.
Seamless Mobility
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities and the urban population is growing. McKinsey & Company offers a vision of what mobility could look like in cities of the future.
Legal Paths to Decarbonization
The Environmental Law Institute (ELI) at Columbia University is about to publish more than 1,000 specific recommendations for the municipal, state and federal laws necessary for the United States to decarbonize its economy and achieve the goals of the Paris Climate accord. More than 60 experts contributed to the book, titled “Legal Pathways to Decarbonization in the United States”. The editors are Michael Gerrard, Director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at the Columbia Law School, and John C. Dernbach, Distinguished Professor of Law at the Widener University Law School. The complete book is 1,100 pages. A shorter version can be downloaded here at no cost.
The Green New Deal
The Green New Deal is a proposal to make a rapid and comprehensive transition to a decarbonized economy, principally by shifting to 100% renewable power generation. Green groups have promoted the idea for some time, but one version is contained in a proposal by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democrat Socialist from New York who was elected to Congress last November.
Options for a Carbon Tax
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has issued a new analysis of different options for creating a carbon tax. Key issues for Congress, should it take up the issue this session (which it should), include how much the tax should be and how to use its revenues. The most disturbing fact in the CRS report: “…carbon tax analyses do not generally consider the benefits that would be gained by reducing GHG emissions and avoiding climate change and its adverse impacts.” That is information — the cost of doing nothing — that Congress must consider.
12 Years and Counting
Two reports issued last fall shook up the assumption that holding global warming to no more than 2oC above pre-industrial levels would be sufficient to avert catastrophic climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported that the much safer goal is 1.5oC.
Climate & Energy
New developments in climate science and the transition to clean energy.
Commentary
Latest news along with blogs by PCAP’s Bill Becker and other prominent commentators.
Kindred Groups & Resources
Other groups working on climate change and the clean energy transition, regardless of political affiliations, along with resources climate activists can use.
PCAP Archive
The most important of PCAP’s previous reports and studies.
“As we peer into society’s future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow.”
“We have, I hope, finally put to rest the false choice between the economy and the environment, for we have the strongest economy perhaps in our history, with a cleaner environment.”
“The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?”
“I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.”
“Laws change; people die; the land remains.”