NewsRack: 'Cap and Trade' news in 'Climate Change' topic for user demo

International cap-and-trade expanding	11.4.2013	Guardian: Environment
Groundswell of interest from countries such as China and Korea looking to develop carbon emissions trading markets Nascent carbon emissions-trading exchanges in several countries are increasingly looking at options to interlink with one another, which advocates say would offer investors long-term stability, increase revenues for the development of renewable energy and strengthen corporate support for climate policy. Yet critics warn that so-called cap-and-trade systems are inefficient and create incentives for polluting industries to continue with business as usual. They also warn that the new systems in the United States are dependent on mechanisms that adversely impact on poor and indigenous communities in developing countries. "I've been incredibly struck at the recent groundswell of interest by countries – including China and Korea – looking to develop carbon markets," Harinder Sidhu, an Australian civil servant, said Wednesday at a panel discussion here. "It's very apparent that ...
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Full Transcript and Audio of Mitch McConnell Campaign's Meeting on Ashley Judd	9.4.2013	Mother Jones
More Mother Jones coverage of Mitch McConnell and the 2014 Kentucky Senate race. On February 2, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate GOP leader facing reelection next year, held a private meeting at his Louisville, Kentucky, campaign headquarters with several aides to discuss opposition research collected on his potential challengers and how best to defeat possible foes. Much of the conversation focused on actor/activist Ashley Judd, who at the time was the most prominent of McConnell's potential Democratic opponents, and McConnell and his aides considered assailing Judd for her past struggles with depression and for her religious views. (Judd has since announced she will not run against McConnell.) Mother Jones has obtained a recording of the meeting. Here is the article based on the recording. Below is a complete transcript of the recording. Sen. Mitch McConnell: If I could interject…I assume most of you have played the, the game Whac-A-Mole? [ Laughter. ] This is the ...
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Real market forces now drive climate action	21.3.2013	Guardian: Environment
After years of frustration, circumstances are shifting from a global climate treaty serving as the sole impetus Fifteen years after the Kyoto protocol was signed and just months after being extended , a true global carbon trading marketplace may finally be within the world's grasp. It is as though a line of dominos has suddenly appeared, awaiting the slightest push to set off a chain reaction. When the dominos begin to fall, the world will suddenly have a powerful and effective tool to reduce carbon emissions, one of the most environmentally destructive aspects of modern human activity. The largest source of carbon emissions – about 45% of all emissions globally – are electricity generation power plants that burn fossil fuels. The idea behind emissions trading – the political shorthand has become "cap and trade" – is that mandated carbon emissions limits will drive a robust market as cleaner plants seek to sell their unused allowances. Dirty power plants have to pay cleaner power ...
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Sally Jewell, R.E.I. Chief Executive, Appears Before Senate Panel	8.3.2013	NY Times: Washington
Sally Jewell, the chief executive of R.E.I., told senators that she believes that climate change is real but was noncommittal on other subjects.
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Could Chris Christie Bring the GOP Around on Climate?	19.2.2013	Mother Jones
Chris Christie, the combative Republican governor of New Jersey, thinks that climate change is a problem and humans are causing it. "Climate change is real... [and] impacting our state," he said in August 2011 . "Human activity plays a role in these changes." Christie hasn't shown much willingness to act on the issue: in the same speech, he announced he was pulling New Jersey out of a Northeastern regional plan to cut carbon emissions. But in simply acknowledging that climate change is not some liberal conspiracy, Christie is standing out from the GOP pack. He's a popular Republican with national ambitions who seems to recognize the threat. That's raised a question among some hopeful activists: Can Chris Christie shift the politics of climate change? If Christie decided to lead on climate, he wouldn't be the first New Jersey Republican to do so. Tom Kean Sr., the Republican governor of New Jersey from 1982 to 1990, was one of the first politicians to pay attention to climate change as a threat. ...
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If He's For It, I'm Against It	12.2.2013	American Prospect
Over the past few years, folks like me have pointed out many times that Republicans have, almost as one, changed their minds on the wisdom of a number of important policies, for no apparent reason other than the fact that Barack Obama embraced them. The most notable ones are "cap and trade," which used to be a conservative way to harness the power of markets to address climate change, but then became a sinister government power grab to force everyone to huddle in the cold as the useless solar panels on their roofs provided only enough power to run a tiny hotplate; and the individual health insurance mandate, which used to be a Heritage Foundation-crafted idea to use the power of markets to achieve universal private insurance coverage and avoid single-payer health care, then became the greatest threat to freedom the world has seen since Joseph Stalin was laid to rest. Yet for all the (deserved) ridicule, there's something almost rational lying underneath these changes in position. While it's ...
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Should we stop worrying about the environmental impact of flying?	31.1.2013	Guardian: Environment
A University of East Anglia economist has provoked debate by arguing that flying within Europe has 'no impact on total emissions' It's long been a mantra among green-minded folk that greatly reducing - or even cutting out altogether - flights is an important step towards leading a carbon-lite lifestyle. After all, aviation is the fast-growing source of anthropogenic greenhouse gases, as well as being the most polluting form of transport per passenger kilometre travelled . I have, quite literally, written a whole book on the subject. But this has always been a hard sell. The modern era of "cheap" flights has rapidly allowed a generation (well, more accurately, a wealthy quotient within it) to become, some would say, "addicted" to the hypermobility that aviation allows: a weekend break in Prague; weekly commutes across continents; long-distance relationships; second homes located close to regional airports. Understandably so, people have sought all manner of ways to justify their flying, or, ...
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Op-Ed Contributors: Northeast Faces Stark Choice on Climate Pollution	25.1.2013	NY Times: Editorials
The future of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a market-based cap-and-trade system, is in question.
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Obama signals renewed push on climate change in Inaugural speech	22.1.2013	Denver Post: All Political News
President Barack Obama's high-profile shout out to solving the climate change crisis in his second Inaugural address Monday signals a renewed push nearly four years after "cap and trade" legislation failed miserably in a friendlier Congress.
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MPR News Primer: Climate change	10.1.2013	Minnesota Public Radio: News
The atmosphere is warmer. But is that a problem? Is global warming simply a temporary, cyclical phenomenon or evidence of a slow motion crisis? How much of what's happening can be traced to humans and their industries? What, if anything, should be done to stop climate change? Is climate change real?
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Cap and trade dividend for ratepayers	21.12.2012	SFGate: Business & Technology
Cap and trade dividend for ratepayers Twice each year, all California households will collect a small "climate dividend" from money raised by the state's new global warming cap-and-trade system, utility regulators decided Thursday. The system caps greenhouse gas emissions in California and forces companies to buy permits to release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. By placing a price on emissions, cap and trade will probably lead to higher prices for electricity and gasoline. State officials wanted that money - estimated to range from $5.7 billion to $22.6 billion over the next seven years - used to cushion the impact that cap and trade might otherwise have on electricity bills.
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California faces carbon conundrum	7.12.2012	SFGate: Business & Technology
California faces carbon conundrum Left for dead years ago, the idea of taxing greenhouse gases has sprung back to life in Washington, as politicians look for ways to tackle global warming and tame the deficit. The state has taken a different approach to fighting global warming, last month launching a cap-and-trade system in which companies buy and sell the right to pump greenhouse gases into the air. Many Republicans, doubtful about climate change, remain adamantly opposed to the tax, saying it would do little more than raise gasoline and electricity prices. Differing approachesWith cap and trade, the government sets a limit on the amount of greenhouse gases the economy can produce, lowering that limit year by year. The system promises specific cuts in greenhouse gas emissions - something a tax can't do. [...] the process of trading emission permits, called "allowances," provides flexibility to the business community. Cap-and-trade systems, in contrast, are fiendishly complex, full of rules ...
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James Hansen blasts cap and trade	6.12.2012	SFGate: Business & Technology
James Hansen blasts cap and trade Many environmentalists were thrilled last month when California launched its cap-and-trade system to rein in greenhouse gases. The system, in which companies buy and sell permits to produce greenhouse gases, is a "half-baked" and "half-assed" way to deal with global warming, Hansen said. Hansen, who leads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was there to receive the Commonwealth Club's annual Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communications. The award, named after a Stanford University professor who died in 2010, goes to scientists who make significant contributions to the public discussion of climate change. Hansen argued for taxing carbon pollution and returning the money to taxpayers, an approach often called "tax-and-dividend." Do that, and the private sector will quickly find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, he said. ...
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Public Opinion Has Moved on Climate Change. Will Obama Follow—or Fiddle?	3.12.2012	Mother Jones
Climate change's single appearance in the presidential debates was, well, anticlimactic. At the end of the second bout, after the candidates sparred interminably over whose love for fossil fuels was greater, moderator Candy Crowley said she'd decided not to call on an audience member who wanted to ask about global warming. "I had that question, all you climate change people ," she said. "We just, you know, we knew that the economy was still the main thing." Can Obama and Congress fix the climate? Come to our Climate Desk Live event in Washington, DC on Tuesday, December 4th to find out. More info and RSVP here . And there it is, everything you need to know about the Beltway mindset in one compact little diss. Climate change has been demoted to special, you-people interest on the order of, oh, animal testing or nuclear disarmament. Important, sure, but not like the things that grown-ups care about, like whether America can afford another nickel at the pump. Or, for that matter, whether Joe ...
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10 Easy Ways to Avoid the Fiscal Cliff	28.11.2012	Mother Jones
Although you might never know it from listening to politicians in Washington, America isn't broke. We have plenty of money to pay for government programs—we've just gradually lost our ability to collect it because our government is controlled by special interests and ossified voting blocs. Here are 10 smart ways, most of them long favored by liberal economists, that we could avoid the fiscal cliff's $1.2 trillion in trigger cuts (and then some), if only our politicians had the vision and courage (a.k.a. spine) to try them. Stop giving investors a sweetheart deal Additional revenue : $533 billion over 10 years Low tax rates on capital gains are the main reason that billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett pays a smaller percentage of his income in taxes than his secretary does. In 2003, Congress capped the rate on capital gains (investment income) at 15 percent—far less than the 35 percent that people pay on their salaries. Tax hawks like to argue that raising the capital gains ...
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Cap and trade may be plum for homeowners	17.11.2012	SFGate: Business & Technology
Cap and trade may be plum for homeowners California residents would see no net increase in their monthly utility bills as a result of the state's new cap-and-trade system to fight global warming, under a proposal issued Friday by state regulators. [...] the system would actually pay residential customers a small dividend, with the money drawn from the power plants, factories and other facilities that pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Cushion the impactState legislators had already decided that most of the money raised by selling off the utilities' allowances should be returned to the utilities' customers in some form, to cushion the impact that cap and trade might otherwise have on electricity bills. The state's investor-owned utilities, such as Pacific Gas and Electric Co., received a total of 65 million allowances to sell in Wednesday's auction. While California officials want businesses to cut greenhouse gas emissions, they don't want to drive those businesses out of the state. "On ...
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Nov. 17 Readers' letters: Gen. David Petraeus, California's cap and trade and the value of bike lanes	17.11.2012	San Jose Mercury News: Letters
Letters from Mercury News readers.
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State voters support cap and trade	16.11.2012	LA Times: Business
State voters support cap and trade
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California to Polluters: Go Green or Pay Up	14.11.2012	Mother Jones
Los Angeles Ben Amstutz "Cap and trade" may be a dirty expression inside the DC Beltway, but as of today in California it's the law of the land. Gov. Jerry Brown has brushed aside dire warnings from the fossil fuel industry to forge ahead with the state's first-ever auction of emissions permits under its groundbreaking climate law, AB 32. This morning's auction marks the official launch of the world's second-largest carbon market. At heart, the concept is elegantly simple. Suppose you wanted to persuade a group of 10 pack-a-day smokers to cut back, and you controlled the cigarette supply. In the beginning, you'd provide the group with 200 cigarettes (10 packs) a day, which they'd have to bid for. That's the "cap." Then, each month, you would reduce each person's daily allottment of smokes, gradually lowering the cap. The people who managed to smoke less could sell their extras to the more hard-core smokers for whatever they were willing to pay. That's the "trade" part. Continue Reading ...
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Calif. to officially launch greenhouse gas system	13.11.2012	Twincities.com: Nation
SAN FRANCISCO—California's largest greenhouse gas emitters will begin buying permits in a landmark "cap-and-trade" system designed to control
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