From Clean Air-Cool Planet's Policy Center
If there were a price on carbon, what should we do with the proceeds?
Clean Air-Cool Planet believes that putting a price on carbon would help reduce future fossil fuel pollution by unleashing the free market's potential to expand energy efficiency and low-carbon energy.
In order to assure that more accurate carbon pricing does not slow the economy or generate inequities for those least able to pay, the greatest portion of the revenues generated by such a tax should be "recycled" to reduce other distortionary taxes, and returned to people, for example, through reductions in payroll and corporate taxes.
Fostering International Climate Solutions
New Report Issued by Aspen Institute
The Aspen Institute’s Commission on Arctic Climate Change publicly launched its final report, "The Shared Future,” at a March 16, 2011, Washington, D.C. event headlined by the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Dr. Jane Lubchenco. Brooks Yeager, CA-CP’s Executive Vice President for Policy, a senior policy advisor to the Commission, also spoke at the event.
The eight Arctic nations – Canada, Denmark (for Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the U.S., are discussing Arctic policy in a series of meetings of the Arctic Council this year, including a meeting of Foreign Ministers in May. CA-CP has previously worked with the Arctic Council to help launch an initiative to reduce black carbon and other pollutants that accelerate climate change. The Commission’s recommendations include a call for a new “Arctic Marine Conservation and Sustainable Development Plan” to meet the twin challenges of regional climate change and increasing economic pressure on the resources of the Arctic Ocean. The Commission also urges strengthening governance and management institutions such as the Arctic Council, enhancing cooperation among Arctic nations, and using ecosystem-based management to improve the conservation of Arctic wildlife and fisheries. The report also calls for enhancing the participation of the region’s indigenous people in decision-making, and encourages the development of an “Arctic network” to make information and policy-making more open to input from all levels of society.
Read the report, view coverage of the report and launch event by National Geographic, or learn more at www.arcticwarming.net.
Global Methane Initiative
New Declaration Issued by Mexico City
Clean Air-Cool Planet applauds the leadership of Mexico and the United States in launching, with 15 other nations, the Global Methane Initiative in Mexico City."This effort is the best news since Copenhagen" said Rafe Pomerance, Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow at Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP).
The US Delegation played a major role in bringing governments together to attack the global problem of methane, which ranks second to carbon dioxide (CO2) in importance as a greenhouse gas causing global warming.
View the Methane to Markets Partnership Ministerial Declaration
View the Terms of Reference For The Methane To Markets Partnership
Short Lived Forcers: A Response to a Warming Arctic
Information on Federal Legislation from CA-CP
CA-CP Offers Resources on Federal Climate Legislation
The American Power Act, submitted by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, is the latest entry in the effort to get national climate-and-energy legislation on the books. Clean Air-Cool Planet is no stranger to the process, having worked for many years with members of Congress and their staffs developing elements of climate legislation to give a bill an efficient and effective architecture Đ one that will work to reduce greenhouse gases at the lowest possible cost and one that will pass. A number of the provisions CA-CP has developed or championed over the years, such as a price collar and revenue recycling, are gaining favor and under serious discussion in bills under consideration.
For an up-to-date report on the status of climate legislation, we invite you to contact Dr. Andrew Maguire in our Washington office (amaguire@cleanair-coolplanet.org) or Roger Stephenson in our Portsmouth, NH office rstephenson@cleanair-coolplanet.org).
Clean Air-Cool Planet is engaged in daily conversations with business and community leaders in key states, organizing information sessions and symposia
As additional resources for individuals and organizations following the issues, we offer the following documents explaining the concepts behind legislation. A letter to key Senators we co-authored last summer with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute makes several policy proposals for consideration by the Senate. We feel it now offers a likely view of the direction of the development of legislation.
Letter to Senators Baucus, Bingaman and Boxer [PDF, 49 KB]
We’ve summarized key provisions of a successful bill in this fact sheet:
What would a successful climate bill look like? [PDF, 30KB]
One of the best ways to control the cost of allowances and energy:
The Benefits of Using a Price Collar [PDF, 75 KB]
Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act
Full Statement by Clean Air-Cool Planet --
CA-CP applauds steps toward effective federal climate legislation,urges Senators to collaborate on enhanced bill based on CLEAR Act.
Clean Air-Cool Planet - the leading science-based, bipartisan non-profit organization dedicated solely to delivering solutions to global warming - applauds Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman for their American Power Act (APA) proposal, another step in designing legislation that will transform America's energy future and help tackle the global climate crisis. We also thank Senator Lindsey Graham for his early leadership in developing this proposal.
Clean Air-Cool Planet continues to believe that a credible and durable program must be the product of a bipartisan effort. In addition, the program must incorporate important components, including a true price collar to limit volatility and support clean energy investment, significant recycling of revenues to most Americans, and up-stream, economy wide regulation. In addition, to be sustainable over the long term, the program must be simple, efficient, fair, transparent, comprehensive and achieve the required carbon reductions.
Starting from an earlier bipartisan proposal, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America's Renewal (CLEAR) Act introduced by Senators Maria Cantwell and Susan Collins, we urge Senators Kerry, Lieberman, Cantwell, and Collins to agree on an acceptable package of complementary provisions that could be added to the CLEAR Act. The CLEAR Act incorporates a true price collar and revenue recycling, and meets other standards for a real and lasting climate change program.
Learn more in CA-CP's fact sheet on effective federal legislation.
SENATOR COLLINS AT CA-CP HOSTED FORUM
Senator Susan Collins(R-ME) gave an excellent presentation of the Cantwell-Collins climate bill at a public forum on April 20 co-hosted by CA-CP and Washington’s premier political/policy publication, the National Journal.
Among the key points made by Collins:
“We would rebate to the consumer 75% of the revenues. That is far more attractive to the American people and helps to protect vulnerable and low income households.”
“Our bill calls for 100% auction of all these allowances. It’s an upstream cap, rather than a downstream cap, so it’s not imposed on every factory that emits pollution. Instead it goes to the source…”
“I’m not much interested in having the American consumer subsidize a hundred billion dollars annually in fees in Wall Street to create this new market… So, we have come up with an approach that instead of cap-and-trade is cap-and-rebate, or cap-and-cash, since the money will largely go back to the consumers.”
“An advantage of the Cantwell-Collins, over the House bill, is that it has a price collar, and that means there is predictability among the business community – that means investments can be made knowing there won’t be this huge volatility in prices. That’s really important going forward as far as minimizing impact on the economy.”
“I view this as jump-starting the clean energy revolution in this country, creating thousands, millions of clean energy jobs and preserving Americans’ lead in this area... We can’t lose our technological edge -– clean energy, jobs, and helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
At the forum both Sen. Collins and Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) signaled their support to bring an energy-only bill to the Senate floor and then hold a debate on legislation that prices carbon emissions. Said Collins: “It makes sense to start with the bill that has the most support and that may well be the legislation reported by the Energy Committee.”
Clean Air-Cool Planet has sent a letter to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) and Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-IA) recommending that the committee hold hearings on the Cantwell-Collins bill, which has been referred to the Finance Committee.
Happy About Homestar
The Obama Administration’s Homestar program, sometimes referred to as “Cash for Caulkers,” is based on improving energy efficiency. The program identifies supplies and systems that save energy over time. The program makes homeowners eligible for an immediate 50 percent rebate for an energy efficiency upgrade, up to $3000 at the point of purchase.
Forty percent of our nation’s energy usage is for homes and buildings; as the President noted in his remarks announcing the program in Savannah, GA, “this is a common-sense approach that will help jumpstart job creation while making our economy stronger.”
The $6 billion "Cash for Caulkers" program will provide instant rebates to homeowners who make their homes more energy-efficient by installing new windows, doors, insulation and other materials that reduce energy use and carbon emissions. While primarily designed to help consumers themselves, the Homestar program will have a positive financial impact on manufacturers, investors, and vendors who are currently providing and installing these materials.
The Senate Energy Committee will review legislation and legislative proposals on the Homestar program on Thursday, March 11, 2010.
CA-CP’s PLI report, Building a Foundation for Success: Recommendations for Early Action on Climate Change, recommended a national effort be initiated to retrofit half of America’s existing homes and buildings by 2020 with an average energy savings of 30 percent. To date, electricity demand has risen by more than 50 percent since 1980 in the commercial and residential sectors, exposing many Americans to changing electricity prices and also increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Most of this rise in demand is for power for buildings – homes, offices, and factories.
Investing in building energy efficiency now will save up to half the cost of producing the same power from a new power plant. Thus, a national effort to drive energy efficiency will cut costs for those that retrofit, and lower electricity costs for all by avoiding the construction of new and expensive polluting power plants. In addition, it will create jobs, especially in the hard-hit home construction industry, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
To read “Remarks by the President on Energy Efficiency in Savannah, Georgia at Savannah Technical College” click here.
From page 23 of CA-CP’s report, Building a Foundation for Success: Recommendations for Early Action on Climate Change:
"Initiate a national effort to retrofit half of America’s existing homes and buildings by 2020 with an average energy savings of 30%. To date, electricity demand has risen by over 50% since 1980 in the commercial and residential sectors, exposing many Americans to changing electricity prices and also increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Most of this rise in demand is to provide power for buildings – homes, offices, and factories. Investing in building energy efficiency now will save up to half the cost of producing the same power from a new power plant. Thus, a national effort to drive energy efficiency will cut costs for those that retrofit, and lower electricity costs for all by avoiding the construction of expensive new polluting power plants. In addition, it will create jobs, especially in the hard-hit home construction industry, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
Reflections on the Climate Change Challenge
after Copenhagen
Brooks B. Yeager, Executive Vice President for Policy
Amid the catcalls and the legitimate disappointment felt regarding the outcome of the recent two week diplomatic extravaganza in Copenhagen, it’s easy to overlook the one fact that makes what has come to be known as the “Copenhagen Accord” a significant step forward -- it’s the first truly global program of action to deal with climate change. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was just that – a framework. The Kyoto Protocol was an action program, but only for the developed world (minus the U.S.), although it included mechanisms by which the well-off countries could fund emissions reductions in the developing world and the emerging economies of post-Soviet eastern Europe. Read the full article.
Related Article: How will the Copenhagen Accord Affect the Challenge of Invasive Species?
On Jan. 11, 2010 during Invasive Species Awareness Week, Executive VP Brooks Yeager gave the keynote address at the National Invasive Species Council annual meeting. Read the full address here.
New Climate Legislation Introduced in Senate by Cantwell, Collins
Senators Maria Cantwell (D) of Washington and Susan Collins (R) of Maine have introduced new climate legislation, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act. The bill is a cap-and-trade proposal regulating greenhouse gases from fossil fuel combustion that would reduce emissions by 83% by 2050. The legislation includes a price collar that escalates over time, beginning with a floor price of $7 per metric ton of CO2e and a ceiling price of $21 per metric ton of CO2e. The bill requires that 100% of the allowances be auctioned and 75% of the auction revenue be given as a monthly dividend to legal residents of the US, with the remaining 25% of the revenues spent on specified R&D, investment, and measures designed to compensate for higher energy prices.
"We applaud Senators Cantwell and Collins for their legislation,” said Rafe Pomerance, senior fellow and former president of Clean Air-Cool Planet. “The Cantwell-Collins bill contains significant protection for consumers and an effective and efficient design for achieving emissions reductions. They have included provisions for real cost containment by including a price collar and established provisions to return auction revenues directly to consumers. Their legislation can be the basis for a broad-based, bipartisan effort to find a solution for cap-and-trade legislation that can garner the necessary support in the Senate and ultimately in a conference with the House."
For further information, visit our cap-and-trade resource page.
