by Shelley Welton, Deputy Director In October, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released an interesting though little-noted report on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) energy efficiency and capital expenditures planning. The report does an excellent job of illustrating how even commendable efforts at energy efficiency can fall short if a […]
By Patrick Woolsey, CCCL Intern U.S. Government agencies have begun to incorporate consideration of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions into the environmental impact statements (EISs) which they are required to produce under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, federal agencies have developed widely varying procedures for addressing the […]
By Shelley Welton, Deputy Director An ongoing battle over the potential tensions between air quality regulations and electric grid reliability has picked up steam recently, as two EPA air pollution regulations near the implementation phase: the cross-state air-pollution rule and the mercury and air toxics standard. Congressional Republicans and many […]
By Julia Dobtsis JD Candidate, 2012 Cornell Law School On October 20, 2011, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) announced the adoption its long awaited Air Resources Board Emissions Trading Program. The state-administered program is the first of its kind in the nation. It is considered to be a crucial […]
by Shelley Welton Deputy Director & Fellow Despite mounting international opposition, EU leaders have remained resolute in their intentions to include international airlines in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme beginning in January 2012. The EU plans to begin requiring all flights taking off from or landing at EU airports to […]
by Shelley Welton, Deputy Director & Legal Fellow The question of how to regulate emissions leakage is at the forefront of policy makers’ minds in both California and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) states. A previous post described the problem of leakage; this post gives an overview of how […]
By Adam Riedel, Associate Director The U.S. Energy Information Administration has just published a new study, commissioned by Representative Ralph Hall (R-TX), Chairman of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, examining the climate and financial impacts of pursuing a national “clean energy standard” (CES).[1] Hall specified the structure of […]
by Shelley Welton Deputy Director Just as the Kyoto Protocol is near a moment of crisis (the Protocol’s first commitment period is set to expire in 2012 unless the parties reach an agreement to extend it at the upcoming Conference of the Parties in Durban, South Africa, this November-December), the […]