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 […]
Energy
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 Daniel Firger Associate Director NOTE: This blog post is excerpted from a new report published on July 28, 2011 by the Columbia Center for Climate Change Law. The full report can be downloaded here (PDF). Coal is the most polluting fossil fuel, releasing far higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) […]
By Danielle Sugarman Fellow In a major setback in the effort to limit carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming, on July 14th, American Electric Power Company (AEP)[1] announced that it would be putting on hold its plans to build a full scale carbon capture plant at Mountaineer, a […]
by Hannah Chang A revised draft of the American Power Act (APA), a bill that was introduced by Senators Kerry and Lieberman in May 2010, surfaced earlier this week, on July 13. Although neither Senator Kerry nor Senator Lieberman have confirmed the validity of the circulating draft, it is thought […]
by Hannah Chang Black carbon (“BC”), a component of soot and particulate matter, competes closely with methane as the largest anthropogenic contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide. BC emissions primarily result from four sources: burning of residential fuels such as wood and coal; open burning of land, whether natural or human-induced; diesel […]
By Marne Sussman Within the past two years, two cities in the U.S. have passed ordinances mandating that existing buildings benchmark their energy usage. Benchmarking requires a building owner to report energy use data which can then be compared to data from buildings of a similar size and function and […]