In my discussion yesterday of the shortcomings of the Climate Superfund Act, I actually ignored arguably its biggest flaw. While the Act certainly looks much like a tax, I failed to point out that the Act omits what is...more
Yesterday, the plaintiffs prevailed in the Montana climate litigation. Time will tell whether the decision will end up being seen as a watershed moment or just a blip. In trying to answer that question, it does seem worth...more
I’ve posted previously about the importance of extreme heat among the impacts of climate change. Much of the popular literature focuses, rightly, on the public health impacts. Without at all minimizing the public health...more
On July 16, 2023, Climatewire (subscription required) released a peer review letter on EPA’s Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (SC-GHG), which got a fair bit of press last year, because EPA’s metric was $190/ton, even though...more
The International Energy Agency has released its 2022 Coal analysis and forecast. It is sobering. By the time 2022 is over, world-wide coal consumption will have exceeded 8 billons tonnes for the first time. In other words,...more
Earlier this week, the Senate ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The amendment, which has already been ratified by most other countries, will result in the phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons, a group of...more
The IPCC has released its Sixth Assessment Report on the physical science basis of climate change. I would say that it makes sobering reading, except any sane person’s immediate response to AR6 would be to go out and have any...more
Boston’s Green Ribbon Commission has just released Carbon Free Boston, which outlines a pathway to a carbon-free city by 2050. It’s a thoughtful and careful report. My immediate reaction was two-fold. Of course we have to do...more
1/30/2019
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Electric Vehicles ,
Energy Reform ,
Energy Sector ,
Global Warming ,
Green Buildings ,
Green Energy ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Innovation ,
Landfills ,
Oil & Gas ,
Renewable Energy ,
Transportation Industry
Two reports crossed my desk this week that, together, made me wonder if we’re finally nearing the tipping point on climate change belief in the United States. First, Yale and George Mason released Climate Change in the...more
Governor Baker announced on Friday that, as part of his FY 2020 budget, he would be proposing to increase the real estate excise tax in order to fund the Global Warming Solutions Trust Fund. The Governor stated that, in the...more
1/21/2019
/ Carbon Taxes ,
Climate Change ,
Excise Tax ,
Global Warming ,
Governor Baker ,
Homeowners ,
Property Owners ,
Real Estate Market ,
State Budgets ,
Tax Increases ,
Tax Rates
According to Greenwire (subscription required), EPA has acknowledged that it possesses no records providing a factual basis for claims made by Scott Pruitt that GHG emissions are not a primary contributor to global...more
The Washington Post reported this week that Utqiagvik, Alaska (formerly known as Barrow), has gotten so warm, so fast, that NOAA’s computers can’t even believe it. The data for Utqiagvik (that’s hard to type!) were so high...more
On October 12, 2016, the Energy Information Administration reported that “Energy-related CO2 emissions for first six months of 2016 are lowest since 1991.” The EIA gave three reasons for the drop in CO2 emissions. ...more
10/13/2016
/ Carbon Emissions ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Coal ,
Energy Policy ,
Global Warming ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Hydropower ,
Renewable Energy ,
Solar Energy ,
Wind Power
The City of Boston has just released its “Climate Projections Consensus.” It’s not a pretty picture. Here are the lowlights...more
On Tuesday, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that MassDEP had violated the Global Warming Solutions Act by failing "To promulgate regulations that address multiple sources or categories of sources of greenhouse gas emissions,...more