Green Economy, Climate Change Debate Could Turn Out Differently This Time

Move over Renewable Energy, the Republicans are back. Cap-and-Trade is dead even though it was originally a Republican idea. Rather than adding new carbon taxes, cap-and-trade uses the free market to trade emission credits, but even that is now viewed as a "tax." If there’s any chance for a Renewable Energy Standard, it will likely be broadened to a Clean Energy Standard, which includes nuclear and carbon sequestration from coal. Its goal would change from encouraging the growth of renewable energy to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through all available sources. That would be a "net negative" for renewable energy. In a post-election news conference, President Obama said there could be opportunities to increase natural gas production and build nuclear plants, both of which are favored by the GOP. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and a champion for addressing climate change and environmental concerns, is thinking a lot smaller about what Congress can accomplish. She’s looking at applying clean energy incentives through the tax code and a possible program where landlords could get loans to retrofit apartment and office complexes. But Thomas Pyle of the free-market Institute for Energy Research thinks there […]

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