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Andy Stevenson's Blog

Issues: The Media and the Environment

The Clean Air Act's Investment Returns Rival Warren Buffett's

February 11, 2010

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
berkshirehathaway, cleanairact, cleanairact1990, cleanenergy, energysecurity, EPA, murkowskiamendment, warrenbuffett

What if I were to tell you that we are all shareholders in an investment vehicle that has produced better returns than Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway over the past forty years. Strange as it seems it's true. Stranger yet, that...

Paul Krugman's Affordable Truth Sees Climate Bill Helping Revive the Economy

December 7, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
anafforabletruth, capandtrade, cleanenergy, climateandenergy2009, climatesecurity, copenhagenmeetings, economicrecovery, economicstimulus, paulkrugman, presidentobama

Today's op-ed column by Paul Krugman, "An Affordable Truth" supports a view that a cap and trade bill designed to dramatically cut our greenhouse gas emissions is  “affordable, essential”, and can help our economy recover faster. The article describes how financial incentives...

The Dollars and Sense in Trading Carbon

December 3, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
carbonmarkets, carbonregulation, carbontax, carbontrading, energyandclimate2009, feinsteinsnowe, financialregulation, otctrading, storyofcapandtrade, waxmanmarkey

The "trade" portion of the cap and trade bill is getting a lot of heat from the left and the right as being just another way for the banks to get rich and leave us with the bill. These concerns...

Climate Bill Could Dramatically Increase US Energy Security

September 18, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
API, cap2.0, climateandenergy2009, CO2, coalfiredpowerplants, coaltoliquids, energysecurity, EOR, markettransformation, nationalsecurity, newtgingrich, oilconsumption, oilshales, tarsands, waxmanmarkey

One of the key findings from a new NRDC climate policy study is that policies to support CO2 capture and sequestration at power plants and industrial facilities could also help recover almost 37 billion barrels of stranded domestic oil by 2050. This increase...

Strong Regulation to Keep Carbon Markets Program Viable

September 15, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
carbonmarkets, carbonregulation, carbontax, carbontrading, climateandenergy2009, josephmason, marketmanipulation

In a recent WSJ article entitled "Cap and Trade: Recipe for Disaster", Louisiana State University economist Joseph Mason outlines his concerns that special interests have already taken control of the European carbon markets and that the US carbon markets are...

Sage Words on Climate: Buffett and the Butterfly Effect

August 23, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
capandtrade, carbondeficit, climateandenergy2009, climatechange, greenbackemissions, warrenbuffet, waxmanmarkey

In an NYT op-ed column this past week titled "The Greenback Effect," Warren Buffett voiced his concern that unchecked government spending by Congress is "spewing a potentially damaging substance into our economy" known as "greenback emissions". According to Mr. Buffett...

5 Reasons Why Trading Allowances Will Help Meet Our Climate Objectives

July 21, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
ACES, capandtrade, carbonregulation, carbonrisk, carbontrading, climateandenergy2009, feinsteinsnowe, financialregulation, waxmanmarkey

While the Senate does appear to support the scientific and environmental need to put a cap on our carbon emissions, some Senators remain fearful that the “trading” portion of the cap and trade bill will just be creating another derivatives...

Palin's Alaska State of Mind on Energy Taxes the Rest of Us

July 14, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
capandtrade, CCS, climateandenergy2009, EOR, newtgingrich, oiladdiction, oilconsumption, sarahpalin, waxmanmarkey

The soon to be former Governor Sarah Palin's "plan" to keep America addicted to fossil fuels and to abandon the President's cap and trade program for carbon pollution is not only a disastrous climate policy, it is even worse as...

Feinstein-Snowe Carbon Bill Creates Gold Standard for Derivatives Regulation

July 13, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
carbonregulation, carbontrading, climateandenergy2009, derivativesregulation, feinsteinsnowe, financialregulation, timgeithner, waxmanmarkey

While Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner's testimony on Friday shed little new light on how the administration plans to regulate the financial derivatives markets, a bill introduced in the Senate earlier in the week by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Olympia...

The Senate's Role in Getting Carbon Market Regulation Right

July 7, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
ACES, carbonregulation, carbonrisk, carbontrading, energyandclimate2009, marketmanipulation, markettransformation, overthecountertrading, waxmanmarkey

As the Senate begins to weigh in on the climate debate with its own version of climate bill, the issue of carbon market oversight still remains a major concern to many members. The final bill that passed through the House...

Counting Up to a Climate Disaster

June 19, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
carboncounter, carbonregulation, carbonrisk, cleanenergy, climateandenergy2009, climatechange, costofinaction, dbam, knowthenumber, markettransformation, mit, simplesteps

At 70 feet across, Deutsche Bank Asset Management's new "carbon counter" billboard is advertised as the world's first real-time calculator of global greenhouse gas emissions. This billboard, together with its web-based counterpart, were created as a way to not only bring...

The Saudi Arabia of Coal No More, the US Sees Beginnings of Peak “Cheap” Coal

June 9, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
carbonregulation, carbonrisk, cleanenergy, coalfiredpowerplants, coalprices, liquidcoal, markettransformation, peakcoal

The coal lobby can't catch a break these days. First utilities reduce coal demand in favor of increasing purchases of cheap natural gas, then the EPA  proposes its endangerment finding on carbon dioxide pollution, then mountaintop removal gets called into account...

Climate Bill Puts Energy Speculators on Notice

May 17, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy

Tags:
ACES, carbonregulation, carbontrading, energyandclimate2009, marketmanipulation, markettransformation, timgeithner, waxmanmarkey

In addition to providing meaningful guidelines for the carbon trading markets, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) should be commended for looking to close many of the regulatory loopholes used by speculators to manipulate energy prices...

CRA’s Climate Cost Tempest in a Teacup

April 30, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment

Tags:
capandinvest, capandtrade, charlesriversassociates, markettransformation, presidentobama, waxmanmarkey

Charles River's Associates (CRA) released yet another impact assessment on the costs of climate change this week and despite every ill conceived parlor trick they could think of, they still managed to conclude that cap and trade policy will have...

Thomas Friedman’s Taxing Logic Drops the Ball on the Climate Policy Debate

April 9, 2009

Posted by Andy Stevenson in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment

Tags:
capandinvest, capandinvestnow, capandtrade, carbonregulation, carbontax, creditcrisis, energyandclimate2009, tomfriedman

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's recent article "Show Us the Ball" claims that a carbon tax would not only be simpler and more transparent, but have fewer special provisions, accommodations, or loopholes than a cap and trade system.  The...