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Laurie Johnson, Chief Economist, Climate Center, Washington, DC
I am Chief Economist at the Climate Center of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington DC. Prior to joining the NRDC in May 2008, I was a professor in the economics department at the University of Denver for eight years. My research in environmental and natural resource economics, experimental economics, and poverty and welfare, appeared in academic and popular journals. At NRDC, my work has focused on macroeconomic modeling of climate change legislation, as well its distributional impacts. I received my PhD in economics from the University of Washington, Seattle.
Recent Posts
Posted February 1, 2012 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
- Tags:
- alberta, americanpetroleuminstitute, bigoil, citizensunited, cornell, dirtyfuels, energyindependence, jobs, keystone, keystonexl, leaks, perrymangroup, pipeline, spills, statedepartment, tarsands, transcanada
[We’re] probably looking at…from Montana to Houston, I don’t know, [job creation] in the hundreds...” (Robert Jones, TransCanada’s Vice President for Keystone Pipelines, CNN, November 11, 2011) Interesting quote. TransCanada and its allies can’t seem to keep their...continued→
Posted December 20, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
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- airpollution, boiler, boilerrule, boilers, boilerstandard, caa, CIBO, cleanairact, CRS, debunk, dri, economicanalysis, economicimpacts, economics, epa, EPA, globalinsight, greeneconomy, greenjobs, health, ihs, jobs, MACT, models, rebuttal, toxics, wefa
As part of their ongoing jobs-scare campaign to block public health standards (and protect their bottom line), the Council of Industrial Boilers (CIBO) just rehashed its discredited 2010 economic “study” (click here for a summary of critiques by myself, the...continued→
Posted December 8, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution
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- airtoxics, airtoxicsrule, CAA, cleanairact, cleaneconomy, crossstateairpollutionrule, CSAPR, emissions, emissionstandards, EPAregulation, mact, pollution, standards, transportrule
A refreshing study, released by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres), now shows us exactly where jobs will be (and have been) created from the supposed “job-killing” environmental regulations under attack in the US House of Representatives. It’s a...continued→
Posted November 12, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
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- accce, airtoxics, americancoalitionforcleancoalelectricity, annesmith, cba, cleanairact, cleanwateract, coalash, coalcombustionresidual, coolingwaterrule, crossstateairpollutionrule, csapr, epa, mact, mercury, nera, particulatematter
National Economic Research Associates (NERA) is at it again, producing yet another industry-backed report (click here, here and here for some others) claiming economic calamity from proposed environmental regulations. Funded by the leading coal-industry front group, the American Coalition for...continued→
Posted November 7, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Solving Global Warming
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- climatechange, climatehealth, disease, droughts, economicimpacts, extremeweatherevents, floods, healthcosts, hospitaladmissions, hurricanes, wildfires
Following on the tails of the recent IPCC report documenting the connection between extreme weather events and climate change (click here for excellent NBC coverage, and here for here for other summaries, stories and reports) comes two analyses attaching dollar...continued→
Posted September 20, 2011 by Laurie Johnson
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- caa, cantor, cement, cleanairact, debunk, economicanalysis, economicimpacts, economics, epa, greeneconomy, greenjobs, h.r.2681, mact, models, neshap, nsps, pca, portlandcementassociation, rebuttal, toxicairemissions, toxicemissions
(Apologia to my readers for having to repeat text from my other blogs. What else can a poor economist do when industry keeps making the same “mistakes”...) The U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering a bill (H.R. 2681) that...continued→
Posted September 12, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution
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- afpa, americanforestandpaperassociation, boiler, boilerrule, boilers, boilerstandard, caa, cleanairact, debunk, economicanalysis, economicimpacts, economics, epa, fisher, fisherinternationalinc, greeneconomy, greenjobs, mact, models, rebuttal
In response to toxic air pollution standards finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for industrial boilers, the American Forest and Paper Association (AFPA) just released a ‘study’ (conducted by Fisher International Inc.) projecting massive job losses from the proposed...continued→
Posted September 7, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution
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- CAA, cleanairact, cleaneconomy, emissions, emissionstandards, EPAregulation, jobsplan, obama, obamajobsplan, ozone, pollution, standards
Last Friday, just before the holiday weekend, President Obama caved to GOP demands by withdrawing plans to strengthen the nation’s public health standard for ozone pollution (“smog”) under the Clean Air Act. It’s hard to make sense of. Tightening the...continued→
Posted August 16, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution
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- annesmith, cba, cleanairact, costbenefitanalysis, epa, nera, ozone, ozonestandard, particulatematter
In a last minute attempt to stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from protecting public health, industry is furiously trying to weaken pollution standards that prevent asthma, acute respiratory illnesses, and deaths. Funded by the American Petroleum Institute, a recent...continued→
Posted August 4, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
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- airpollution, climatechange, climatehealth, dengue, droughts, floods, forestfires, lymedisease, nrdcsite, nrdcwebsite, ozone, publichealth, ragweed, westnile
Recently I posted three blogs (click here, here, and here) summarizing a state-level analysis of various economic damages we can expect from climate change, and the different dollar figures attached to them. Drawing upon recent research, NRDC has now just launched a new...continued→
Posted August 2, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Solving Global Warming
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- americansecurityproject, arkansas, climatechange, climatechangeimpacts, costofinaction, florida, globalwarming, greenhousegasemissions, nevada, newmexico, newyork, oregon, paynowpaylater, pennsylvania, state-by-state, statebystateimpacts, washington
(This blog is Part III of three part blog). A recent report released by the American Security Project, a think tank whose bipartisan board of directors brings together a broad range of experts, gives a sobering picture of what we stand...continued→
Posted July 25, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
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- ackerman, carbonpollutionstandards, carbonstandard, climaterisksandcarbonprices, co2, eparegulation, greenhousegasregulation, regulation, revisingthesocialcostofcarbon, scc, socialcostofcarbon, standards, stanton
According to a new (peer reviewed[i]) analysis , the economic, social, and environmental damages to our children and grandchildren from climate change could be far larger than the value currently used by the US government to evaluate climate policy. Discussed...continued→
Posted July 18, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, U.S. Law and Policy
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- ACCCE, acccetoxicsrule, cleanairact, economicpolicyinstitute, environmentalprotectionagency, epa, epi, mact, mact+catr, nera, nerarebuttal, rebuttal, toxicairemissions, toxicemissions, toxicsrule, trainact
America’s #1 front group for coal, misleadingly named the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), wants to keep on spewing unlimited amounts toxic air pollution (mercury, hydrochloric acid, non-mercury metallic toxic pollutants, and sulfur dioxide)–pollution that damages children’s brain development...continued→
Posted July 5, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution, Solving Global Warming
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- annesmith, cba, charlesmontgomery, cleanairact, costbenefitanalysis, epa, nera
The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) cost benefit analysis of the Clean Air Act is probably one of the most peer reviewed and thorough cost benefit analysis ever carried out by an institution, be it government, private, or academic. But opponents of clean air...continued→
Posted June 29, 2011 by Laurie Johnson in Curbing Pollution
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- AnEconomyThatWorks:JobCreationandAmerica'sFuture, McKinsey, regulation, Upton, Washingtontimes
In a short opinion piece published yesterday in the Washington Times, Representative Fred Upton (R-MI), Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, reported that his Committee found piles of evidence showing that the “vast web of costly, duplicative, and...continued→
