Climate 411

This post is by Nat Keohane, Ph.D., director of economic policy and analysis at Environmental Defense Fund.

A few weeks ago, it came out that the White House is excising major portions of an EPA document on regulating greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. The document – a draft Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking – is EPA’s answer to a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that greenhouse gases fall squarely within the act’s definition of “pollutant”.

The 252-page draft document [PDF] was leaked. In it, EPA projects that controlling greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks would result in substantial net savings to Americans – as high as $2 trillion in net present value over the next few decades.

Read More »

This post is by Jackie Roberts, director of sustainable technologies at Environmental Defense Fund.

Shifting to a low-carbon economy means creating renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies. This will take a lot of work, but in a good sense. We’ll see increased investment, new businesses, and new products to manufacture — the creation of many new jobs.

The ball won’t start rolling in earnest until the U.S. passes cap-and-trade legislation, but movement has already started. For example, check out this map we created of green businesses and their suppliers in Ohio:

Read More »

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

A new report by researchers at Tufts University (commissioned by NRDC) presents two ways of estimating the costs of inaction on climate change. Both lead to staggering totals – far more than the cost of addressing the problem:

New research shows that if present trends continue, the total cost of global warming will be as high as 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Four global warming impacts alone – hurricane damage, real estate losses, energy costs, and water costs – will come with a price tag of 1.8 percent of U.S. GDP, or almost $1.9 trillion annually (in today’s dollars) by 2100.

This report on the cost of inaction is a good companion to our own report on the low cost of an effective policy to fight climate change.

This post is by Nat Keohane, Ph.D., director of economic policy and analysis at Environmental Defense Fund.

Last Friday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsored a panel discussion on the economic impact of climate change legislation. I was on the panel, along with Bob Shackleton of Congressional Budget Office, Francisco de la Chesnaye of Environmental Protection Agency, Margo Thorning of American Council for Capital Formation, and Anne Smith of CRA International.

In responding to questions about my recent study of how climate legislation will impact the economy, I made two key points:

Read More »