Special Series
Word on the Street
In a Series
Float Like a Wind Turbine, Sting Like an Oil Drill
A number of news articles have come out in the past few days referencing a new poll that says Californians are shifting their transportation habits because of high gas prices. From the Mercury News:
Seventy-eight percent of those polled report doing less driving, and healthy percentages are driving smaller vehicles [59%], carpooling [28%] and - gasp! - taking transit [25%].
The flip side of this is that they are also rethinking their views on offshore drilling, nuclear energy, and liquefied natural gas:
Fifty-one percent of Californians oppose new oil and gas wells in state tidelands, a drop of 11 percentage points from peak levels and the slimmest majority opposed to offshore drilling in 27 years.
Nagging Our Way To Climate Stability
This is quite possibly the most idiotic argument I've ever heard against cap and trade. Why is it bad?
By turning carbon emissions into commodities that can be bought and sold, cap-and-trade policies could remove the stigma from producing such emissions... the purchase of the right to emit greenhouse gases would likely reduce any stigma associated with doing so. Emission levels, consequently, could rise.
Oh, lordy that's a good one. But that's from an op-ed in yesterday's Christian Science Monitor written by Justin Danhof from The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative DC think-tank.
Could he be right? Could it be that the only thing standing between us and a climate crisis is stigma? We need more guilt!
According to Danhof, just a few more lectures from James Hansen and then Exxon executives will feel so guilty that they will reduce their emissions by 80 percent. Or something.
Danhof supports his thesis by drawing on a study showing that social stigma was a more effective motivator in Israeli daycare centers than were fines for parents who arrived late. No, seriously, this is his strongest argument -- he leads with it -- it was true in six Israeli daycares. [Cue the drum sting.]
Is this guy a cut-up or what?
The rest of the piece is a mishmash of non-sequiters and misunderstandings. But here's the thing about cap and trade: it has a cap, a legal limit on carbon. With a carbon cap, you get guaranteed carbon reductions on a set schedule. That's sort of the main thing. You don't need Danhof's approach, which would presumably subject drive-alone commuters to weekly viewings of "An Inconvenient Truth" to gin up stigma so that they'll ride the bus.
I don't know, maybe it's true that cap and trade might incidentially remove the stigma from carbon pollution. I mean, under a carbon cap we'd be assured of a climate-sustainble path -- it would guaranteed by the legal reduction schedule -- so folks might not worry so much about individual actions. Maybe. But I think most folks see that as a virtue. Cap and trade: no guilt required.
Howdy, Ontario
Ontario officially joins the Western Climate Initiative as a full partner. Sweet.
Some Americans may not fully realize the significance of this. So for my fellow Yankees (and with apologies to readers north of the border)... Ontario is the California of Canada in the sense that it has more people and economic activity than any other province. On the other hand, Ontario is the Michigan of Canada in the sense that it has a huge auto manufacturing base. And yet Ontario is also the New York of Canada in the sense that it is the seat of the country's biggest city, major banks, and cultural headquarters. And finally, Ontario is the Washington DC of Canada in the sense that it is home to the nation's capitol.
So it's a big deal.
Ontario adds nearly 12.9 million people to the Western Climate Initiative. In combination with British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec -- already members of WCI -- nearly 80 percent of Canada is now under a hard carbon cap. In political terms, this means that prime minister Stephen Harper and the province of Alberta (aka the Texas of Canada) will now have to go off and play by themselves. It's a giant poke in the eye to Canada's lax federal leadership on climate change.
And it's terrific news for the WCI states too. Ontario has a GDP comparable to the combined economies of Washington, Oregon, Montana, and Utah. And it means that the WCI is now home to nearly 85 million North Americans.
