Pleasure Reading Department
Far from Cascadia:
Australia, Japan, and Switzerland are designing carbon cap-and-trade systems—the Australian one may auction 100 percent of permits.
The European Union is gearing up to add aviation fuels to its carbon cap-and-trade system in 2012—a global first.
Canada’s federal election rages on over the Liberal Party’s proposed carbon tax shift.
And green taxes are getting serious attention in Hungary, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.
All this more in the latest edition of my favorite newsletter: Green Budget News.
Ready for your weekend reading!
Biking: Pork We Can Believe In
Unsurprisingly, the US Congress tucked a few goodies into the financial bailout bill that passed today. Surprisingly, one of those goodies is actually good for bike commuters. Yes, the Bicycle Commuter Act, which gives incentives for employers whose employees bike to work, just became law!
There's a great rundown of what it all means over here. But in a nutshell:
The Bicycle Commuter Act gives employers $20 a month tax relief for each employee who bicycles to work. It covers the cost of employer reimbursements to employees for buying, improving or repairing a bicycle or paying for bike parking.
It was first introduced some seven years ago by Congressman Earl Blumenauer of Portland. The Democrat opposes the bailout and voted against it on Friday, putting himself in the...position of voting against his pet project.
Looks like the sort of thing that could give a slight boost for bike-to-work programs. Of course, the effects are likely pretty modest -- an independent taxpayer group pegged it at a cost of $10 million, which in a nation as huge as the US isn't a big deal. Still, it's a help -- and at this point, I'll take any good news I can get.
Special Series
Economic Turnaround
In a Series
Bailout. Now What?
The House has just passed the $700 billion economic bailout package, clearing the way for the crisis-induced legislation to be signed by President Bush. But what happens next?
I’m no economist, but certainly this is a big, huge wake up call that the “same-old, same-old” is not working for American families. My point is that now, more than ever, we should be talking about how we’re going to stabilize our economy for real. Now, more than ever, we should do everything it takes to free every American family from the vise grip of fossil fuels and seize an enormous opportunity to invest in a stable and healthy clean energy economy.
Earlier this week, in a column titled "Green the Bailout," Thomas Friedman summed it up perfectly (channeling Van Jones):
The point is, we don’t just need a bailout. We need a buildup. We need to get back to making stuff, based on real engineering not just financial engineering...
Indeed, when this bailout is over, we need the next president — this one is wasted — to launch an E.T., energy technology, revolution with the same urgency as this bailout. Otherwise, all we will have done is bought ourselves a respite, but not a future. The exciting thing about the energy technology revolution is that it spans the whole economy — from green-collar construction jobs to high-tech solar panel designing jobs. It could lift so many boats.
