The models used to calculate a Social Cost of Carbon for use in estimating the benefits of reducing carbon emissions fall far short of including a wide range of expected damages from global climate disruption. Using an SCC metric, or any cost-benefit approach, in making project-by-project decisions on U.S. government permits creates a bias in [...]
Is the Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) metric a good tool for use in making government decisions related to climate change and fossil fuel development? The EPA uses it in economically justifying its rules on reducing carbon emissions from vehicles and power plants. A federal judge recently rejected a proposed coal mine expansion in Colorado [...]
We note some interesting current reading related to subjects we have been posting on: (1) “This Is Why You Have No Business Challenging Scientific Experts”; (2) “White House Releases Report on the Administration’s All-of-the-Above Energy Strategy as a Path to Sustainable Economic Growth”; (3) “On Oil and Mining Rules, Should Progressives Be Worried?”; (4) “Oil [...]
Process of mixing water with fracking fluids to be injected into the ground (Wikimedia Commons) An internal draft Environmental Protection Agency document leaked to DeSmogBlog shows that EPA scientists and professional staff have identified numerous toxic and radioactive substances in shale gas extraction wastewaters at high enough levels to cause concern. Will the [...]
In one of several recent speaking engagements at Stanford University on “Essential Voices for Accountability”, as part of the Government Accountability Projects American Whistleblower Tour, I talked about political interference with climate change communication during the Bush administration, the global warming denial machine, whistleblowing, and other matters. On April 24 I spoke with a group [...]
The Obama administration has once again postponed a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, likely delaying a final decision until after the November 2014 elections. It seems clear that the anti-pipeline campaign initiated in the heartland and sparked as a national issue by our civil disobedience demonstrations at the White House in 2011 continues to [...]
The State Department’s Keystone XL tar sands pipeline environmental impact statement doesn’t include any scenario in which the U.S. comes anywhere close to meeting the Obama administration’s climate goals, Peter Sinclair at Climate Crocks points out. The study fails to disclose that its conclusions are only valid in the context of American and global climate policy failure. [...]
U.S. Department of State headquarters, Washington, DC (Wikimedia Commons) Secretary Kerry already knows the answer to the question of whether granting a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is in the national interest: the pipeline is not in the U.S. interest and it is not in the global interest. Climate Science Watch Director Rick [...]
“Environmentalists have decided that enough is enough,” says Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona). “Keystone is about more than one pipeline. It is about establishing once and for all whether we have moved on from the disastrous Bush-Cheney view of environmental policy. … Anyone who believes it is unfair to make Keystone a litmus test of Mr. [...]
Source: NASA/Wikimedia Commons Secretary of State Kerry calls on developing countries to reduce their carbon emissions, while U.S. corporations push exports of coal, oil, and natural gas. In the U.S. “National Interest Determination” on whether to approve construction of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, how does the U.S. ‘national interest’ relate to the [...]