Emissions Charges and Necessity as Mother of Invention

In a New York Times op-ed article published today, Connecticut’s Commissioner of Environmental Protection, Dan Esty, and world renown economic competitiveness authority Michael Porter, explain how greenhouse gas emissions charges would unleash entrepreneurial spirit and innovation across a broad range of enterprises - from multinational businesses to back-of-the-garage inventors.

The authors make a case that innovation in energy productivity and renewable energy would help stimulate global growth and free up resources to meet other pressing needs.

The authors write that the best way to drive energy innovation would be a modest emissions charge of $5 per ton of greenhouse gases beginning in 2012, rising to $100 per ton by 2032. The low initial charge, starting next year, would make the short-term burden on consumers and businesses almost negligible.

If necessity is the mother of invention, then emissions charges may be just the kick in the pants that modern society needs to change our fossil fuel ways.

Say what? Oil Company CEO Suggests a $1 gas tax Increase and Higher Fuel Economy Standards

At a March 8 conference held by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates in Houston, Hess Oil Company CEO, John Hess, made some pretty remarkable statements.  For starters:

• The U.S. should consider imposing a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax and boosting average auto fuel economy to 50 miles a gallon to help avert a global energy crisis;
• The U.S. also needs to “get serious about climate change once our economy recovers; and
• The $140-per-barrel oil price of three years ago was not an aberration -- it was a warning.

Bloomberg News reports here:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-08/u-s-should-mull-1-gas-tax-boost-auto-efficiency-hess-says.html

Keeping Up with Congress on Clean Air

TODAY’S New York Times carries an editorial on current efforts in Congress to weaken the EPA and its management of air polluters.

Although “the rules under siege in Congress will help clean the air, reduce toxic pollution in fish and slow emissions of greenhouse gases,” the editorial finds, “one or another of these bills has a real shot in the Republican-controlled House.”

The editorial provides a good summary of where things stand:  Clean Air Under Siege - NYTimes.com.

The Really Big Energy Bill: Supporters & Opponents

Senate Bill 463, the 169 page energy bill released a few days ago, seems to be pitting traditional energy businesses against new clean energy businesses.  As part of a press conference yesterday, the Connecticut Citizen Action Group displayed a poster identifying the bill’s biggest supporters and opponents (below).

Background on the Bill
For background on what the bill proposes, see:
-  The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Research summary here
-  CT News Junkie and CT Mirror articles here and here
-  This morning’s Hartford  Courant endorsed a go-slow approach.  You can read the Courant editorial here.

Fed Transportation Unlikely to Pass Soon

Every six years, Congress allocates hundreds of billions of dollars for transportation and infrastructure projects that shape our communities for generations. (Case in point: the dissection of Hartford and the riverfront by I-84 and I-91.)

Our current $286 billion national transportation program expires in 2009.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, the next transportation authorization bill would distribute $450 billion in funds to states over six years to upgrade roads, bridges and transit systems, including $70 billion each year for highway and mass transit systems. Nearly a third (28%) of our greenhouse gas emissions comes from the transportation sector.

But the US House of Representatives is unlikely to agree this summer about how to pay for that major transportation investment, disappointing state governments, transit agencies, construction companies, and advocates like CTLCV.

As Roll Call reported on July 27:

"If House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.) has his way, the House this week will approve a $3 billion infusion for the ailing Highway Trust Fund before leaving town Friday. Doing so would head off a projected shortfall in the account that in mid-August would halt federal payments for highway projects — funds desperately needed by cash-starved states. Moreover, the gambit buys time for Oberstar to press his six-year transportation overhaul, also known as the highway bill, by throwing off a plan advancing in the Senate that would extend the current transportation law for 18 months beyond its Sept. 30 expiration."

CTLCV has signed on as a partner with Transportation for America to seize the opportunity to overhaul our transportation systems in a way that simultaneously reduces greenhouse gas emissions and our dependence on foreign oil. Check out Transportation for America's website for more information, and stay tuned.