“The determination of the social cost of carbon (SCC) as made by [federal agencies] is discordant with the best scientific literature on the equilibrium climate sensitivity and the fertilization effect of carbon dioxide—two critically important parameters for establishing the net externality of carbon dioxide emissions…. The [federal government] should act not just to revise the current determination of the SCC, but to suspend its use in all federal rulemaking.”
– Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger (Center for the Study of Science, Cato Institute). “Comment on ‘Technical Support Document, Technical Update of the Social Cost of Carbon for Regulatory Impact Analysis Under Executive Order 12866’,” January 27, 2014.
Federal legislative attempts to price and regulate carbon dioxide have failed. Cap-and-trade, which passed the House in 2009, died the next year in the Senate.…
• Effort to Expand California Green Power Mandate to 51% Fails
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Effort to Expand California Green Power Standard to 51% Fails
…“Amendments made yesterday to state Assembly Bill 177 clarify that the 33 percent by 2020 current Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is intended to be a floor, not a ceiling, for energy procurement. It directs all retail sellers of electricity to adopt a long-term procurement strategy to achieve a target of procuring 51 percent of their electricity from renewable resources by Dec. 31, 2030.”
– State Senator V.
[Last night, President Obama did not deviate from his interventionist, centralist approach to governing America, including with energy policy. This post reverses the mindset to a speech with a free-market, classical-liberal President at the podium.]
“My fellow Americans, I come before you tonight to deliver my sixth State of the Union address at a time of continuing economic disappointment and social uncertainty across our great nation.
“I have spoken to you more than once about the country’s need for ‘hope and change.’ I have tried to begin that process over the first five years of my presidency. But I now realize that I had been looking in the wrong direction for that new and better America.
“Not long ago, while looking under my bed in the White House for the terrorists that the NSA assures me are everywhere and against whom they must surveillance each and every one of you to keep you safe, I found some books that must have been left there by former President Ronald Reagan.…