tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post3323040243104838498..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: The Anti-Carbon-Capping Left: Simply ConfusedUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-53949964079081859832009-10-24T20:11:14.454-04:002009-10-24T20:11:14.454-04:00Two things:
1) I think Peter Dorman has successfu...Two things:<br /> 1) I think Peter Dorman has successfully destroyed both cap-and-trade and carbon taxes by pointing out how they both can and probably will be corrupted. The only real emissions solution is wartime-style rationing and price controls.<br /><br />2) I am coming to think of emissions reduction and CO2 removal/sequestration as two different problems. Concentrating on emissions reduction alone and relying on the natural carbon cycle alone to eventually remove excess CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the atmosphere is going to take too long, given the scale of the existing and projected excess. We need to think a lot harder about removal/sequestration.gordonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-37084575814875012782009-10-24T00:52:06.884-04:002009-10-24T00:52:06.884-04:00Sr. Truck,
Your question is an important one. In...Sr. Truck,<br /><br />Your question is an important one. In reality, it is hopeless to control "emissions" in any general sense, since there are far too many emitters. I apologize for using this shorthand, which feeds into the misconceptions of many (e.g. Dubner and Levitt, with their now-infamous 2% statement) regarding the nature of anthropogenic climate change. It's really not about emissions at all, since there is a global carbon cycle: carbon is exchanged between earth, atmosphere and water every moment; trees "emit" carbon when they die and "sequester" carbon when they grow. The root problem is the introduction of new carbon into the system, caused by the extraction of fossil fuels buried in the earth for untold eons. Ideally, a cap would cap this extraction and a tax would tax it.<br /><br />Alas, the programs we see on planet Earth (rather than planet Theory) are a hodgepodge of controls and incentives on this industry, that process, etc. And you're right: the further we go down the road to the end user, the harder it is to determine how much carbon has been "emitted". That's either a bug or a feature, depending on where you stand -- a bug if you're trying to prevent catastrophic climate change, a feature if you're trying to protect your profits.Peter Dormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00093399591393648071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-4957257291735086482009-10-24T00:14:49.756-04:002009-10-24T00:14:49.756-04:00How will this thing be policed and who will be pay...How will this thing be policed and who will be paying for the enforcement? I think that might say a lot about whether or not it will work.<br /><br />Like is there some sort of weather balloons that can track where the CO2 is coming from and demand that the offenders purchase some credits? That sounds pretty silly, but I am just trying to clarify the question. I have no clue how this will be monitored/enforced and can't seem to find anything that tells me.TheTruckerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10346127768102862741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-22319671291212222372009-10-23T21:46:31.920-04:002009-10-23T21:46:31.920-04:00Peter,
Well, there is an irony in this. Back in ...Peter,<br /><br />Well, there is an irony in this. Back in the early 1970s when the EPA was created and the main enviro laws were passed, it was the market oriented people who supported Pigovian taxes, and their opponents said this was a market solution, which was bad, because pollution is sinful and should be forbidden. So, set up quantity limits. Those quantity limits are the caps that have since evolved into cap and trade.<br /><br />Aside from the politics (is Mankiw for taxes because he knows Congress will never pass them?), another problem is that they are very difficult to harmonize across international borders. Cap and trade will work better at that, and was established at Kyoto, over the objections of the Europeans, who have now followed Kyoto and established a carbon market. For the US to go to taxes rather than cap and trade is spitting in the face of the rest of the world.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.com