Posted on January 28th, 2012 by Wil Burns
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While there have been a large number of analyses of the potential ramifications of regulation of greenhouse gas emissions under the U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA), very few have assessed the potential economic impacts. A recent piece in the journal Review of Environmental Economics & Policy does just this, and also compares economic impacts vis-a-vis legislative alternatives. The article also discusses options to increase compliance flexibility, thereby potentially maximizing emissions reductions. This would be a an excellent student reading.
Among the article’s take-aways:
- New CAA regulations that took effect in 2011 will reduce light vehicle emissions by 21 percent by 2030, “making them among the most stringent standards in the world.” Moreover, even more stringent regulations that are being developed, and would take effect;
- Once a pollutant is made subject to CAA jurisdiction in any context, it extends to stationary sources, which means that greenhouse gases from such sources are now subject to New Source Review, which, inter alia, mandates Best Available Control Technology for new or substantially modified existing facilities;
- The third tool in the CAA’s belt, regulatory standards, covering stationary sources, will have the greatest impact on greenhouse gas emissions. This includes the potential to treat GHGs as a hazardous pollutant under CAA §112, regulation of greenhouse gases by establishing National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQs) under CAA §108–110, regulation of U.S. emissions based on their international impact, or performance standards under ;
- The use of performance standards is the most “effective and practical approach” to address greenhouse gas emissions under the CAA
- Benefits of this approach, which includes New Source Performance Standards, include the ability to build on existing standards, a relatively quick regulatory process, and consideration of cost in setting standards, unlike under NAAQS;
- Potential disadvantages of performance standards include the threat that courts might require the EPA to issue GHG NAAQs since they supercede CAA §111(d), discouraging the EPA from expending limited resources on performance standards; performance standards are technical and data intensive; and regulations of individual sources will likely prove more expensive than economy-wide standards
- A flexible performance standard under §111(d) could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5–10 percent in the coal sector—as much as about 3 percent of total U.S. emissions—without changing the level of electricity generation, at costs more modest than national climate change legislation that passed the U.S. House in 2009;
- However, in the longer term, at least, regulation under the CAA could neither facilitate the most efficient opportunities for emissions reductions, nor would it provide the same level of long-term regulatory certainty essential to drive requisite investments.
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Posted on January 19th, 2012 by Wil Burns
DISCCRS VII Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Symposium
http://disccrs.org/disccrsposter.pdf
Dates: October 13-20, 2012
Location: La Foret Conference and Retreat Center
Colorado Springs, CO
Application Deadline: February 29, 2012
Participation limited to 30 early-career Ph.D. scholars
Airfare and on-site expenses are supported through grants from NSF and NASA
http://disccrs.org
Eligibility: Ph.D. requirements completed between August 1, 2009 – February 29, 2012 in any natural or… Continue reading
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Posted on January 19th, 2012 by Wil Burns
The University of Houston Law Center is hosting a mock U.S. Supreme Court argument on climate change tort liability at the University of Houston Law Center on Jan. 19, 2012. The bench includes John Cruden, Ken Starr and former Texas Supreme Court Judge Tom Phillips. Rick Faulk and David Axelrad will present the arguments, and we’ll then have an extended analysis and discussion with student input afterward.
The event… Continue reading
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Posted on January 18th, 2012 by Wil Burns
The University of Sussex would like to invite applications for the MSc in ‘Climate Change and Development’ for entry in September 2012. Scholarship information is provided below.
This is a unique course that aims to provide state-of-the-art training for the rapidly expanding market for development professionals with specialisation in climate change. The programme is strongly multidisciplinary. Students will acquire specialist knowledge of the causes and consequences of… Continue reading
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Posted on January 16th, 2012 by Wil Burns
Almost 3000 non-science major undergraduates at the University of Chicago have taken PHSC13400, Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast, since Ray Pierrehumbert and I (David Archer) first developed it back in 1995. The class is now available online, Open Climate 101. The course is free, and one can obtain a certificate after completion of the course if one obtains a sufficiently high score on an online examination… Continue reading
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Posted on January 14th, 2012 by Wil Burns
UNU’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace is pleased to announce postgraduate level courses on ‘Building Resilience to Climate Change’. The courses run for five weeks in Tokyo (Japan) from 20th February to 23rd March 2012.
Following two courses will be offered, each with duration of 2 weeks:
- Course-1: Science, Impacts and Vulnerability’
- Course-2: Approaches to Adaptation
In… Continue reading
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Posted on January 2nd, 2012 by Wil Burns
A new United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Synthesis Report has assessed whether the pledges made by States in recent years at UNFCCC meetings are consistent with holding temperature increases to either 1.4 or 2C above pre-industrial levels; the study also suggests measures that could be taken to reach this objective. Among other purposes that this study could be used in climate change courses would be as a source of… Continue reading
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Posted on December 18th, 2011 by Wil Burns
From where I sit, Climate Action Tracker, a project of several organizations including Ecofys, PIK and Climate Analytics, is a “must see” site for climate change instructors, providing a regular updated snapshot of the climatic implications of commitments made by the parties to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol and potential successor instruments. The Tracker’s latest report assesses the implications of State GHG reduction pledge after the Durban (17th… Continue reading
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Posted on December 17th, 2011 by EBurleson
The Durban agreements provide a mandate with which all greenhouse-gas emitting countries will commit to a common UN legal regime as early as possible but no later than 2015. Country parties also agreed that the new deal will take effect no later than 2020. For the first time, major emerging economies have agreed to negotiate a legal arrangement to reduce their national greenhouse gas emissions.
EU’s Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard… Continue reading
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Posted on December 8th, 2011 by Wil Burns
Bioclimate is a web-based reference tool that aggregates biodiversity and climate change related information from an array of peer-reviewed sources and gray literature. It currently has over 3000 citations, categorized and searchable. It is in its beta version currently and the developers are still seeking collaborators. The site would benefit from substantial updates in many categories… Continue reading
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