Brian McGraw

The Competitive Enterprise Institute attended the 7th International Conference on Climate Change, sponsored by the Heartland Institute and held in downtown Chicago on May 21-23. We at CEI are deeply indebted to the Heartland staff for all the hard work that went into putting on this event. The conference ran smoothly and I thought it was well attended despite the recent public kerfuffle over the incident with Peter Gleick and Heartland’s billboard campaign. CEI’s Myron Ebell and Chris Horner participated in a panel on the social and economic impacts of climate change and climate change policies. A videos of Myron’s panel is embedded below, and Chris Horner’s can be watched at this link.

Carbon Markets Work, Until They Don’t

Having added layers of bureaucracy and complexity to their energy markets, the United Kingdom is struggling with a number of different problems in their electricity markets: rising prices, lowered reliability, and record low prices on carbon emissions. The UK’s answer involves granting the government further power to intervene in electricity markets. Under a draft energy bill put forth by Edward Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, the new legislation would ban new coal-fired power plants absent carbon capture and sequestration, set a price floor for carbon dioxide emissions, and provide guaranteed rates of return on new low-carbon energy sources to encourage the increased investment that has yet to materialize. Like many bureaucrats, Davey is confident his proposal is a blueprint for success: “If we don’t secure investment in our energy infrastructure, we could see the lights going out, consumers hit by spiraling energy prices and dangerous climate change. These reforms will ensure we can keep the lights on, bills down and the air clean.”

Airline Emissions Fight, Round XVII

It’s the song that will never end. This week, those who predicted that this dispute would end in a trade war will feel a twinge of gratification: India has threatened to ban European airlines from Indian airspace if the Europe Union begins to impose sanctions on Indian airlines. Last week, both the Chinese and Indian governments forbade their airlines from providing the EU with data on their carbon emissions, signaling that this situation is not going to be resolved amicably anytime soon. The EU now seems to have backed off, to some extent, from the tough talk and complete refusal to back down. A spokesman for Connie Hedegaard, the EU climate commissioner, stated that the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization was hoping to reach a mutually agreeable solution prior to April of 2013. It remains unclear what this solution will involve, as India and China have shown little interest in international negotiations to limit their economic growth through carbon taxation.

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The Los Angeles Times takes a look at some infighting going on in the environmental movement, with local chapters of large environmental organizations feeling ignored by the large national groups pushing renewable energy projects. This specific controversy concerns a large solar panel project in the Mojave desert in southeastern California. Needless to say, I don’t think a vast array of solar panels should be built in the Mojave desert either, but likely for different reasons than the local environmental groups. Here’s the introduction:

AMARGOSA VALLEY, Calif. — April Sall gazed out at the Mojave Desert flashing past the car window and unreeled a story of frustration and backroom dealings.

Her small California group, the Wildlands Conservancy, wanted to preserve 600,000 acres of the Mojave. The group raised $45 million, bought the land and deeded it to the federal government.

The conservancy intended that the land be protected forever. Instead, 12 years after accepting the largest land gift in American history, the federal government is on the verge of opening 50,000 acres of that bequest to solar development.

Even worse, in Sall’s view, the nation’s largest environmental organizations are scarcely voicing opposition. Their silence leaves the conservancy and a smattering of other small environmental organizations nearly alone in opposing energy development across 33,000 square miles of desert land.

“We got dragged into this because the big groups were standing on the sidelines and we were watching this big conservation legacy practically go under a bulldozer,” said Sall, the organization’s conservation director. “We said, ‘We can’t be silent anymore.’ ” [click to continue…]