SOIL CARBON AND CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
From Kansas State University's:
Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (CASMGS)
http://soilcarboncenter.k-state.edu
Charles W. Rice, K-State Department of Agronomy, National CASMGS Director
(785) 532-7217 cwrice@ksu.edu
Scott Staggenborg, K-State Department of Agronomy (785) 532-7214 sstaggen@ksu.edu
Steve Watson, CASMGS Communications (785) 532-7105 swatson@ksu.edu
CAP-AND-TRADE: Getting the Most
Greenhouse Gas Reductions for THE Money
One of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality’s goals in designing a comprehensive climate change program is to achieve the necessary greenhouse gas reductions for the least cost and with the least economic disruption. Reducing greenhouse gas emission will be an expensive proposition, but scientists tell us that not reducing emissions will leave future generations with serious problems that will cost even more to address.
The Committee’s White Paper discusses ways to keep costs as low as feasible while still achieving environmental goals. The most important way to keep costs down is to establish a system that will achieve lowest-cost reductions. The climate change debate often focuses on the need for expensive measures. If the program is structured properly, however, significant reductions can be achieved by economically beneficial measures (i.e. measures with savings that exceed costs). In large part, these measures are improvements in energy efficiency and productivity.
The decision to have a cap-and-trade regulatory program as the cornerstone of a mandatory climate change program is driven in large part by the ability of such a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a specified level at the lowest possible overall cost to society and to lower the cost for regulated entities. As compared to more traditional forms of regulation, a well-designed cap-and-trade program generally should achieve the same environmental results at a lower cost because it provides flexibility to emitters, creates incentives for sources to use low-cost compliance strategies, and provides incentives for technological advances.
To read the complete White Paper, issued by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, go to: