Energy and Climate
Make clean energy cheap.
Access to affordable and reliable energy is absolutely essential for human development, but energy production takes a heavy toll on the environment. With demand for energy expected to grow for decades to come as developing nations emerge from poverty, substantial innovation into clean energy technologies will be necessary to achieve our ambitious goals for greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
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Climate Bill Analysis Part 16: EPA Projects Fewer Renewables Under Waxman Markey than Business As Usual
The Waxman-Markey climate bill (AKA the American Clean Energy and Security Act) would reduce the amount of renewable…
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Climate Bill Analysis Part 15: EPA Projects Coal Will Expand Under Waxman-Markey
Electricity generation from coal will grow if Waxman-Markey climate legislation becomes law, according to a Los Angeles…
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Climate Bill Analysis Part 14: Waxman-Markey Puts Ratepayers at Risk
According to a new analysis [pdf] by Public Citizen, the Waxman-Markey (W-M) climate legislation would inadequately…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 13: EPA Analysis Projects Waxman-Markey Would Not Require Emissions Reductions
[Updated 6/18/09 with graphics that more clearly reflect banking of offsets under EPA's projected offsets scenario.]The…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 12: CBO Projects Waxman-Markey Would Cut Cumulative Emissions by Just 2%
[Updated with correction, 6/18/09: Thanks to John Larson at WRI for alerting us to an error in our data. Our data is…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 11: New UCS Analysis Finds Waxman-Markey RES Won’t Increase Clean Energy
According to a new, as-yet-unpublished analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the combined efficiency…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 10: Smart Provisions Could Spur Clean Technology - If They Are Funded
As Breakthrough's analysis of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) has revealed, the climate…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 9: Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Confirms Breakthrough’s Analysis
With most DC-based environmental organizations at least grudgingly supporting the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 8: Waxman-Markey’s Non-Binding Emissions "Cap"
Since we released our initial analysis of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), other…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 7: Renewable Electricity Standard Severely Weakened
Advocates of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454, or "ACES" for short) argue that the…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 6: Strategic Reserve May Allow "Cap" to Rise by 10 Percent
Every climate bill, in the U.S. and abroad, contains provisions limiting how high carbon prices established by the…
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Joe Romm Tries to Shut Down Climate Bill Debate by Attacking Breakthrough Institute
Breakthrough Institute spent the past week analyzing the Waxman-Markey climate bill. We released several objective and…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 5: Foreign Offsets Receive 2.5 Times More Money than U.S. Clean Energy
If all foreign offset provisions in the Waxman-Markey climate bill are used, the cap and trade regime would spend…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 4: Emissions Cap May Let U.S. Emissions Continue to Rise Through 2030
[Updated 6/18/09 to more clearly explain and depict the potential banking of offsets.]At the heart of the nearly…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 3: Key offset limit eliminated, increasing domestic offset use, lowering allowance prices
The original discussion draft of Waxman-Markey included a key provision that would have required domestic and…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 2: Clean Energy R&D Investment May Be 30 Times Smaller than President Obama's Budget
[Updated 5/22/09: the ACES bill now includes a $10/ton price floor for auctioned pollution permits. The analysis below…
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Climate Bill Analysis, Part 1: Waxman-Markey Gives Nearly 5 Times More to Polluters than Clean Energy
The landmark Waxman-Markey 2009 American Clean Energy and Security Act was introduced in the House this afternoon (May…
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Cap and Trade Worked for Acid Rain, Why Not for Climate Change?
One of the most often-repeated assumptions in the climate policy debate is that cap and trade, the preferred mechanism…
