Environmental Legislation
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commentary
Budget Models Are Underselling the Benefits of Solving Climate Problems
When Congress considers a new law or spending package, analysts calculate its likely impact on the federal budget. When it comes to climate change legislation, those numbers don't capture the whole picture. Potential savings and other benefits get significantly underestimated.
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commentary
An Affordable Energy Transition Will Require Supportive and Sensible Regulation
The transition to decarbonize the grid and to electrify end uses to reduce emissions will be challenging, and customer bills may increase in the short term. Regulators can help to keep utilities financially healthy and make a smoother energy transition possible.
Nov 13, 2023
The National Interest
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commentary
California's Ambitious Decarbonization Plan Hasn't Been Future-Proofed
California has an ambitious blueprint to make the state carbon-neutral by 2045. But there's been no integrated stress test of the whole plan. The state needs and deserves a future-proofed, stress-tested plan that all Californians can trust to achieve its climate goals.
Dec 15, 2022
Los Angeles Times
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commentary
To Help Climate Migrants, We Must First Recognize Them
Despite the large and growing population displaced by extreme weather, there is no common definition of a “climate migrant.” Once we get a clearer sense of just who is a climate migrant, policy efforts should begin focusing on the full fabric of life in our communities, creating systems that will help migrants become a part of that fabric in safe and dignified ways.
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essay
Manipulating the Climate: What Are the Geopolitical Risks?
Geoengineering technologies that could block the sun's rays or siphon huge amounts of carbon from the air are not that far out of reach. Yet the international community has not established the kinds of guardrails you might expect for potentially world-changing technologies.
Dec 29, 2021
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commentary
Achieving Decarbonization and Energy Equity Through Reconciliation
The past two years have witnessed increasingly vocal calls for rapid decarbonization of the global economy through a clean energy transition. How can Congress ensure that new costs associated with a clean energy transition do not fall disproportionately on lower-income ratepayers?
Sep 9, 2021
United Press International
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commentary
How Voters Can Assess New Climate Plans
While the U.S. government has announced its intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, most presidential candidates and many states have proposed climate plans of their own. How might voters determine if any of these plans can seriously address climate change?
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commentary
When It Comes to Climate, Look for Vulnerabilities in Policy, Not Science
Federal policymakers have picked up on the concept of red teaming — actively seeking out one's own vulnerabilities. While red teaming may not make sense for climate science, it does offer great benefits when weighing climate policy options.
Benjamin Lee Preston @bl_preston, Nicholas E. Burger, et al.
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commentary
Impact on the Environment from President Trump's First 100 Days
President Trump's actions have not yet resulted in demonstrable change in environmental conditions or funding. But the groundwork is being laid to unwind major regulations and diminish staff at the EPA and other federal agencies with climate-related research in their portfolios.
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commentary
With Trump in the White House, States Could Step Up on Climate Change
The new administration has expressed skepticism about climate change. But states may choose to pursue their own climate change initiatives.
Nov 26, 2016
Fox News Channel
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commentary
Paris Gets the (Decision) Science Right
The framework for the Paris negotiations is in sync with what science tells us about how to make effective public policy decisions. This alone makes them historic and may provide a model for both local and global action on more than climate alone.
Dec 18, 2015
The RAND Blog
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commentary
COP21: Ambition and Momentum
Negotiators in Paris achieved a historic breakthrough by adopting a fundamentally different, and likely more effective, institutional framework to address climate change. It builds on two concepts missing from past attempts to forge a global treaty: voluntary participation and adaptive policymaking.
Dec 17, 2015
The RAND Blog
Robert J. Lempert @RobertLempert, Debra Knopman, et al.
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commentary
COP 21 Not a Silver Bullet on Climate Change
The Paris climate conference cannot provide the engine that will drive a solution to the world's climate change challenge. Rather, it can best serve as a mediator that will help guide and structure the swirling, bottom-up process of radical change that is the best hope of preserving Earth's climate.
Nov 24, 2015
The RAND Blog
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commentary
Adapting to a Hotter World
Because climate change is largely irreversible, mitigation alone won't solve the problem. While mitigation will prevent even greater, future climatic changes, adaptation — efforts to adjust to climate change's effects — will prepare the world for a new set of living conditions, whatever they may be.
Oct 2, 2015
U.S. News & World Report
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commentary
Breaking Down Nuclear Waste as a Two-Part Issue
The U.S. Department of Energy is now planning separate repositories for commercial waste and the waste from the military's nuclear weapons production instead of disposing of both in the same repository as originally intended. Decoupling different parts of the nuclear waste problem is a small but positive step forward.
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commentary
Removing Road Blocks to Climate Change Adaptation Planning
Despite increasing interest and investments in climate adaptation science, the implementation of adaptation plans through institutional policies or other actions designed to reduce health vulnerabilities has been slow. Institutionalized assumptions are an important roadblock.
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commentary
San Onofre Risk Factors
The ongoing effort to open a spent fuel repository in the U.S. demonstrates the magnitude of the technical and political challenges of such an undertaking, writes Tom LaTourrette.
Jun 20, 2013
The Orange County Register
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commentary
Transitioning to a Carbon Tax Credit
Instead of setting an arbitrary Production Tax Credit value, we could provide a tax credit based on the social value of clean electricity generation, writes Constantine Samaras.
Feb 20, 2013
The Energy Collective