Long Hit & Quick Hits 5/12/08

Climate change and social justice. Two concepts that don’t ordinarily show up together in a discussion of either. The Progressive States’ Network issued a dispatch a while back that did just that. Some of the concepts presented included “Cap and Dump”, where lower-income communities could see no improvement of industrial emissions caps. Too often, polluters and commodity traders make most of the decisions regarding cap and trade schemes. Local governments need to make sure they’re heavily involved in these processes. Too many examples exist of corporate irresponsibility.

Cap-and-trade systems aren’t the most efficient or fair choice to implement, I think. Carbon taxes seem to me to be a better alternative. One reason is they apply to every carbon source. If a cap-and-trade system is implemented, emissions allowances must be auctioned off, not given away. The European Union made this mistake while setting up their initial market. I think I’ve read that to date, emissions aren’t down, nor are they steady. Emissions in the European market have continued to increase, although perhaps at a slower rate. The U.S. must not make the same mistake now that we have the opportunity to learn from Europe’s decisions.

The PSN Dispatch notes that a recent Brookings Institution paper presented a mechanism to help offset the cost of a carbon tax on lower-income households. The paper calls for the creation of an environmental earned income tax credit in the personal income tax that would be equal to the employer and employee payroll taxes on initial earnings (up to a limit). The tax credit could be financed by revenue raised through implementing the carbon tax. Economic analysis in the study shows that properly enacted rebates would completely offset any increase in costs by a carbon tax, a truly important consideration.

Another good point: new and better jobs in low-income communities can help fight the disproportionate burden of climate change on those communities. Specifically, environmentally beneficial jobs and economic growth can do quite a bit to offset that burden.

Those are some of the highlights I picked up from the report. Click on the link above to see the whole thing for yourself. They also include a large amount of additional resources as links from the Dispatch.

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A well laid out diary with maps of the Democratic Presidential contests held thus far. It’s a little long, but worth the read.

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The successful Colorado Forest Restoration Pilot Program extension has been passed by both chambers of the Colorado legislature. CO SB08-71, sponsored by Sen. Dan Gibbs, will provide $1 million annually through 2012 to help consumers implement forest treatment projects to reduce wildfire fuels.

The bill being send to Gov. Ritter couldn’t have come at a better time. One recent study estimated that every lodgepole pine forest from Pueblo to Wyoming will be decimated by the pine beetle infestation within five years, which is very bad news for the forest ecosystems and the state’s watersheds.

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The Colorado Wildlife Commission tackled what it saw as shortcomings in the oil and gas commissions’ plans for drilling, as required by CO HB08-1298. Chief among their concerns included timing restrictions, surface-occupancy limitations and reclamation. The issue of reclamation was a major point of discussion, which is appropriate given the industry’s track record of leaving land even remotely similar to how it existed prior to drilling. Here’s hoping the CWC’s work does some good.