Why The World Will Not Agree to Pricing Carbon (Part II)

By Peter Lang -- October 24, 2014

[Editor Note: Part I yesterday explained why carbon pricing cannot succeed unless it is global, and global carbon pricing is unlikely to be achieved, let alone sustained for the time until the job is done (centuries). Today’s post evaluates the output from the most widely cited and accepted climate economics model to show that at realistically likely participation rates, carbon pricing would be economically damaging for all this century, if not far beyond.]

A new report by Sir Nicholas Stern and co-authors “Better growth better climate”, released a week before the UN Climate Summit in New York (September 2014), advocates governments around the world intervene to impose carbon pricing, wind and solar power, and energy efficiency improvements. They imply the net economic costs could be negligible.

However, these claims do not seem to reconcile with results from the DICE-2013R model, developed by the highly respected and cited climate economist, William Nordhaus.…

Why The World Will Not Agree to Pricing Carbon (Part I)

By Peter Lang -- October 23, 2014

“If Europe chooses a solo effort through a one-sided climate protection target of 40% less emissions, it would mean billions in losses for us that our global competitors would not otherwise have gained. The damage done to competitiveness among energy-intensive companies in the EU would be considerable.”

– Utz Tillmann, Energy Intensive Industries of Germany, quoted in “German Industry Issues Stark Warning Ahead of EU Climate Summit,” EurActiv, October 22, 2014.

This two-part series considers the probability of success of carbon pricing and an alternative approach. Part 1, ‘Why carbon pricing will not succeed’, is an edited extract from my submission to the Australian Senate inquiry into repeal of the carbon tax legislation (Submission No 2; Mr Peter Lang). Part 1 explains why carbon pricing cannot succeed unless it is global, and global carbon pricing is unlikely to be achieved, let alone sustained for the time until the job is done (centuries).…

Solar PV Subsidies: Criticism Mounts (U.C. Berkeley’s Borenstein has had enough)

By Wayne Lusvardi -- October 22, 2014

“[T]he evidence is clear that Increased Block Pricing is a key driver behind the distributed solar PV movement in California… The first step to rationalizing California’s electricity rates is to greatly reduce or eliminate increasing-block-pricing.”

“With federal subsidies that pay nearly half the cost of PV — and net metering that pays the residential customer for electricity supplied to the grid at the retail rate rather than the wholesale rate that other renewable generation sources receive – solar PV can beat the high-tier prices of IBP. That’s why solar PV installers are the most vocal opponents of rational rate reform that would call a kilowatt-hour a kilowatt-hour regardless of how many other kilowatt-hours you consume during the month.”

— Severin Borenstein, Director, University of California Energy Institute (September 30, 2014)

Southern California Edison Rates 1999 to 2009

Tiered electric-rate policies are driving California homeowners that use a lot of electricity into rooftop solar installations and should be ended, says one of California’s top energy experts.…