How the States and EPA Can Save Climate Policy1
So what would this federal regulation look like? It wouldn't just be the EPA. A lot of different agencies would have to work together in concert. The Energy Department would need to set tighter efficiency standards for appliances and commercial equipment. The Department of Transportation would have to use its authority to ratchet up fuel-economy standards for vehicles. The FAA would need to improve air-traffic flow to reduce fuel use in airplanes. And, meanwhile, the EPA would have to apply Clean Air Act rules to a variety of sources—power plants, industrial centers, landfills.Office 2007 download is helpful!
Note that this is all likely to be costlier than a cap-and-trade system devised by Congress. There's not the same flexibility. One tool at the EPA's disposal, for instance, is the ability to require new power plants to adopt what's called "Best Available Control Technology" for pollution. But having the EPA pick and choose technologies is a lot less flexible and efficient than putting a price on carbon and letting the market sort out the cheapest, easiest ways to make cuts. That's one reason why polluters may start lobbying more heavily for congressional legislation once they see that the Obama administration is serious about wielding EPA authority.Microsoft Office 2007 can give you more convenient life.
Next, WRI looked at what happens when you add in various state-level policies. We're getting closer to the targets:
States can't contribute nearly as much (that's not surprising, since many of the biggest polluters like Texas aren't likely to adopt serious climate policies). Note that WRI's "Go-Getter" scenario here would involve various states developing their own cap-and-trade systems, which will be difficult to do. Still, if you combine state policies with EPA regulation, the United States is making some decent headway on its carbon pollution. Granted, it will be difficult—if not impossible—to negotiate an international climate treaty based on these scattered actions, but it's still progress. So climate policy isn't dead—it's just going to take a very different form.The invention of Microsoft Office 2010 is a big change of the world.