Common Resources

Comparing the Clean Air Act and a Carbon Price

Though President Obama is set for a major address on climate tomorrow, US policy faces an uncertain future. EPA is moving haltingly ahead with regulations under the Clean Air Act (and may redouble its efforts after the speech), but some in Congress are pushing to revoke its authority. Others in Congress support new legislation setting […]

The Value of Being First: Climate Policy Perspectives from California and Sweden

When it comes to climate policy, it seems like pessimism is the only thing that rivals greenhouse gas emissions in terms of volume. Last week, the daily atmospheric content of CO2 popped up over 400 parts per million, pushing the stated goal of keeping worldwide temperatures to a 2˚C increase even further from reach. Beneath […]

Resources Magazine: Ensuring Competitiveness under a US Carbon Tax

Tax exemptions, industry rebates, and border tax adjustments can help protect the competitiveness of industries affected by a carbon tax, but they are not equally efficient at achieving economic and environmental goals. In the latest issue of Resources, Richard Morgenstern, Nathan Richardson, and I examine the issues. Read more here.

Policy Options for Addressing Carbon Tax Impacts to Households

Carbon pricing remains the strongest option for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change. But such a policy still faces serious political hurdles in part because of the perception that a carbon tax would most negatively impact the poor. Clayton Munnings and I address the potential of a carbon tax to actually be progressive […]

Linking Carbon Markets Offers More Than Economic Benefits

Economists have long recognized that linking carbon markets reduces the overall cost of achieving emissions reductions. This economic benefit originates from allowance flows between previously isolated markets that help identify and achieve emissions reductions in the most efficient way. Linking, however, provides non-economic benefits that can be just as important as efficient mitigation. In a […]

Aligning Carbon Markets: The Case of California and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

Incrementally aligning policies in distinct carbon markets—linking by degrees—can allow programs to experience immediate benefits of sharing best practices in program design. Together with colleagues at RFF and Yale, we’ve examined the details and prospects for the cap-and-trade programs in California and the Northeast. Read more here.

China’s Carbon Tax Plan

Xinhua reported recently that China will introduce a carbon tax. The actual announcement by Jia Chen from the Ministry of Finance buried the mention of the new carbon tax within a broader set of tax reform goals. Other reforms mentioned included the use of taxes to promote innovation and the development of small- and medium-sized businesses. This is […]

An Economic View of Sen. Murkowski’s Blueprint

Today, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released her long-anticipated energy policy “blueprint.” Murkowski is a relatively centrist Republican and has historically made energy policy a priority. This makes her one of the most important votes in Congress on energy, and the blueprint is therefore worth a close look—it is an important indicator of what is possible […]

RFF Feature: The Past, Present, and Future of Carbon Markets

New research explores lessons learned to date from carbon markets around the world and presents new issues to be examined in the future, such as the linking of existing markets. Click here to read the feature in its entirety.

RFF Feature: The Coming US Carbon Market

RFF experts have developed several background memos on cap-and-trade and carbon tax systems to provide informative overviews and highlight current work, available data, and potential research limitations. Click here to read the rest of this feature.