carbon emissions are falling! oh noz!
http://www.boston.com/news/local/article…
Greenhouse gas emissions from Northeast power plants were about 10 percent lower than predicted during the last two years…
But the decrease may have some unanticipated consequences for efforts to combat global warming: It could have the perverse effect of delaying more lasting reductions, by undercutting incentives intended to spur power plants to invest in cleaner technologies and energy efficiency…
I wonder if environmentalists are really as pathetic and perpetually grumpy as they always sound, or if that’s just some sort of kabuki political theater?
Massachusetts and nine other Northeast states are part of a landmark pact called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that is designed to cap power plant emissions in 2009 and then gradually reduce them by 10 percent over the next decade. Power plants will have to buy emission allowances…
But if emissions are significantly lower than the cap, there would be less demand for allowances, driving down their price and giving power plants little financial incentive to invest in cleaner and more efficient technologies…
It’s almost as if people are hung up on the means, and not the ends.
Oh noz, the industry has realized that the cheapest way (which is to say “the way that bes preserves living standards) to cut carbon emissions is to switch from coal to natural gas…which means that they’re not taking the more expensive way (which is to say “way that destroys living standards”) that we want them to. Boo hoo!
“If the cap is above what power plants are emitting, we won’t see any change in their behavior,” said Derek K. Murrow, director of policy analysis for Environment Northeast, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. “They just continue business as usual.”
(a) Umm…you’ve already seen a change in their behavior
(b) what do you want? Lower carbon emissions, or to force them to use some pet technology?
in 2006, emissions unexpectedly dropped. Many power plants in the Northeast can burn oil or gas … those plants began burning gas, which emits less global warming pollution than oil. Cool summers and warm winters the past two years also reduced energy usage.
Oh noz! Not only did power plants switch to a cleaner burning fuel, but climate change may have reversed itself…and the upshot is that our attempts to reverse climate change are not stringent enough!
In 2005, emissions were about 2 percent below the cap. But they were about 13 percent below in 2006
Will this bad news never end!?!?!
Officials of states involved in RGGI and energy specialists are discussing ways to ensure that allowances have enough value to spark investments in cleaner technologies.
Again, the insistence on technologies. Why?
One solution would be to lower the cap, but that’s likely to be politically difficult…
Laurie Burt, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, said she and other state officials are aware of the problem and discussing ways to solve it.
What problem?
She said she wasn’t overly concerned because there are several mechanisms allowed by RGGI, including setting a minimum bid, that can ensure allowances don’t sell for too little.
How does Laurie Burt justify her belief that carbon credits are selling for “too little” ?
“We want to get this right,” she said.
I humbly suggest that the first step is getting a !#$%^-ing education, you stupid idiot.
