Web site challenges cap-and-trade critics

RealClimateEconomics' creators say it's a tool for lawmakers.

Two Portland-based organizations, Ecotrust and the Economics for Equity and the Environment (E3 Network), on May 21 announced the launch of a Web site aimed at making the economic case for combating climate change. The site was launched amid ongoing debates about the merits of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which proposes the adoption of a cap-and-trade program to combat climate change.

“Economics was becoming a rationale for inaction,” says Kristen Sheeran, executive director of E3 Network, a group of economists looking at the economics of environmental protection. “Many policy debates are lost on economic grounds. We knew that economics literature overwhelmingly supports immediate action.”

The site, RealClimateEconomics.org, was funded by a grant from San Francisco–based Energy Foundation and compiles summaries of peer-reviewed literature about the economics of climate change. While the featured work identifies costs associated with enacting climate change mitigation policies, it argues that those costs can be dealt with fairly and adequately, Sheeran says.

Some critics argue the American Clean Energy and Security Act would further hobble an already weakened economy. Yet the creators of RealClimateEconomics.org say it could be a valuable tool for lawmakers assessing how the bill may affect their constituents.

RealClimateEconomics.org also released a report examining differences in per capita emissions among states. The report found residents of six states—including California, Oregon and Washington—have dramatically lower energy-related, transportation and residential greenhouse gas emissions than residents of other states, without adverse effects on quality of life.

Sheeran says findings from the report can be used by states looking to better tackle emissions reductions. “There’s no way that households are not going to feel the impact of cap and trade,” Sheeran says, but lowering emission profiles can lessen those impacts.