News Flash! Water still runs downhill only

by Roger Koppl

Today’s Los Angeles Times reports that “Businesspeople join the ranks of climate treaty proponents.” This support is old news as I noted last May in a post entitled “Water does not run uphill.”  The L A Times report nevertheless express surprise saying, “an unlikely batch of advocates has emerged to champion a new global warming agreement: businesspeople.”  And yet the same article contains clear statements that many big businesses see profit opportunities in a climate treaty.

Climate laws are barriers to entry.  

Water does not run uphill

by Roger Koppl

The Los Angeles Times reports, “Industry is warming up to Obama’s climate plan.”  It seems many big businesses, including Alcoa, want to go green.  To what do we owe this sudden tree-hugging zeal?  It could be an altruistic desire to save the planet, but I have a more skeptical opinion.  I think they see it as a way to keep the competition at bay. 

Once again, be careful what you wish for

by Sandy Ikeda

I’d wager that many of us who’ve lectured to our classes on environmental economics have at some point suggested that one way to eliminate pollution is to stop all forms of energy-consuming and pollution-generating production.  That would kill most of the human (and a lot of the non-human) inhabitants on earth, but it would probably preserve the natural environment (in the long-run, that is, after all those nasty carcasses get washed away).  The point being, of course, that there’s such a thing as having too little pollution, and that there are better and worse ways to lower pollution.

Next time, you might want to use this article from the latest (November 22, 2008) The Economist.  Thanks to skyrocketing gas prices (at least until lately), the housing collapse, and the impending recession, Californians may actually come close to hitting the ambitious targets for renewable energy and greenhouse-gas emissions mandated by Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger for 2020.