Perpetual Innovation

Category: cap n trade

  • Climate-change deniers are in retreat – The Washington Post

    Climate-change deniers are in retreat – The Washington Post:

    It will be nice to move past the non-debate about is there global warming, and move off into the real debate.

    We are all living unsustainable lives with non-sustainable business models. What is our plan to move toward sustainability. Singly and collectively?

    The argument that it doesn’t do any good for us to do something if China and India continue consuming is sad and ironic.

    For a century, we in the US with only 4.5% of the worlds population, have consumed about 1/4 of all the worlds resources consumed/used… Coal, Iron, Gas, etc.

    We have produced about 1/4 of the worlds byproducts for a century (pollution and CO2).

    We at this blog like to focus on those things that can be done within weeks, not decades. Energy Efficiency (EE) initiatives can pay for themselves in weeks, with a perpetuity of savings forever after. Telecommuting can result in a perpetuity of savings for ever (until you start a new job that requires a commuting).

    We argue that nobody anywhere can reasonably believe that the price we pay at the pump of oil and at the meter for coal power is accurate and represents the true cost. Gas taxes continue to pay less and less of the US road maintenance, for example.

    Economist generally settle on a carbon tax as a better solution than either subsidizing green energy/cars or a cap-and-trade mechanism. There will never be a better time to initiate a carbon tax then 2014 when oil prices are half and should be reasonably low for a year or more.

    Or, we can continue to consume oil and gas like as if there is no tomorrow.

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Pain in the Ash: Spill spews tons of coal ash into NC Dan River – CNN.com

    Spill spews tons of coal ash into North Carolina’s Dan River – CNN.com:

    Oh what a pain it is! … A Pain in the Ash, so to speak.

    One of the dirty little secrets of Coal is the ash!. The massive 2008 spill in TVA should have been a bit of a wakeup call. But this phone has been ringing for centuries. There’s impurities in coal, including sulfur and heavy metals like lead and arsenic. See the EPA letter on the TVA spill. And coal power releases 100 times as much radiation into the environment as a nuclear power plant. High concentrations of uranium and thorium are released into the environment around a plant from the fly ash. See APA on this ash issue.

    The other secrets are that about 10,000 people die in mines per year, most of them coal, and often in China. There’s the impact to air and water that many estimates impact the health of hundreds of millions of people.

    The bull in the China closet, of course, is — well — China. They burn more than half of the world’s coal right now. PRC is still opening still are opening 1 to 2 coal power plants per week, unless that has changed. And they are much less worried about how much pollution escapes into the air and water. The summer Olympics were distinctive for the air pollution, and athletes trying to compete in smog.

    This smog and pollution is “shared” with neighboring countries, and the world at large. Even the Americas on occasion get a beautiful sunset, complements of the Peoples Republic.

    As well, coal is a huge greenhouse gas producer of CO2, something that is invisibly shared with the whole of the planet… and no one knows what the true costs and full consequences are. But we do know that CO2 as a greenhouse gas lasts about 100 years, so whatever the impacts are, they will be very, very, very long lasting.

    Many economist suggest a tax on something that has distinctive, negative externalities. Maybe coal would be a candidate!? Taxes on cigarettes are an example. A gradual tax domestically seems logical. Maybe the rest of the world should tax all the coal that gets exported to China, as well. How about an import tax on those products that are primarily produced by dirty Chinese electricity?

    The dirty little secrets of coal are getting out. It’s been 2 centuries that coal has ruled the power infrastructure. It is time to seriously address this “open” secret.

    If you are a stockholder or a customer of Duke, it is time to give the Duke a nudge, and elbow, or even a brisk kick in the ‘ash!…

    ‘via Blog this’

  • Innovation: Social Irresponsibility: Energy, cost of carbon

    Check out the workings for markets in Carbon…


    Cap n trade, tax and trade, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

    • Australia does Carbon Tax and shift.
    • Texas sets up a Carbon Exchange.
    • California has a huge lift in the prices of Carbon allocations (CCA) because of the down time of a nuclear power plant.

    Overall, the price per ton of carbon is now at between $8 and $23.


    Anything above free, is probably a very good thing for the true costs of energy.


    SustainZine: Social Irresponsibility: Energy, cost of carbon

    Coming soon to an eBook store near you: Social Responsibility by the www.RefractiveThinker.com. 

  • Social Irresponsibility: Energy and the cost of carbon

    These are all part of a dramatic change in the way that we view carbon emissions.


    There are three things that are prominently in the news about carbon emissions and addressing them in June of 2012. These are all part of a dramatic change in the way that we view carbon emissions.

    1. Australia is opening up a Carbon Tax at $23 per ton. They are adjusting from the mistakes of Europe when they started cap and trade at too low a price. Undermining the whole process.
    2. In the meanwhile, Texas is opening a market for carbon. The Oil capital of the US is also the largest Wind producer of electricity.
    3. California credit allowances jump in price dramatically.
    Generally there are three ways to address the issues associated with externalities caused by carbon emission (and greenhouse gas emissions)

    1. Voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR). Look at Shaklee corporation and Microsoft. Shaklee, a health and nutrition company, is the first company to be certified climate neutral in April 2010. In the meanwhile, Microsoft intends to be carbon neutral by the end of 2013.

    2. Cap and Trade exchanges. Texas and California.

    a.   Texas is opening a market for carbon. “Bad joke, or perhaps an oxymoron”, right?  Nope, it is the Texas Climate & Carbon Exchange. The Oil capital of the US that produces about 1m barrels of oil per year is also the largest Wind producer of electricity (producing about 6.5m GHw/hr in 2010, nearly twice as much as Kansas). This is one of several exchanges, with the most notable one in the us operating in California.
    b.   This headline from Reuters: “California carbon allowances (CCAs) for delivery in 2013 closed at $16.75 per tonne on Thursday, up $1.10 from one week ago on a growing belief that the shutdown of a California nuclear power plant will boost carbon emissions due to higher fossil fuel use.” A 7% jump was followed by $20+ call options that anticipated future CCAs rising aggressively in the future.

    3. Tax Mechanism.
    “The carbon pricing scheme will impose costs on big polluters, which will result in higher end prices for certain products. Treasury estimates that an average family will pay $9.90 more per week in the first year of the scheme’s introduction.” But 9 out of 10 households will get some level of reimbursements “ through personal income tax cuts and increases in pensions and allowances, as well as other measures”. This will already take effect from May-June 2012. Check out the Household Carbon tax estimator for Australia:  

    a.   What is the Carbon Tax? (Australia):  http://www.carbontax.net.au/category/what-is-the-carbon-tax/ A $23 per ton initial tax on heavy polluters.
    c.   Discussion (Australia). Australia is one of the worst (developed countries) for carbon footprint per capita. Unlike Canada (cold) this is partially because of the sprawl of the country and the abundance of fossil fuels. The tax is directly on the producers of carbon (starting with coal) and this tax is applied directly to those impacted. Those households impacted can spend the money any way they want.  The more accurate costs of dirtier energy (coal and oil) will serve to shift prices to cleaner energy.

    So, what does this mean? It means that in lots of places and within lots of organizations (and governments) there is a movement toward addressing carbon emissions. Even the glacial movements in the US are starting gain speed, much like the melting glaciers themselves are.


    A market mechanism like Australia’s seems like an good approach. There is not a massive initial gift of credits to the coal-burning companies. The government doesn’t take all the money and run. The market is given an opportunity to improve the costing to accommodate the externalities of fossil fuels.


    Let’s see how that plays forward? 


    Coming soon to an eBook store near you: Social Responsibility by the www.RefractiveThinker.com.