Strategic Options for Bush Administration Climate Policy

by Lee Lane

Overview

What new climate change policies should the federal government adopt? In Strategic Options for Bush Administration Climate Policy, Lee Lane, the executive director of the Climate Policy Center, critiques current policies and explores options for policymakers. His conclusions will surprise many environmentalists: President Bush was right to reject the Kyoto Protocol and should continue to reject cap-and-trade programs modeled on Kyoto. Emissions trading would be expensive and ineffective. Instead, Lane advocates a modest carbon tax and an aggressive federal R&D effort to develop the breakthrough clean energy technologies that would allow America to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780844771960
Publisher:	Aei Press
Publication date:	11/28/2006
Pages:	140
Product dimensions:	5.54(w) x 8.66(h) x 0.30(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     vii
Introduction     1
The Bush Administration and the Kyoto Protocol     6
The Kyoto Protocol and American National Interest     7
The Continuing Problem of Kyoto     13
Constructing an Alternative to the Kyoto Regime     17
Conclusion     26
The Chimera of Global GHG Cap-and-Trade     28
Proposals to Ratchet Up Kyoto's Stringency     29
Assessing the Rationale for International Cap-and-Trade     30
The High Costs of National and International GHG Control Regimes     34
False Analogies     47
Conclusion     49
Bush Administration Domestic Climate Policy     50
The President's Rejection of Domestic GHG Cap-and-Trade     51
The Continuing Progress of Domestic Cap-and-Trade     57
The Bush Administration's Alternative to Domestic Cap-and-Trade     59
Assessing the Domestic Technology Programs     65
CCTP's Organizational Problems     75
Conclusion     77
A New Climate Policy     79
New Political Realities     79
A Carbon Tax?     81
A New International Negotiation     87
Building Better R&D Institutions andPolicies     90
Institutional and Intellectual Foundations for a New Climate Policy     97
Conclusion     101
Notes     105
References     113
About the Author     121
Index     123