The Clean Air Act as U.S. Climate Policy
Event Details
Presenter
Dallas Burtraw, Resources for the Future
Abstract
Climate policy in the U.S. is taking shape under the Clean Air Act. This approach departs from the ideal policy design that has been the focus of academic research. What can one say about the outcome and the costs in practice? Reductions in fossil fuel CO2 emissions in the US economy by 2020 already match those that would have been expected under the Waxman-Markey proposal, but the generous role for offsets under Waxman-Markey is nonexistent. Currently, attention is focused on the most important category of existing power plants. Prior RFF research identified a regulatory pathway that was likely to be legal and provide modest emissions reductions at modest cost from the power sector. The challenge issued by President Obama to EPA is to develop an approach that achieves substantial emissions reductions using flexible, market-based approaches. Recent and ongoing research highlights the program design issues that will determine whether this can occur.
Date
Thursday, September 26, 2013
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. A light lunch will be provided.
Location
7th Floor Conference Room
1616 P St. NW
Washington, DC 20036 All seminars will be in the 7th Floor Conference Room at RFF, 1616 P Street NW. Attendance is open, but involves pre-registration no later than two days prior to the event. For questions and to register to an event, please contact Karen Furman at [email protected]. Updates to our academic seminars schedule will be posted at www.rff.org/academicseminarseries.
