Energy Innovation Key The Senate needs to about double the House's clean energy innovation commitment. Well, there sure are a lot of placeholders in this thing. But on balance, the Kerry-Boxer climate bill provides as good a starting point as any for the imperfect wrangling, posturing, and dealmaking ahead. Whether that wrangling leads to a good bill will depend, then, on how those blanks are filled—and especially, on how the Senate deals with clean energy innovation issues. Basically, the Senate outline looks a lot like the Waxman-Markey bill that passed the House earlier this year, for better and worse. Like… Read more
Sen. Murkowski raises a legitimate question when she asks whether a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions should be the only option in the coming Senate debate on climate change. Of course it shouldn't be. Policymakers should always ask themselves if there is another way to achieve the same goal more cheaply and effectively. And the senator is right to imply that cap-and-trade did become prematurely a point of almost religious doctrine among environmentalists. Cap-and-trade need not have become the "only" option. And yet, for all that one is hard pressed to see what other truly adequate strategy Sen.… Read more
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