Carbon must be made expensive

From the minority desk at the Senate Environment Committee:

A report (PDF) issued yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concludes that relying exclusively on research and development (R&D) funding is not the most effective strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. CBO found that combining R&D subsidies with a gradually increasing price on emissions is a more cost-effective approach.

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In the words of my older son, "don’t be silly, I know dat." Of course raising the price of carbon emissions is a necessary part of reducing them.

What Bush doesn’t seem to get is that there are already some fairly mature energy technologies waiting to be deployed.

The point at which an energy technology is widely deployed is the point at which it becomes cheaper than its competitors.

Almost by definition, when you raise the price of fossil fuels you move closer the arrival of genuine competitors.

(via TP)