Too Good to Be True? An Examination of Three Economic Assessments of California Climate Change Policy

California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 limits California's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 to their 1990 level. Global climate change is a pressing environmental problem, and the best possible public policies will be required to address it. Therefore, analyses of prospective policies must themselves be of high quality, so that policymakers can reasonably rely on them when making the critical decisions they inevitably will face. In 2006, three studies were released indicating that California can meet its 2020 target at no net economic cost - raising questions about whether opportunities truly exist to substantially reduce emissions at no cost, or whether studies reaching such conclusions may simply severely underestimate costs. This paper provides an evaluation of these three California studies. We find that although opportunities may exist for some no-cost emission reductions, these California studies substantially underestimate the cost of meeting California's 2020 target. The studies underestimate costs by omitting important components of the costs of emission reduction efforts, and by overestimating offsetting savings that some of those efforts yield through improved energy efficiency. In some cases, the studies focus on the costs of particular actions to reduce emissions, but fail to consider the effectiveness and costs of policies that would be necessary to bring about such actions. While quantifying the full extent of the resulting cost underestimation is beyond the scope of our study, the underestimation is clearly economically significant. A few of the identified flaws individually lead to underestimation of annual costs on the order of billions of dollars. Hence, these studies do not offer reliable estimates of the cost of meeting California's 2020 target. Better analyses are needed to inform policymakers. While the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 sets a 2020 emissions target, critical policy design decisions remain to be made that will fundamentally affect the cost of California's climate policy. For example, policymakers must determine emission targets for the years before and after 2020, the emission sources that will be regulated to meet those targets, and the policy instruments that will be employed. The California studies do not directly address the cost implications of these and other policy design decisions, and their overly optimistic findings may leave policymakers with an inadequate appreciation of the stakes associated with decisions that lie ahead. As such, California would benefit from studies that specifically assess the cost implications of alternative policy designs. Nonetheless, a careful evaluation of the California studies highlights some important policy design lessons that apply regardless of the extent to which no-cost emission reduction opportunities actually exist. In particular, policies should be designed to account for uncertainty regarding emission reduction costs, much of which will not be resolved before policies must be enacted. Also, consideration of the different market failures that lead to excessive GHG emissions makes clear that to reduce emissions cost-effectively, policymakers should adopt a market-based policy (such as a cap-and-trade system) as the core policy instrument. The presence of specific market failures that may lead to some no-cost emission reduction opportunities suggests the potential value of additional policies that act as complements, rather than alternatives, to a market-based policy. However, to develop complementary policies that efficiently target such no-cost opportunities, policymakers need better information than currently exists regarding the specific market failures that bring about those opportunities.

Mediating urban politics

Despite the turn to relational vocabularies in urban theory, most work on urban politics acknowledging the importance of media has tended to reproduce a centred image of ‘the media’ and a functionalist account of mediation. This essay suggests, by contrast, that media might be understood more phenomenologically, as those technologies embedded in the dispersed practices of urban life, and as assemblages of integrative practices (i.e. ‘the media’), both of which identify and subject to action a range of issues that are problematized as ‘urban’. Such a focus on media-in-practices is an important shift in perspective for research hoping to bring together the shared political concerns of urban and media studies, and to take advantage of the converging spatial imaginations and reconfigured understandings of mediation emerging across both fields

Too Good to Be True? An Examination of Three Economic Assesssments of California Climate Change Policy

California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 limits California's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 to their 1990 level. Global climate change is a pressing environmental problem, and the best possible public policies will be required to address it. Therefore, analyses of prospective policies must themselves be of high quality, so that policymakers can reasonably rely on them when making the critical decisions they inevitably will face. In 2006, three studies were released indicating that California can meet its 2020 target at no net economic cost , raising questions about whether opportunities truly exist to substantially reduce emissions at no cost, or whether studies reaching such conclusions may simply severely underestimate costs. This paper provides an evaluation of these three California studies. We find that although opportunities may exist for some no-cost emission reductions, these California studies substantially underestimate the cost of meeting California's 2020 target. The studies underestimate costs by omitting important components of the costs of emission reduction efforts, and by overestimating offsetting savings that some of those efforts yield through improved energy efficiency. In some cases, the studies focus on the costs of particular actions to reduce emissions, but fail to consider the effectiveness and costs of policies that would be necessary to bring about such actions. While quantifying the full extent of the resulting cost underestimation is beyond the scope of our study, the underestimation is clearly economically significant. A few of the identified flaws individually lead to underestimation of annual costs on the order of billions of dollars. Hence, these studies do not offer reliable estimates of the cost of meeting California's 2020 target. Better analyses are needed to inform policymakers. While the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 sets a 2020 emissions target, critical policy design decisions remain to be made that will fundamentally affect the cost of California's climate policy. For example, policymakers must determine emission targets for the years before and after 2020, the emission sources that will be regulated to meet those targets, and the policy instruments that will be employed. The California studies do not directly address the cost implications of these and other policy design decisions, and their overly optimistic findings may leave policymakers with an inadequate appreciation of the stakes associated with decisions that lie ahead. As such, California would benefit from studies that specifically assess the cost implications of alternative policy designs. Nonetheless, a careful evaluation of the California studies highlights some important policy design lessons that apply regardless of the extent to which no-cost emission reduction opportunities actually exist. In particular, policies should be designed to account for uncertainty regarding emission reduction costs, much of which will not be resolved before policies must be enacted. Also, consideration of the different market failures that lead to excessive GHG emissions makes clear that to reduce emissions cost-effectively, policymakers should adopt a market-based policy (such as a cap-and-trade system) as the core policy instrument. The presence of specific market failures that may lead to some no-cost emission reduction opportunities suggests the potential value of additional policies that act as complements, rather than alternatives, to a market-based policy. However, to develop complementary policies that efficiently target such no-cost opportunities, policymakers need better information than currently exists regarding the specific market failures that bring about those opportunities.

\u3ci\u3eThe\u3c/i\u3e Law Librarian: Marian Gallagher

Being a relatively new kid on the block, I am not sure I am an appropriate person to write about Marian Gallagher. After all, you—the attorneys, the librarians, the faculty and students (past and present)—have interacted with her for so long. What can I relate about her that you don\u27t already know? For many years, before I considered joining the faculty here, the name of Marian Gallagher was well known to me. Not being in the book business myself, I was limited in my knowledge, but I did know she produced an incredible number of talented librarians and she had devised and distributed the well-known Current Index to Legal Periodicals. My mind\u27s eye image of the unmet but already recognizable Gallagher was quite formidable. Imagine my surprise and delight when I encountered the soft-spoken person with the twinkling eyes, the smiling face, and the kindest manner. This was the redoubtable Marian Gallagher! Given a modicum of common sense, I should have realized that it was some sort of deception, but—like everyone else—I was and am taken in

Too Good to Be True? Three Economic Assessments of California Climate Change Policy

California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 limits California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020 to their 1990 level. Global climate change is a pressing environmental problem, and the best possible public policies will be required to address it. Therefore, analyses of prospective policies must themselves be of high quality, so that policymakers can reasonably rely on them when making the critical decisions they inevitably will face. In 2006, three studies were released indicating that California can meet its 2020 target at no net economic cost — raising questions about whether opportunities truly exist to substantially reduce emissions at no cost, or whether studies reaching such conclusions may simply severely underestimate costs. This paper provides an evaluation of these three California studies. We find that although opportunities may exist for some no-cost emission reductions, these California studies substantially underestimate the cost of meeting California’s 2020 target. The studies underestimate costs by omitting important components of the costs of emission reduction efforts, and by overestimating offsetting savings that some of those efforts yield through improved energy efficiency. In some cases, the studies focus on the costs of particular actions to reduce emissions, but fail to consider the effectiveness and costs of policies that would be necessary to bring about such actions. While quantifying the full extent of the resulting cost underestimation is beyond the scope of our study, the underestimation is clearly economically significant. A few of the identified flaws individually lead to underestimation of annual costs on the order of billions of dollars. Hence, these studies do not offer reliable estimates of the cost of meeting California’s 2020 target. Better analyses are needed to inform policymakers. While the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 sets a 2020 emissions target, critical policy design decisions remain to be made that will fundamentally affect the cost of California’s climate policy. For example, policymakers must determine emission targets for the years before and after 2020, the emission sources that will be regulated to meet those targets, and the policy instruments that will be employed. The California studies do not directly address the cost implications of these and other policy design decisions, and their overly optimistic findings may leave policymakers with an inadequate appreciation of the stakes associated with decisions that lie ahead. As such, California would benefit from studies that specifically assess the cost implications of alternative policy designs.Nonetheless, a careful evaluation of the California studies highlights some important policy design lessons that apply regardless of the extent to which no-cost emission reduction opportunities actually exist. In particular, policies should be designed to account for uncertainty regarding emission reduction costs, much of which will not be resolved before policies must be enacted. Also, consideration of the different market failures that lead to excessive GHG emissions makes clear that to reduce emissions cost-effectively, policymakers should adopt a market-based policy (such as a cap-and-trade system) as the core policy instrument. The presence of specific market failures that may lead to some no-cost emission reduction opportunities suggests the potential value of additional policies that act as complements, rather than alternatives, to a market-based policy. However, to develop complementary policies that efficiently target such no-cost opportunities, policymakers need better information than currently exists regarding the specific market failures that bring about those opportunities.

United Steelworkers of America v. Weber: An Exercise in Understandable Indecision

It is well known to those involved in the world of employment-discrimination law that in 1974 the United Steelworkers of America and Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation entered into a collective-bargaining agreement which provided for a new on-the-job training program designed solely to correct the virtually total absence of blacks in Kaiser\u27s craft workforce. Fifty percent of the trainees were to be black. Brian Weber, a white production worker who failed to obtain a position in the program, instituted a class action suit alleging that the affirmative action plan discriminated against him and his white colleagues in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When the case reached the Supreme Court, a five-to-two majority in United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC v. Weber upheld the affirmative action plan. Writing for the Court, Justice Brennan conceded that, under some circumstances, discrimination against whites may be outlawed by Title VII, but it did not follow that affirmative action plans fell under that prohibition. Although the language of the statute might appear to outlaw the Kaiser plan, the Court reminded us that a thing may be within the letter of the statute and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the intention of its makers. The Court then observed that the statute had to be read against the background of the legislative history of Title VII and the historical context from which the Act arose. The Court\u27s approach was a reminder for me of what one of my own law professors had claimed, sarcastically, had become the mode for statutory interpretation: if the legislative history is not clear, look to the words of the statute. Having decided that the answer to the question was to be found in the legislative history, Justice Brennan quoted many of the congressional supporters of Title VII. The general impact of all the quotes was that blacks in our society had had very bad employment opportunities due to long traditions of discrimination; this state of affairs had resulted in their having fewer of the necessities of life than were available to members of society in general. The Court recognized Congress had expressly made it clear that the Act did not require racial balancing; however, Congress had not similarly addressed the question whether racial balancing was permitted. Somehow, this fortified the Court\u27s conclusion that Congress did not intend to limit traditional business freedom to such a degree as to prohibit voluntary, race-conscious affirmative action. [This article was originally delivered as a speech to the Pacific Coast Labor Law Conference on May 8, 1980.

\u3ci\u3eUnited Steelworkers of America v. Weber\u3c/i\u3e: An Exercise in Understandable Indecision

It is well known to those involved in the world of employment-discrimination law that in 1974 the United Steelworkers of America and Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation entered into a collective-bargaining agreement which provided for a new on-the-job training program designed solely to correct the virtually total absence of blacks in Kaiser\u27s craft workforce. Fifty percent of the trainees were to be black. Brian Weber, a white production worker who failed to obtain a position in the program, instituted a class action suit alleging that the affirmative action plan discriminated against him and his white colleagues in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. When the case reached the Supreme Court, a five-to-two majority in United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC v. Weber upheld the affirmative action plan. Writing for the Court, Justice Brennan conceded that, under some circumstances, discrimination against whites may be outlawed by Title VII, but it did not follow that affirmative action plans fell under that prohibition. Although the language of the statute might appear to outlaw the Kaiser plan, the Court reminded us that a thing may be within the letter of the statute and yet not within the statute, because not within its spirit, nor within the intention of its makers. The Court then observed that the statute had to be read against the background of the legislative history of Title VII and the historical context from which the Act arose. The Court\u27s approach was a reminder for me of what one of my own law professors had claimed, sarcastically, had become the mode for statutory interpretation: if the legislative history is not clear, look to the words of the statute. Having decided that the answer to the question was to be found in the legislative history, Justice Brennan quoted many of the congressional supporters of Title VII. The general impact of all the quotes was that blacks in our society had had very bad employment opportunities due to long traditions of discrimination; this state of affairs had resulted in their having fewer of the necessities of life than were available to members of society in general. The Court recognized Congress had expressly made it clear that the Act did not require racial balancing; however, Congress had not similarly addressed the question whether racial balancing was permitted. Somehow, this fortified the Court\u27s conclusion that Congress did not intend to limit traditional business freedom to such a degree as to prohibit voluntary, race-conscious affirmative action. [This article was originally delivered as a speech to the Pacific Coast Labor Law Conference on May 8, 1980.