Carbon Emissions

After a few years of declining carbon emissions in the U.S., emissions are on the rise. The decline led to some headlines about the U.S. actually making real progress despite passing no climate bill. And I don’t want to dismiss the important moves the Obama Administration has made against coal-burning power plants. But the other reasons for the decline were one-time only deals (recession and stagnation, unusual and unsustainable collapse in natural gas prices). If we want to fight climate change in any meaningful way, we are going to need a lot more leadership from the government. Voluntary measures, relying on the market, etc., just flat isn’t going to work.