Comparison of the Cap-and-Trade Provisions in H.R. 2454 and S. 1733

Congressional Research Service report comparing the House and Senate cap-and-trade portions for the Waxman-Markey and Kerry-Boxer bills.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40896_20091105.pdf
[From summary] “Although there are significant differences in some portions of the House and Senate bills, both bills would require major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from entities comprising roughly 85% of current U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Covered sectors [...]

High-Speed Passenger Rail: Developing Viable High Speed Rail Projects under the Recovery Act and Beyond

Government Accountability Office.  Testimony to House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure by Susan A. Fleming, Director, Physical Infrastructure Issues
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10162t.pdf
[From testimony] “I am pleased to be here today to discuss funding for high speed and other intercity passenger rail projects under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [...]

Climate Change Adaptation: Strategic Federal Planning Could Help Officials Make More Informed Decisions

Government Accountability Office.  Congressional Testimony of John B. Stephenson (Director, Natural Resources and Environment Division, USDA) to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10175t.pdf
[From testimony] “In recent years, climate change adaptation—adjustments to natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climate change—has begun to receive more attention because the greenhouse [...]

The National Flood Insurance Program: Factors Affecting Actuarial Soundness

Congressional Budget Office
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/106xx/doc10620/11-04-FloodInsurance.pdf
[From the Director's Blog] “In 2005, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), experienced an unprecedented volume of claims resulting from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Total payments on those claims were greater than the total for all of the program’s previous years combined and led [...]

The Economic Effects of Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

Congressional Budget Office / Testimony before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U. S. Senate : Statement of  Douglas W. Elmendorf, Director
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10561
[From Director's Blog] Today I testified about the economic effects of legislation aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, drawing on a report that CBO released a few weeks ago.
Reducing the extent of [...]

Market Oversight for Cap-and-Trade : Efficiently Regulating the Carbon Derivatives Market

Brookings Institution / by Craig Pirrong
http://tinyurl.com/yk4b3ef
[From introduction] The original concept of cap-and-trade envisioned that the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions would be capped and rights to emit would be traded. But it is inevitable that there will be demand to trade instruments other than emissions rights themselves. Specifically, there will be a demand [...]

Cost Containment for Cap-and-Trade : Designing Effective Compliance Flexibility Mechanisms

Brookings Institution / by Bryan K. Mignone
http://tinyurl.com/yfmn2s9
[From introduction]…Here we imagine that an appropriate US emissions reduction blueprint has already been selected from the space of available alternatives and focus…on the set of design considerations that could enhance the overall performance of the resulting regulatory program. We start from the premise that cap-and-trade will be the [...]

U.S. Industry and Cap-and-Trade : Designing Provisions to Maintain Domestic Competitiveness and Mitigate Emissions Leakage

Brookings Institution/ by Carolyn Fischer and Richard Morgenstern
http://tinyurl.com/yksauet
[From summary] This paper reviews the evidence on the competitiveness burdens imposed on domestic energy-consuming industries as a result of a unilateral or near-unilateral carbon pricing policy. We also examine the nature and magnitude of emissions leakage that could undermine the environmental effectiveness of such a policy. Subsequently, [...]

Equity and Efficiency in Cap-And-Trade : Effectively Managing the Emissions Allowance Supply

Brookings Institution / by Adele Morris
http://tinyurl.com/ykezgbk (summary) / http://tinyurl.com/ylmbb5t (pdf)
As the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hosts a series of hearings this week on climate change legislation, Adele Morris discusses the likely distributional implications of a U.S. cap-and-trade system. She explains how policy-makers could manage these implications by altering the way in which allowances [...]

Climate Change and Individual Behavior : Considerations for Policy

World Bank / by Andrea Liverani
http://tinyurl.com/yfa6skk
[Abstract] Climate change is anthropogenic – the product of billions of acts of daily consumption. That solutions need to be anthropogenic too is well accepted. Yet, suggested solutions are normally cast in the realms of finance and technology, often neglecting the primal root of the problem: individual behavior. An emerging [...]