Finance is the projection of existing wealth and capability into future scenarios. For much of human history, in whatever form it has taken, success in the future finance scenario did not have to align with success across the full spectrum of human need and our relationship to natural systems. Financial success could be insulated from … Continue reading The Future of Finance is Clean
The business models and technologies that dominate the later part of this century will transcend old-fashioned thinking about value management and resource allocation. Connection and ephemeralization would make them appear downright magical to us. Four critical capabilities that will drive these trends: Anything can be made anywhere. Technical knowledge can reach anywhere. Advanced services will … Continue reading The Magical Future of Smart Energy
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced new rules to curb carbon emissions, under the Clean Air Act. The program is called the Clean Power Program and aims to reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants by more than 30% within 20 years. It is the single most significant step toward reducing power plant greenhouse gas emissions ever taken by the US government.
Many environmental activists are celebrating; predictably, opponents of climate action are warning of grave economic costs. The real impact is less, and less immediate, than many suspect. If the targeted emissions are reduced by the target percentage, then overall US greenhouse gas emissions from industrial, household and transportation sources, will decline by roughly 10% over 20 years.
Continue reading “Build on EPA Rules with Revenue-neutral Carbon Price”
From the conference: Energy Security: Building Our Future in the Southern Tier. On Conservation, Efficiency & Renewables. Corning Community College November 12, 2011 Building a Green Economy: On the Economics of Carbon Pricing & the Transition to Clean, Renewable Fuels Joseph Robertson [ ‘Building a Green Economy Joseph Robertson’ from Shaleshock Media on Vimeo. ] … Continue reading Building a Green Economy talk (video)
On Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, I had the great privilege of delivering the Building a Green Economy talk at the Energy Security conference in Corning, New York. I had the added privilege of headlining the conference with the great Bill McKibben, whose work organizing millions to raise their voices for responsible energy and climate policy … Continue reading Building a Green Economy – presented at Corning Energy Conference
We need a system of cooperative public-private infrastructure financing, a national infrastructure bank. But we also need to use that fabric of cooperative investment and output to foster specific areas of major improvement to our national economy. The model could be replicated across the world, but the US is uniquely positioned to deploy this solution … Continue reading Blueprint for a Renewable Energy Infrastructure Bank
On Tuesday, October 4, 2011, Joseph Robertson delivered the fourth Climate Talk, as a live webcast, presentation of his book, Building a Green Economy: The Economics of Carbon Pricing and the Transition to Clean, Renewable Fuels. The talk was intended to focus on the technologies and strategies that can allow for a smooth, rapid, intelligent, and … Continue reading Building a Green Economy webcast
Saturation means more of a given ingredient cannot be added to a given volume or fabric of activity, without spilling over, and being wasted. The fossil fuels market is saturated, in the sense that it cannot effectively capitalize on major new production investment without major new construction of productive facilities. The industry has effectively pushed … Continue reading Saturation vs. Scalability: Old & Costly vs. Clean & Efficient
There is a myth permeating our nation’s energy policy and energy economy, which holds that renewable sources of energy cannot meet our outsized electricity demand, let alone power our entire economy. That myth is not only entirely untrue; it depends on the flawed assertion that the only way things can be is the way that … Continue reading We Need a National Renewables Start-up Incubator
Carbon → Fee → Dividend → Simple
The conventional wisdom on action to reduce carbon emissions is that it must be expensive, harmful to the economy, and result in less productive power generation. This is a blatant falsehood based on the outmoded idea that combustion is the most favorable way to harvest energy. All systems of carbon taxation or carbon emissions capping operate on the principle that applying economic pressure in a targeted way can inspire markets to change their behavior. This is the very logic of market-based economic systems.
Continue reading “Carbon Fee and Dividend: to Spur Job Creation, Industrial Boom”
The Poet Economist 