Issues in climate change: statement of Peter R. Orszag, Director, presentation for the CBO Director's Conference on Climate Change

Original publisher: [Washington, D.C.] : U.S. Congressional Budget Office, [2007] OCLC Number: (OCoLC)181625040 Subject: Global warming -- Research -- Law and legislation -- United States. Excerpt: ... Consequences of Stringency Decisions Researchers have produced a large number of studies of the near-term and long-term costs of achieving various levels of stringency in reducing emissions. Several recent analyses focus on the likely costs to the U.S. economy of various legislative proposals put forward in recent years. Within the federal government, both the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy's Energy Infor-mation Administration have analyzed some versions of those legislative proposals at the request of Members of Congress. In addition, researchers at the Joint Pro-gram on the Science and Policy of Global Change at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) have produced a comprehensive analysis of several long-term emission targets that approximate some of the legislative proposals currently under consideration. The National Commission for Energy Policy has also proposed a comprehensive energy policy strategy that would include restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions, and Duke University's Nicholas Institute has analyzed at least one of the bills. Like the proposals themselves, the scenarios analyzed in those studies specify a number of different levels of stringency. In general, all of the proposals involve an increasing level of stringency over time. Some impose hard caps, but others pro-vide for a price limit or safety valve. Most allow for at least some degree of bank-ing and borrowing of emission allowances. Many scenarios involve limited sec-toral coverage, usually exempting most emissions from nonelectric energy use in buildings ( such as home heating ). Many proposals and scenarios allow covered entities to purchase offsets from one or more types of sources - in uncovered sec-tors, through sequestration of carbon in ...