–CarrZee called it right ahead of COP27. See below
Opinion by Mathew Carr
Because the Democrats have won control of the Senate (upper chamber), I predict this will force the Republicans and Democrats to collaborate on climate action in the US and globally, over the next two years.
Republicans control the House (lower chamber).
Hopefully, it won’t mean there is a stalemate on more urgent action during that period.
- Democrat Raphael Warnock wins the Georgia Senate race run-off, defeating Republican Herschel Walker
- The result gives the Democrats a majority of 51-49 in the upper chamber of Congress
- CBS, the BBC’s partner in the US, has called the result but refers to it as a projection until it is declared by officials
- In a victory speech, Warnock thanked God and said “the people have spoken”
- The run-off was held as neither Warnock, a southern Baptist preacher, or Herschel Walker, an American football legend, won the required 50% of votes in the midterms
- Controlling the Senate means Democrats can pick up the pace in appointing liberal judges to lifetime seats
- Republicans have a slender majority in the US House of Representatives, the lower chamber
- Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there was record voting turnout across the board
After the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. should also install carbon pricing, according to Jim Hartung, who is recently retired from Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne after 40 years in the aerospace and energy industries. He helped develop the International Space Station as Director of Systems Engineering and Integration for its electric power system. He has led the development of numerous clean and renewable energy technologies as Director of Power Systems at Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne.
His view, as published earlier today here and repeated for convenience, below.
Carbon pricing: First and most important, the United States should price carbon and other greenhouse gases at a social cost — and encourage all other countries to do the same.
This will create a strong global market for clean, renewable and efficient energy technologies as well as carbon removal and sequestration processes.
Carbon can be priced in three ways: 1) carbon taxes 2) emissions trading and 3) carbon fees and dividends.
About a quarter of the world’s countries currently price carbon using one or more of these methods. Unfortunately, in most countries the carbon price is too low to significantly reduce emissions.
Each country must price carbon at its social cost. The carbon price should start low to prevent excessive economic disruption (eg, less than $50 per ton of CO2) and increase over time to reflect the actual social cost (perhaps $200 per ton in 2022).
For a carbon price to be most effective, it must apply to all greenhouse gas emissions, not just carbon dioxide, and credit must be given for removing carbon from the atmosphere.
Carbon pricing has several important side benefits. For example, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it will 1) reduce air pollution 2) reduce dependence on oil, natural gas and coal, 3) promote sustainable forestry and agricultural practices and 4) improve land use policies and decisions.
Wealthier households would pay most of the cost of tackling climate change if carbon was priced using a carbon fee and dividend program, as proposed by leading economists, a bipartisan climate lobby, and the Republican Climate Leadership Council. This is fair because:
1) the wealthiest households are responsible for a disproportionate share of greenhouse gas emissions, and
2) they can afford the (small) additional cost of addressing climate change.
Source: BBC. See link above
How CarrZee Called it Right on the Midterms’ Impact on COP27