Wild highways to connect old and new kitchens of diversity?

Old NYT article in the kitchen: New Jungles Prompt a Debate on Rain Forests.

KL believes every cell of virgin rainforest is sacred and doesn't want new growth rainforest to be an excuse for not fervently protecting that virginity.

This is cooking up curiously though. Maybe to make the taste fuller, add wild "highways" between virgin and new rainforest so that some species that don't have a way to reach the new habitat can do so.

Now is the time for introducing and raising the gas tax level!

Gas prices have fallen by nearly 50% since their June/July peak states facing deficits.

Now is the time to introduce much higher gas taxes -- at the national, state, and local level.

In the long run, it will save the environment. In the short run, it will avoid stupid taxes on production, just when unemployment is racheting up. Do as Al Gore says.

Save (money and environment) driving better

Be a better lead chef in your car's kitchen.

Ingredient found at Econbrowser.

Fural to be green VI: Frugal tax policy

If the shortest path in the kitchen to being green is being frugal, what is the obvious green tax policy? Consumption tax! Why Not Shift the Burden to Big Spenders? doesn't cover the environmental implications but is good background.

However, Kitchen Linker has concerns with the way this proposed tax is cooked. It requires reporting of income and savings: new frontiers in zero privacy.

Far better to concentrate consumption taxation on carbon, which has no privacy concerns and very directly attacks the number one global environmental concern (global warming, of course).

Realtor cooking

Highly Entertaining: Realtors Suing Other Realtors.

Yep.

Kitchen Linker searches kitchen for a grinding instrument to use on the guild, then a sharp knife to remove the anti-environment mortgage interest tax deduction.

Less Watts

Less Watts.org. Go green software, go open source, go green source!

Irrigate the East

Move agriculture from the massively irrigated and dried out West and Let the East Bloom Again. Kitchen Linker says this could be the most important environmental idea in the USA (the carbon tax is a global idea), via The American Scene.

Save the Environment: Repeal the Mortgage Interest Deduction

That's the title of a great Tax Policy Blog post:

Powerful U.S. Rep. John Dingell revealed Tuesday new details of his plan to cut global warming, including adding a 50-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline and ending the mortgage tax deduction on what he called "McMansions," homes larger than 3,000 square feet.

On the same blog, France rejected a mortgage interest deduction.

Be freegan to be green?

Not Buying It in the NYT:

[T]he freegan movement has become much more visible and increasingly popular over the past year, in part as a result of growing frustrations with mainstream environmentalism.

Environmentalism, Mr. Torres said, “is becoming this issue of, consume the right set of green goods and you’re green,” regardless of how much in the way of natural resources those goods require to manufacture and distribute.

“If you ask the average person what can you do to reduce global warming, they’d say buy a Prius,” he added.

Kitchen Linker isn't a freegan, but has some sympathies. Freeganism is the extreme of be frugal to be green.

Be frugal to be green III

Kitchen Linker has pointed out a couple times that being frugal roughly equals being green. The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice summary of how being frugal sometimes directly equals being green. Read and implement!

European commissioning smarts

Greg Mankiw points out that the European Commission is considering doing the right thing for the environment and its torpid economy:

The Commission will on 28 March present ideas for “green taxes” to save energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions. It says that such an ‘ecological tax reform’ could increase the bloc’s competitiveness by shifting the burden away from labour taxes.

Could the EU lead down the smart path?

Al Gore's testimony

As reported at Reason, includes:

(2) I believe we should start using the tax code to reduce taxes on production and employment and substitute pollution taxes. We’re discouraging work and encouraging the destruction of the planet’s habitability. We should discourage pollution while encouraging work. Carbon pollution is not currently priced into the marketplace. I internalize air and water and I think that the economic system should too.

Great, but his other nine points consist of a mismash of regulation, prohibition, and subsidy.

Smart people need to advocate the best policy, doing nothing is a false choice (also see Greg Mankiw's criticism of accepting the worst policies by default).

Taxation six plus times more efficient than regulation

Econbrowser on CAFE standards:

Overall, Jacobsen estimates that a one-mile-per-gallon increase in the required average corporate fuel efficiency would increase the average fuel-efficiency of all new cars sold by 2.5%. However, since most of the older cars would still be on the road, Jacobsen estimates that during the first year, total U.S. gasoline consumption would decline by only 0.8%. He estimates the costs of this 1 mpg tightening of CAFE would be $20 billion in the first year, with these first-year costs shared about equally between U.S. consumers and producers. For comparison, Jacobsen claims that a gasoline tax could accomplish the same first-year effect at an efficiency cost of significantly less than $1 billion.

Over time, the fuel savings from tightening CAFE would of course increase, but even after 10 years, Jacobsen concludes that that a gasoline tax could accomplish the same thing at 1/6 the cost.

That's not even including that gas taxes produce revenue which can be used to reduce horribly inefficient taxes on labor and capital.

For the n'th time Kitchen Linker says Pigou means less planning, more growth, a cleaner environment, nor that OPEC pays part of any gas tax.

Toyota #1: fear and marketing or pricing and environment?

BusinessWeek on Why Toyota Is Afraid Of Being Number One -- anti-foreign backlash. So Toyota is afraid, and running ad campaigns to emphasize its U.S. employment base.

Kitchen Linker's observations:

• Toyota doesn't have to take the #1 spot no matter how bad the Big Three get. Toyota can raise prices instead.


• Toyota should emphasize (and invest in) green cars. Nothing could be more patriotic, or good for the U.S. economy. Fear and marketing is no substitute for doing good.

Ruby 2.0/Yarv for green software?

Ruby 2.0 will be very fast, which is a good thing for the planet.

Return of the Gao tree

Must read article in the NYT on return of trees to Niger during a period of population explosion.

Enlightened policies leading to such results are badly needed for the poorest to cope with (now inevitable) global warming:

Still, more trees mean that Niger’s people are in a better position to withstand whatever changes the climate might bring. “This is something the farmers control, and something they do for themselves,” said Dr. Larwanou. “It demonstrates that with a little effort and foresight, you can reduce poverty in the Sahel. It is not impossible or hopeless, and does not have to cost a lot of money. It can be done.”

A combination of efficient policies to make sure global warming doesn't get increasingly worse from industrialized countries (i.e., green tax shift) and low cost but highly effective green policies like those that led to the re-greening of Niger, and we can get through this.

Continental Europe: Getting out of the way?

Greg Mankiw links to an interesting column that has nothing to do with Pigouvian taxes ... Ed Phelps on Why European economies lag behind the U.S.:

The values that might impact dynamism are of special interest here. Relatively few in the Big Three report that they want jobs offering opportunities for achievement (42% in France and 54% in Italy, versus an average of 73% in Canada and the U.S.); chances for initiative in the job (38% in France and 47% in Italy, as against an average of 53% in Canada and the U.S.), and even interesting work (59% in France and Italy, versus an average of 71.5% in Canada and the U.K). Relatively few are keen on taking responsibility, or freedom (57% in Germany and 58% in France as against 61% in the U.S. and 65% in Canada), and relatively few are happy about taking orders (Italy 1.03, of a possible 3.0, and Germany 1.13, as against 1.34 in Canada and 1.47 in the U.S.).

So EUians don't want to lead or follow. As a result their relatively shrinking economies are getting out of the way.

Now if the US would just take a dynamic lead on efficient environmental policies...

Congestion pricing goes well with other eco-efficient policies

Kitchen Linker is a big fan of congestion pricing. While not as important as (much) higher gas taxes replacing less efficient taxes, congestion pricing is another win-win: more efficient and more environmentally friendly transportation system.

Save the environment and the economy, yada yadda yaddda.

Branson's billions putting brains to work for the earth

Richard Branson's investments in biofuels were welcome but not exciting, as biofuels are marginal at best (and environmental suicide via politics at worst).

With the Virgin Earth Challenge (and some instruction from Al Gore?), Branson's money is working smarter. Very very cool.

The Virgin Earth Challenge is a prize of $25m for whoever can demonstrate to the judges' satisfaction a commercially viable design which results in the removal of anthropogenic, atmospheric greenhouse gases so as to contribute materially to the stability of Earth’s climate.

Truth too inconvenient

The Washington Post has some excellent columnists. Robert Samuelson says:

What we really need is a more urgent program of research and development, focusing on nuclear power, electric batteries, alternative fuels and the capture of carbon dioxide. Naturally, there's no guarantee that socially acceptable and cost-competitive technologies will result. But without them, global warming is more or less on automatic pilot. Only new technologies would enable countries -- rich and poor -- to reconcile the immediate imperative of economic growth with the potential hazards of climate change.

Meanwhile, we could temper our energy appetite. I've argued before for a high oil tax to prod Americans to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles. The main aim would be to limit insecure oil imports, but it would also check CO2 emissions. Similarly, we might be better off shifting some of the tax burden from wages and profits to a broader tax on energy or carbon. That would favor more fuel-efficient light bulbs, appliances and industrial processes.

It's a debate we ought to have -- but probably won't. Any realistic response would be costly, uncertain and no doubt unpopular. That's one truth too inconvenient for almost anyone to admit.

Kitchen Linker is 100% for a realistic response.