US Climate Policy Workshop: Interplay between Taxes, Subsidies, and Regulations

This program was co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute, Resources for the Future, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.

AGENDA

Goal of workshop: Review the current state of knowledge and set the agenda going forward for research to address the intersection of the use of taxes, subsidies, and regulations to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions.

8:30 – 9:00         Breakfast

9:00 – 9:10         Welcome and Introduction (Scott Schang, Environmental Law Institute)

9:10 – 10:00       Session 1: Setting the Stage: Views on the Case for Taxes, Regulations and/or Subsidies at Various Levels of Government (Dallas Burtraw and Ray Kopp, Resources for the Future)

This session provided a conceptual framework for the rest of the day’s discussions. Several speakers presented views on the overarching economic and legal rationale for various instrument choices, and for implementing those choices at various levels of government. Should carbon policy be linked to other efficiency or distributional goals? Is this done by combining instruments? This ‘big picture’ discussion helped frame the more focused discussions that follow.

10:00 – 11:15     Session 2: Understanding the Effectiveness, Cost-Effectiveness and Impacts of Various Policy Tools

This session reviewed what is known or predicted about a range of policies in terms of several metrics: expected GHG emissions reductions, costs, distributional effects and more.  

• GHG reductions from regulatory approaches: federal CAFE standards, pending Clean Power Plan rules, state renewable portfolio standards, low carbon fuel standard, etc. (Michael Gerrard, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia University)
• GHG reductions from taxes and subsidies (Ian Parry, International Monetary Fund)
• Research on the costs and cost-effectiveness of various instruments (Rob Williams, Resources for the Future)
• Research on economic and distributional effects of tools (Chad Stone, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)
• Research on state programs including California, RGGI and state RPSs (Kate Zyla, Georgetown Law School)

11:15 – 11:30    Break

11:30 – 12:45    Session 3: Synergies, Strengths and Impediments of Various Tools

This session reviewed what is known about various policy interactions, including among existing GHG reduction policies and a hypothetical federal carbon tax.

• What is known (empirically) about interactions between various existing policies? (John Reilly, MIT)
• What is known about how a carbon tax might work together with existing and forthcoming regulatory approaches? (Adele Morris, The Brookings Institution)
• What learning from the Waxman-Markey negotiation process is applicable to this conversation? (Ben Longstreth, Natural Resources Defense Council)

12:45 – 1:30       Lunch

1:30 – 3:00         Session 4: Identifying Major Knowledge Gaps and Critical Issues

This session built on the morning sessions, but broadened the conversation to include other issues and judgments involved in considering economy-wide carbon pricing in a landscape of pre-existing climate and energy policies. Among others, pertinent issues and topics included:

• the role sub-national policies should or should not play,
• the role federal subsidy and mandate policies should or should not play,
• the importance of policy durability,
• the impact policies have on low carbon innovation and deployment, and
• the role of public participation in the design and implementation of policies.

3:00 – 3:15                           Wrap Up and Next Steps