TGIF, am I right? My big plans are: sleeping in (maybe until 7:30am), reading, and gathering with friends. I hope whatever the weekend holds for you meets your needs and expectations.
This week’s must read: The Bipartisan Road to a U.S. Carbon Border Tax (Forbes)
In a deep dive on the PROVE IT Act, introduced a few weeks ago by Senators Kevin Cramer (R-ND) and Chris Coons (D-DE), Nana Ama Sarfo of Tax Notes International writes: “If the United States were to implement a carbon border tax, it would need to know which kinds of industrial goods release the highest emissions during production, and which countries are the worst carbon offenders,” noting that the sponsoring senators “want to start tracking that information.”
*yes, readers, we are aware that CBAM is a recurring theme lately… and probably will be for weeks/months to come. THIS IS GREAT NEWS.
EcoRight Speaks, Season Six, Episode 19: Climate Leadership Council’s Greg Bertelsen
We are coming close to the end of season six! Our last “real” guest before next week’s “best of” episode is Greg Bertelsen, CEO of the Climate Leadership Council (CLC). On behalf of CLC, Greg has been front and center promoting the benefits of pricing carbon on imported goods. Listeners, you have heard Catrina Rorke from CLC on the show a few times, talking about her excellent research on trade and climate policies. Greg gives us a bit of the Capitol Hill perspective, including thoughts about the recently introduced PROVE IT Act and how bipartisan support coalesced around a CBAM—a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Before joining the council in 2017 as an executive VP and then taking the reins as CEO in 2020, Greg previously served as senior director, energy and resources policy, at the National Association of Manufacturers. He also served as regulatory analyst, environmental markets & policy, at Siemens AG, where he advised Fortune 100 industrial and utility companies on energy and environmental policy. In 2016 and 2017, he served as an official advisor to the Environmental Protection Agency on environmental justice issues.
Check it out!
The issue enjoys broad bipartisan support. In fact, a wide majority of registered voters support imposing a tariff on carbon-intensive goods coming into the United States from overseas, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Coming up next week, you guessed it, our best of the season episode. Don’t miss our audio highlight reel of this season’s favorite episodes!
June 21 was #ShowYourStripes day, a time to share the iconic ‘warming stripes’ graphic showing temperature trends over the last 100+ years. A pictures says a thousand words…
Bipartisan support for Agrivoltaics:
In the spirit of busting the myth that everything is partisan in DC, aside from broad support for CBAM, the practice of agrivoltaics (check out the EcoRight Speaks, Season 4, Episode 10 for more on what this is) also enjoys bipartisan support. Senator Mike Braun (champion of the Growing Solutions Act) is continuing his work on climate policies that benefit farmers with the Agrivoltaics Research and Demonstration Act. If enacted, their bill would invest $15 million per year from 2024 to 2028 in agrivoltaics R&D projects.
Yale Climate Connections spotlights the Conservative Energy Network:
In this 90-second interview, YCC talks to Tyler Duvelius, director of external affairs of the Conservative Energy Network, a national network of state-based organizations (you’ve heard several of them appear on the EcoRight Speaks) focused on promoting clean energy policies and innovation rooted in conservative values.
“One of our goals at the Conservative Energy Network is to take away some of the political toxicity that seems to exist around the clean energy and climate change debate,” Duvelius says.
That’s a wrap! See you next week!