Subject: Markets are Amoral--Whether their Rules are Moral or Immoral is Up to Us, and other news from Dan Lashof, NextGen Climate America
From: Daniel Lashof <[email-masked]>
To: Lauren Terrazas <[email-masked]>
Cc: Daniel Lashof <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Jun 2015 01:19:19 +0000

Pope Francis' encyclical on ecology has energized a debate on the moral dimensions of climate change. While many of the usual suspects have reacted with their usual talking points, a more interesting discussion has emerged on the Pope's view of emissions trading and markets more generally. The encyclical's take is more nuanced than most commentators have given it credit for, as I discuss here:

http://nextgenamerica.org/climate-change/markets-are-amoral-whether-their-rules-are-moral-or-immoral-is-up-to-us/

One market in serious need of reform is the Interior Department's coal leasing program. But as the old saying goes, the Stone Age didn't end for want of stones, and coal companies are in trouble in part because they have too much  supply. So while BLM continues to auction off our coal at bargain-basement prices, there may soon be no one left to bid on it, as David Weiskopf explains:

http://nextgenamerica.org/epa-rule/coal-for-sale-but-whos-buying/

So if no one is buying coal, what are they buying? Increasingly, its solar. Michelle Levinson takes a deep dive into the technology and policy drivers of the solar revolution here:

http://nextgenamerica.org/clean-energy/how-now-solar-finance/

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-DL

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Daniel A. Lashof, Ph.D.
Chief Operating Officer
NextGen Climate America, Inc.
https://nextgenamerica.org/
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