EPA releases economic analysis of Lieberman-Warner bill

The EPA's climate change economic analysis group released a study last week of the leading piece of climate change legislation moving in the Senate, the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008 (S.2191). Under their assumptions, S.2191 would result in U.S. GHG emissions being 11% and 25% lower than 1990 levels in 2030 and 2050, respectively. Most of the reductions come from the power sector, with assumptions of big nuclear expansions and CCS deployments. On the costs of mitigation, they find that the actions under this bill would reduce annual GDP by 0.9-2.4% from 2010-2050, which are similar to the Stern Review economic projections. This climate bill is far from perfect, but it's encouraging that at least something is moving on this issue. Read the EPA's executive summary cover letter to Sen. Lieberman here (similar one also sent to Sen. Warner). See the full 189 slide (!) power point findings of the analysis here. Although I love the detail provided, I wonder what E.R. Tufte would think of a 189 slide presentation. Thanks to Bill Perkins for sending this around.