Progress of a policy experiment: Climate challenge interim report card
The Climate Challenge is the electric utility industry`s first chance to prove it can collaborate with government to address the possibility of climate change rather than waiting for legislative fiat on an environmental issue. Initial reports suggest that utilities are taking it seriously and the program will generate significant results. The Clinton administration is faced with the challenge of meeting international environmental committments in an era of budget tightening and scientific uncertainty. To do so, it based its Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) primarily on breaking `new ground in the relationship between government and the private sector - fostoring cooperative approaches and a forward-looking agenda, rather than relying exclusively on command-and-control mandates that tend to lock technologies into place and stifel innovation.` The CCAP contains initiatives in several sectors, including electric utilities, industry, commercial and residential buildings, and agriculture. This artice is an interim report card on one of the major components of the CCAP, the Climate Challenge. Climate Challenge is a joint Department of Energy/electric utility program. In telephone surveys conducted by the authors, utilities considering participating in the program discussed their opinions of its potential success and the challenges they face in developing their participation plans. While the potential for success in generating significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions is cited by a majority of participants, the prediction is not uniformly rosy. Participants cite serious challenges to achieving GHG emission reductions, including factors that seem beyond their control, such as demand growth, deregulation, and competition.
- OSTI ID:
- 75510
- Journal Information:
- Electricity Journal, Vol. 8, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Jan-Feb 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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