Exploring the feasibility of a CBAM in the USA
Project will explore the feasibility of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism in the U.S.
Purpose: The project will particularly focus on how a CBAM would be an efficient way to address the market failure caused by greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., find a remedy for impaired markets).

Climate change is one of the most important challenges mankind is facing and it is therefore important to find ways to address it through regulation and harnessing the power of markets.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

The Red and the Black: Countering Green-Power Cost Creep with Carbon Pricing
Decarbonization of electricity supply is a cornerstone of U.S. and, hence, global efforts to phase out fossil fuels and eliminate their carbon emissions. Key to this endeavor is rapid deployment of large-scale wind and solar farms and nuclear power stations. However, expectations that these technologies would scale broadly and easily are being called into question by cancellations of notable projects including a giant wind farm off the coast of New Jersey and a highly touted "small modular reactor" facility in Idaho. Our project will determine and quantify the key "cost drivers" behind these and other green-power cancellations and evaluate which are likely to be permanent and which will be transitory. We will also assess the extent to which robust carbon-emissions pricing could return these green projects to profitability by strengthening their revenue stream and helping the developers rout the "NIMBYs" who are hamstringing project schedules and eroding their bottom lines.
Purpose: Economic imbalances: "The Red and the Black: Countering Green-Power Cost Creep with Carbon Pricing" will determine why ambitious clean-energy projects are succumbing to cost pressures while the fossil fuel supplies they would supplant are largely unscathed.
Destroying or impairing the free-market system: Notwithstanding the profusion of subsidies available under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. economic system is failing to reward clean-energy projects to the full extent of their carbon reductions. Our project will determine the extent of that failing and the magnitude of carbon reductions that could be achieved by solving it.
Market-based solutions: As noted, monetizing the value of clean-energy projects' carbon reductions will improve their profitability. But by how much? No one has quantified that impact. "The Red and the Black: Countering Green-Power Cost Creep with Carbon Pricing" will develop a methodology for doing so and will estimate its magnitude.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

US Forest Carbon Pricing Initiative
With support from Walker Foundation, CSE will continue to advance its goal of including the logging and wood products sector in federal, state, and local climate action plans and regulation of this sector’s climate impacts through market-based solutions. At the federal level we are participating in new regulatory processes initiated by Executive Order 14008 (climate smart forestry) Executive Order 14072 (mature and old growth forests), and the US pledge to end deforestation and forest degradation by 2030. At the state level, we are focusing efforts on executive actions by governors in North Carolina, Maine, Oregon and Washington. In addition, the Forest Carbon Coalition, co-directed by CSE, is mobilizing scientific, community, and conservation organizations to promote climate action agendas at both levels that includes accounting for logging and wood products sector emissions, a forest carbon tax and reward program and other market-based solutions.
Purpose: Climate change has been referred to as the most spectacular market failure ever. The market’s failure to incorporate the costs of climate change into prices of wood and paper products supports a tremendous level of over-production, over-consumption, and wasteful uses of these commodities. Putting a price on high-emissions logging operations is a critical market-based solution for internalizing the catastrophic costs associated with climate change and rebalancing markets to support efficient use of energy resources, forestlands, and wood products. With respect to forestlands, CSE has pioneered the development of several market-based policy interventions that decision makers can use to help expedite the transformation of industrial forest practices to climate smart alternatives. These include forest carbon tax and reward, subsidy reform, cap and invest, no net loss and climate resiliency plans for large owners.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Fossil Fuel Risk Bonds - From Vision to Reality
As a result of Walker Foundation’s sustained investment in CSE’s Fossil Fuel Risk Bond (FFRB) program we have three separate rulemaking processes underway in Oregon and Washington to implement the policy concept on the ground. The first involves protecting frontline communities living near Portland’s Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub from catastrophic explosions and massive oil spills likely to occur in the event of a worst-case earthquake disaster. The second involves strengthening financial assurance rules that have been on the books but never enforced for oil tankers and oil facilities along Puget Sound. The third is seeing King County Washington’s adoption of the FFRB concept to the finish line through an ordinance fully protecting taxpayers from the risks and costs of fossil fuel infrastructure, including its eventual abandonment. Our request in 2023 is to concentrate efforts on these three processes and, in the meantime, build a replicable model for counties across the nation.
Purpose: In 2016 Center for Sustainable Economy proposed a commonsense solution for addressing the market failures associated with fossil fuel infrastructure – fossil fuel risk bond (FFRB) programs. Climate change is one, a market failure of breathtaking proportions. Add to that the market failures associated with fossil fuel infrastructure itself – the vast network of coal mines, oil and gas wells, pipelines, refineries, oil trains, LNG trains and fossil fuel export terminals that cause expensive physical damages to land, air, water and frontline communities. Air pollution and climate change caused by fossil fuels generate externalized damages of $2.2 – $5.9 trillion per year in the US, and by 2100, the Network for Greening The Financial System predicts a hit in the order of 3 – 10% of GDP each year. Fossil fuel risk bond programs are tools that regulators can use to begin to address these staggering externalized costs.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Compelling Fossil Fuel and GHG Pollution Phase Out Under Existing US Law
Advocacy, research, and legal action to secure a change in federal policy consistent with US obligations under domestic and international law
Purpose: Major fossil fuel companies domiciled or operating in the US continue to freely produce, process, promote, and distribute their products in commerce (including internationally) for use in energy generation, with virtually complete disregard for the costs that are in the process imposed on humanity and the environment.
CPR Initiative's major initiative will (a) require the US EPA to impose a rising fee on oil, gas and coal production while it also (b) fashions a rule to phase out such fuels within reach of domestic law, and (c) compels the major fossil fuel companies to remove, or pay to remove, a share of legacy emissions for which they bear substantial responsibility.
The imposition of these obligations would align US climate policy with what is required, albeit without sufficient enforcement assurance, pursuant to the final communiqué of COP 28 (December 2023), namely a "global effort aimed at transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.”

• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Global Warming in the Pipeline
Disseminate critical information to the public, especially young people, and policymakers on global climate change and its implications for required actions, including a rising tax on carbon and nuclear power.
Purpose: As long as carbon dioxide can be dumped in the atmosphere without charge, global energy use will be dominated by fossil fuels and climate will spiral out of humanity's control.

• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Donlin Gold's Energy Demands for Dwindling Cook Inlet Gas
The Donlin Gold mine would be a massive open-pit complex next to the Kuskokwim River in southwest Alaska, and the natural gas pipeline needed to fuel the mine would cut a swath from Cook Inlet, over the Alaska Range, to the mine site 315 miles away. In 2022, the dominant gas supplier in Cook Inlet, Hilcorp, announced that it no longer has confidence that it will be able to continue to meet Cook Inlet energy demand as current utility contracts expire; meanwhile, Donlin Gold is banking on getting its power from Cook Inlet. Inletkeeper worked with an Alaskan economist to analyze the impact Donlin will have on gas prices for Cook Inlet residents and to highlight the economic imbalances of corporate energy demands on residential and local business users.
Purpose: This project satisfies the Foundation’s purpose by addressing the cause of economic imbalances by researching how a massive mining project might alter the demand for dwindling Cook Inlet gas, which supplies 85 percent of the Cook Inlet region’s electricity. This significant corporate demand for gas would propel the region to import expensive LNG much faster and lock Cook Inlet into continued reliance on fossil fuels for decades before the many renewable energy projects being explored in the region can come online to supply cheaper electricity for residents and local businesses.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.

Clean-up expedition to plastic-polluted Henderson Island.
1. Return site visit to Henderson Island to complete work interruped by COVID Pandemic. 2. Support efforts around "circular economy" solutions for plastic waste. 3. Speaking engagements to message need to reduce plastic pollution at the source.
Purpose: #1: investigate the causes of economic imbalances – the project focuses on the economic imbalance of “externalities” from plastic production and unaccounted for impacts on ecosystem services in the oceans. Additionally, the project focuses on the overall reduction of plastic production. Most plastic is made from petrochemicals, which negatively impact climate change – reducing plastic production overall (either through “source reduction” or “circular economy” solutions) ultimate lowers the climate change impacts.
#4: explore and develop market-based solutions – the project is heavily focused on market-based solutions for plastics, including ways that ocean plastic pollution cleanups can become self-sustaining, rather than relying on philanthropic dollars to cover the “externalities” of pollution cleanup that plastic producers push to others in the supply chain of plastic consumption.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Wildlife Conflict Resolution and Western Waters Program 2023/2024
The NWF Wildlife Conflict Resolution program resolves conflicts between wildlife and livestock through the market-based approach of compensating ranchers for retiring high conflict grazing leases on federal land. Thanks to over a decade of funding from the Walker Foundation,we have retired over 75 grazing allotments totaling over 1.6 million acres. In 2017 NWF launched the WCR Southern Rockies, Colorado Plateau and Great Basin program and in the coming year we will pilot a new strategy in Grand Staircase-Escalante National and Bears Ears National Monuments in southern Utah that we will include "AUM buy-downs," but will also include the full retirement of grazing allotments.
Purpose: Beginning in 2001, NWF began using a market-based approach that recognized the economic value of grazing permits and offer to compensate ranchers for waiving their permit. We then receive assurances for from the agency that the allotment will not be restocked with livestock. In an effort to apply our model to new landscapes and to continue to innovate, we will adapt our allotment retirement model in Grand Staircase-Escalante National and Bears Ears National Monuments by testing what we are calling "AUM buy-downs." We should add that we are currently pursuing opportunities in both Monuments to fully retire several grazing allotments.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates the effect of the global financial system and/or the monetary system in fostering a sustainable economy.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

New Tool, New Solutions for Decarbonizing Calif & Georgia Grids
This project will use a unique new computer-based tool to investigate how two states, California and Georgia, can successfully decarbonize their electric grids by introducing nuclear power, a reliable, emission-free energy source. The electric grids in these states will need dispatchable emission-free resources to assure a reliable future grid. This project will describe the size, output requirements, and cost of these resources in these two contrasting case studies.
Purpose: Modern industrial, technological society requires a reliable electric system. We now understand that, to be sustainable, it must also be one which does not rely on burning fossil fuels. This project will describe the requirements for emission-free dispatchable resources in the states of California and Georgia, offer roadmaps for creating the kinds of electric grids that can sustain the economies of these states into the future.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Atmospheric Trust Campaign
We support legal actions and public education to secure the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate system at the federal, state and global domestic levels. See supplemental section for a description of specific actions.
Purpose: We are investigating and addressing a major cause of economic imbalance: the climate.
Presently, society does not accurately price the damages that stem from climate destabilizing activities and products. Present and future harms that come from such activities and products are not factored into their pricing, resulting in major economic imbalances today and in the future.
Additionally, we are exploring and advocating for market approaches that will promote a sustainable economy and economic balance relating to ecosystem services, climate change, energy security, food production and other environmental issues.
Economic imbalances that favor carbon intensive goods and services and perpetuate environmental degradation continue to dominate our economy. Our work will lead to court orders that require governments to realign those imbalances toward a sustainable economy, in accordance with scientific prescriptions to stabilize our climate system and de-acidify our oceans.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Building Engaged, Informed, and Connected Grasstops for 2023 and Beyond
With this project, the Pricing Carbon Initiative (PCI) will continue with the mission launched in 2011 to build support for bipartisan carbon pricing solutions, designed to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by fostering understanding and cooperation between a wide range of organizations and opinion leaders. (www.pricingcarbon.org) This request was amended on 4/24/23 to include added funding for a 2-day retreat this May on current opportunities to promote Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAMs).
Purpose: 1) We focus on policies to correct the economic distortions resulting from the free dumping of carbon pollution into Earth's atmosphere and oceans. 2) While focusing on U.S. domestic legislation, we address design elements that transparently link with a global carbon pricing system and foster global economic sustainability. 3) A robust economic consensus suggests the need to price in the externalities associated with fossil fuel burning. Otherwise, the costs of climate change threaten to undermine and destroy global economic stability. 4) Policies to price carbon pollution will take advantage of existing energy markets to correct price signals in the use of fossil fuels that ignore the social costs of carbon. Negative externalities not included in prevailing models, such as the acidification of oceans, must be included in the mix. Pricing carbon emissions can correct the distortion in energy markets whereby fossil fuels are favored over low-carbon alternatives.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates the effect of the global financial system and/or the monetary system in fostering a sustainable economy.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Pricing Carbon Initiative Dialogues, Public Forums, CBAM Project, and Capacity Building in 2014
In 2024, the Pricing Carbon Initiative (PCI) will continue with its mission, launched in 2011, to build support for bipartisan carbon pricing solutions, designed to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, by fostering understanding and cooperation between a wide range of organizations and opinion leaders. Specifically, the Walker Foundation funding this year will assist PCI with projects informed by the day-long Pricing Carbon Dialogue on January 23, at Brookings Institution. That work will involve virtual Dialogues, public forums, the “Convening the Conveners” project (seeking viable CBAM opportunities) and overall PCI capacity building.
Purpose: 1) PCI focuses on policies that correct the economic distortions resulting from the free dumping of carbon pollution into Earth's atmosphere and oceans.
2) While focusing on U.S. domestic legislation, we address design elements that transparently link with a global carbon pricing system and foster global economic sustainability.
3) A robust economic consensus suggests the need to price in the externalities associated with fossil fuel burning. Otherwise, the costs of climate change threaten to undermine and destroy global economic stability.
4) Policies to price carbon pollution will take advantage of existing energy markets to correct price signals in the use of fossil fuels that ignore the social costs of carbon. Negative externalities not included in prevailing models, such as the acidification of oceans, must be included in the mix. Pricing carbon emissions can correct the distortion in energy markets whereby fossil fuels are favored over low-carbon alternatives.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Investigates the effect of the global financial system and/or the monetary system in fostering a sustainable economy.
• Investigates causes tending to destroy or impair the free-market system.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.

Ocean System Damages and the Social Cost of Carbon
The ocean provides critical services that are essential to human well-being, including food, biodiversity, recreation, and tourism. Climate change, however, poses myriad threats to oceans. Ocean acidification and warming (OAW), which are driven by oceans absorbing emitted carbon dioxide (CO2) and climate change, are having significant detrimental impacts on the services that oceans provide. While these impacts have substantial economic value, OAW has yet to be incorporated into estimates of the social cost of carbon (SCC). The SCC is a metric representing the damages, in dollars, from an incremental ton of CO2 released into the atmosphere. The SCC is used by federal policymakers and others as a measure of the benefits of mitigating carbon emissions. However, climate change’s impacts on ocean systems are not accounted for in existing SCC estimates. To address this gap, RFF convened an interdisciplinary group of experts to study how researchers could incorporate OAW damages into the SCC.
Purpose: The project explored challenges and opportunities of modeling the economic effects of the impacts of climate change on ocean systems, such as biodiversity losses, fishery impacts, non-use value, coral reefs, and recreation/tourism. The Social Cost of Carbon is an important metric that, in quantifying the cost of emissions, can support market-based solutions to mitigating those emissions. It is used by federal, state, and local policymakers to evaluate the benefits of potential policies against the potential cost of regulation. It is also frequently used by corporations to evaluate the impact of their own proactive efforts to address climate change, and can inform markets for carbon offsets, or tradable certificates linked to activities that lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

• Investigates the causes of economic imbalances.
• Explores and develops market-based solutions.