Economist Sees Benefits in Alaska Climate Change Legislation

Raises Concerns About Misleading Report

ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — April 14, 2008 — “Alaska has the potential to receive tens of billions of dollars to support climate-related adaptation and alternative energy activities through legislation that is currently before the U.S. Senate,” says Peter Larsen, an economist with The Nature Conservancy.

“Open discussions, using sound economic research, are important for all Alaskans to have now, because of the climate-related impacts we are already experiencing here,” Larsen added.

Unfortunately, research that has not been peer-reviewed can produce information that is misleading to the public. For example, a study that dramatically overstates the potential cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the topics at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce “Make it Monday” forum on April 14, 2008.

The report called Analysis of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act (s.2191) was recently released by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF).

The analysis employs a model originally developed by the Department of Energy to project impacts to regional economies, but the report reaches dramatically different conclusions than similar studies by the MIT, McKinsey & Co., the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Clean Air Task Force.

The study’s assumptions imply that reducing emissions is going to be overly costly for Alaskans. The study assumes inflated costs for new technologies, according to Larsen, and that is just one example.

“Open dialogue on the potential costs of national legislation is important, but the dialogue needs to be based on accurate and credible information,” Larsen concluded.

Links to Reports:

Comments on the analysis of the NEMS/ACCF/NAM modeling scenarios of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, by Steve colt, Institute of Social and Economic Research, University of Alaska Anchorage: http://www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu/.

Reducing U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: How Much at What Cost? McKinsey & Company 2007: http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/greenhousegas.asp.

The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act – S.2191 A Summary of Modeling Results from the National Energy Modeling System, Jonathan Banks, Clean Air Task Force 2008: http://www.catf.us/publications/presentations/CATF_LWCSA_Short_Hill_Briefing_with_CAFE.pdf

EPA Analysis of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, Environmental Protection Agency 2008: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/economics/economicanalyses.html.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.