Severin Borenstein at Energy Symposium 2010, UC Berkeley

Severin Borenstein, Co-Director of the Energy Institue at Haas, spoke on the "Heated Debate Over Cooling Policies" panel at UC Berkeley's Energy Symposium 2010. Honking horns can be heard in the background as drivers respond to students protesting outside over statewide budget cuts and fee hikes.

Borenstein's analysis of the likely effects of cap and trade proposals on the global consumption of fossil fuels was both compelling and troubling, as he made the case that in order to effectively curtail the global use of fossil fuels, the price of carbon would have to be much higher than $30 per ton. Borenstein said that alternative energy doesn't just have to beat the current market price of gas and coal, it really has to beat their very low extraction cost (plus any added carbon price), since current fossil fuels prices have plenty of room to flexibly drop with changing market conditions.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Severin Borenstein
• HAAS
• Energy Symposium 2010
• cap and trade
• carbon tax
• envirobeat.com
• Energy Institute at Haas