Risks of Going It Alone: States, Emissions, and Climate Change

 

Risks of Going It Alone: States, Emissions, and Climate Change

By Andrew Campbell, Executive Director of the Energy Institute at Haas School of Business, University of California - Berkeley. – January 10

A number of cities recently rang in the New Year with spectacular professional fireworks shows. Some parts of the US also allowed individual consumers to purchase fireworks and put on their own shows. That was the case where I grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. Fireworks are banned in the City of Houston due to the risks to public safety. The surrounding unincorporated areas of Harris County are, apparently, less concerned about the risks. I lived outside of the city, so was able to legally enjoy the teenage thrill of almost blowing off a finger. Despite the ban, city residents could shoot off fireworks outside city limits or sneak them into the city and surreptitiously shoot them off there. Like clockwork, each year before New Year’s Eve, fireworks stands would appear just beyond the city’s boundaries to serve the city-dwellers. When a regulation covers some jurisdictions, but not others, the effectiveness of the regulation can be undermined, as in the case of Houston’s fireworks ban. This phenomenon is referred to as “leakage”. Read on...http://www.theenergycollective.com/acampbell/2395992/risks-of-going-it-alone-states-emissions-and-climate-change