Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's confirmation hearing for U.S. Treasury secretary was held Jan. 19. AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinJanet Yellen is poised to be the next U.S. Treasury secretary, and her inbox will require every ounce of her vast experience to pilot the economy through a daunting confluence of challenges. How the U.S. manages the economic recovery from COVID-19, the financial risks from climate change and inequality together will determine the chances of American prosperity over the coming decades. First, Yellen will need to ensure that economic stimulus packages produce a job-rich recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. She can help guide the U.S. to the sweet spot of immediate growth that also puts the country on the path toward a cleaner, more resilient future. This means measures that steer investment and job creation in the sectors of the future, including clean energy, energy efficiency, clean transport and resilient agriculture. Second, she will have a cruc
The False Promise of âSecond Lifeâ Coal
âSecond lifeâ coal proposals are high emission proposals and usually have an associated high water use intensity. These proposals also lack scientific or economic proof of success.
A worker carries coal in a basket in a industrial area in Mumbai, May 31, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Shailesh Andrade/Files
Government18/Jan/2021
Home Minister Amit Shahâs recent statement that India will likely invest Rs 4 trillion ($55 billion) in expanding new and existing coal mines, some of which may go into speculative, domestic âclean coalâ projects over the next decade to create a hope for âsecond lifeâ is, in our view, entirely inconsistent with the countryâs policy direction and ignores the lack of proof of economic viability.
A More Perfect Union
By the Center for American Progress
January 13, 2021, 9:00 am Getty/Construction Photography/Avalon
Julia Cusick
Introduction and summary
The next decade will prove pivotal to the future of the United States. America will either adopt an ambitious program of national rebuilding and address the serious challenges of the present day, or it will confront continued national stagnation. National rebuilding requires bold, immediate, and interlocking action to subdue a devastating pandemic, recover from the resulting economic collapse, reduce societal inequalities, address climate change, and navigate the shifting tectonic plates of the international system. America’s current predicament demands political courage to pull the country together and take necessary action.
Question of authority
The greatest risk to financial stability is not an insufficient focus on climate change.
It is an extreme policy agenda that would weaponize financial regulation to discriminate against fossil energy the most affordable, reliable source of energy that has powered the American economy and American energy independence.
Senate Democrats, in a recent partisan report, openly call for regulators to discourage financial firms from extending credit to industries that amplify climate risk, such as coal, oil or natural gas.
Lost on the authors of this report is the fact that managing climate risk is outside the primary authority of financial regulators and that such actions would increase the costs for Americans to heat their homes, fuel their vehicles or feed their families all amidst a once in a century health and economic crisis.