Are Unilateral Climate Change Policies Creating the "Perfect Storm?"

Richard O. Faulk, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP
John S. Gray, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP

Abstract

As the maelstrom approaches, and as the complications proliferate, the comforting idea of a “green” nation is progressively darkened by uncertainties. This article discusses just a few of them. First, we will examine the interrelationships between energy, environmental and economic policy and the complicated domestic and international concerns raised by the “cap and trade” regulatory regime envisioned by the Lieberman-Warner bill. Second, we will describe how a single development in environmental policy – the recent listing of the polar bear as a “threatened species” under the Endangered Species Act – can dictate inflexible policies that, even standing alone, can alter the course of fiscal policies profoundly.