Cheap fossil fuels hinder fight for climate change

(The Boston Globe, November 17, 2013)

Falling prices of crude oil, natural gas, and gasoline are presenting new challenges to the efforts to combat climate change. Christopher Knittel, a professor of energy economics at MIT, said cheap fossil fuels could not only encouraging more consumption of these fuels, but also making renewable alternatives, such as solar panels, less economically competitive. On the other hand, Robert Stavins, a professor of energy economics at Harvard University says that in some ways, falling fuel prices might make it easier to adopt climate change policies, as it reduces financial pressures on consumers — and voters — and makes them more willing to accept the costs. “When energy prices are low, that’s when people are going to be much more tolerant of things like a gasoline tax,” he said.