The Columbia Economics Review invites teams of 1-4 undergraduates to participate in its fourth annual Competitive Climate environmental policy competition. Cash prizes of $600, $300, and $150 will be awarded to the 1st-, 2nd- and 3rd-place finishers respectively, thanks to the generous support of the Columbia Economics Department. The winning presentations will also be recognized by the The Earth Institute and will be featured in the Spring 2016 edition of the Columbia Economics Review and on the Columbia Economics Department website.
Prompt
On 23 October 2015, President Obama’s Clean Power Plan was officially published in the government’s Federal Register. In response, as many as 25 states joined some of the nation’s most influential business groups in legal action to block the climate change regulations, trying to stop the President’s signature environmental policy.
Many states and companies, including those that are suing the administration, have started drafting plans to comply with the rules. However, the governors of five states — Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Oklahoma — have threatened to refuse to submit a plan of any kind.
Imagine that you are the director of environmental protection for one of these five states. Design a state-level climate policy that minimizes the economic costs of compliance for your state’s government, businesses, and/or families. Proposals will be judged according to the following criteria:
- An evidence-driven analysis of climate science research along with projections for future environmental and economic costs associated with emissions from the chosen state. [Climate Science, Economics]
- A realistic outline of policies and programs that will effectively address the environmental threat and/or rate of emissions within the chosen state. [Economics, Engineering/Technology]
- A thorough discussion of the primary and secondary economic effects of the team’s proposal. [Economics]
- An analysis of how state and federal political constraints affect the probability and impact of enacting the team’s proposal. [Political Science, Economics]
Requirements
- A 10-15 minute PowerPoint video presentation with commentary.
- Audio commentary (required) can be submitted in any format or combination of formats that you find suitable, including, but not limited to:
- Narrated presentation with voice-over
- Video recording of lecture-style presentation
- Documentary-style video
- Written commentary (optional) should not exceed 6-8 pages double-spaced.
- Audio commentary (required) can be submitted in any format or combination of formats that you find suitable, including, but not limited to:
Submission Guidelines
- All videos must be submitted in one of the following file formats:
- .MP4 (recommended)
- .MOV
- .AVI
- .WMV
- .FLV
- Please title your video in the following format: “Team Leader Name – State” — e.g., “John Smith – Texas”
- All videos must be submitted, either over email or via Dropbox, to epcsubmissions@gmail.com.
- Please use the title of your video in the subject line of the email.
Key Dates
- 31 October 2015: Registration opens
- 13 December 2015: Registration deadline
- 18 January 2016: Submission deadline
- Late January 2016: Review and selection of Finalists
- Mid-February 2016: Winners notified
For further background on the Clean Power Plan, as well as links to helpful resources, please visit http://www2.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan.
For the press release from last year’s competition, as well as a link to the video presentations of last year’s finalists, please visit http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2015/04/03/2015-competitive-climate-environmental- policy-competition/.
If you have any questions or encounter technical difficulties, please email Daniel Morgan, Zoey Chopra, or Boya Wang.