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Although the U.S. energy system seems to resist the changes necessary to meet today's challenges related to energy security and climate change, the system has gone through massive change several times since 1850. A major driver in each of these earlier transitions was an economic value, such as mobility, that markets could capture. Because environmental and security values are public goods, changing today's energy system will require a policy that creates a market signal reflecting these values. However, it is also necessary to craft a policy framework that is both durable over a long time period and able to adapt to new information as it becomes available. This essay examines some of the possible attributes of a durable and adaptable policy. The discussion is necessarily preliminary because relatively little formal research exists on this topic. However, even a preliminary examination suggests that considerations of policy durability could affect the choice between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade system.

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Why do heat waves, which annually cause far more death, on average, than any other natural disaster, provoke little public reaction? Heat waves will become more common place and heat wave deaths more frequent as temperatures increase from climate change. Models predict that annual heat wave deaths in the U.S. by 2050 will easily surpass the death toll from Hurricane Katrina. This Article analyzes extensive data about heat waves, evaluates why heat waves seem not to raise widespread public concern and suggests that mechanisms already exist -- though widely ignored -- to mitigate the worst effects of excess heat. These mechanisms include careful emergency planning, the provision of air conditioning availability and funding, and larger structural changes in the delivery of electricity, energy efficiency and land use planning. Yet the nature of the victims of heat waves combined with cognitive mechanisms that cause individuals to systematically underestimate risk from heat waves and the fact that heat waves cause little property damage all contribute to a failure by many jurisdictions to adopt policies and programs that can mitigate heat wave deaths.