Capping and trading our prosperity

The Orange County Register
Jun. 10, 2009

Waxman is going around bribing politicians by allowing certain "connected" big businesses in their state to simply not have to follow the law at all, they will be issued a massive amount of "free carbon credits," meanwhile all their smaller competitors will be going bankrupt due to this massive new tax. - ChrisThe latest congressional proposal to save the Earth from harmless carbon dioxide by government shrinking everyone's carbon footprint has advanced in the House of Representatives, oblivious to its economy-stifling effects.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports, China is planning for climate change without mandatory caps. The House Energy and Commerce Committee rejected Republican requests to delay the U.S. cap until China and India adopt similar standards. "The big winners are China and India, who are champing at the bit to take our jobs," said Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La.

The big losers? American consumers, whose costs will soar. And the segments of U.S. industry that don't win favored treatment. The Waxman-Markey bill seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 83 percent by 2050. To appease critics, the 946-page legislation now bribes companies to invest in renewable energy with loans and loan guarantees, and gives free carbon credits to some businesses, which nonfavored emitters must pay handsomely for.

This is special-interest legislation at its worst, favoring some, penalizing others, under the guise of changing what mankind has virtually no control over, the climate.

The U.S. is following the lead of the European Union, which is moving to exempt steel, refining and cement industries from buying carbon permits. Analysts say it may mean $19 billion in windfall profits to those industries.

Democrats added protections from the bill's costs for another favored constituency, lowincome families, and giveaways to the oil industry to win its support.

Republicans say the bill will ruin the economy. One estimate is a typical family's energy costs will soar $1,500 a year, and gasoline prices 74 percent. Rep. Fred Barton, R-Mich., calculates the effect will be to roll back to the economic level of 1910.

"Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity prices would necessarily skyrocket," President Barack Obama has promised. "Under a cap-and-trade program, consumers would ultimately bear most of the costs of emission reductions," conceded Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf.

What will payoffs, exceptions and Draconian mandates buy us? Climatologist Chip Knappenberger calculates that by 2050 the global temperature at best will be reduced an underwhelming 0.044 degrees Celsius. Try to find that on a thermometer.

And that's if the scheme works. Of course, it's all predicated on the assumption CO2 causes temperatures to rise. The historic record shows no cause-and-effect relationship.

Meanwhile, government stands to gain more control, and the out-of-favor segments of U.S. society will pay.