Cap and Trade: Just the facts

[jimpeel]

A list of fifty reasons, based on the analysis of the legislation, and why this porkulus bill needs to be stopped.

The bill was not even finalized at the time the House voted on it. The bill was not in the well of the House as required. There was no reading of the bill; and even if someone had called for a reading it could not have happened because the bill was not in the House nor even written.

The House of Representatives voting on an unwritten bill is like anyone who would be stupid enough to issue a blank pre-signed check.

Your government in action.

SOURCE

July 2, 2009 12:01 PM

A Garden of Piggish Delights
Waxman-Markey is part power-grab, part enviro-fantasy. Here are 50 reasons to stop it.

By Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson

The stimulus bill was the legislative equivalent of the famous cantina scene from Star Wars, an eye-popping collection of the freakish and exotic, gathered for dubious purposes. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, known as ACES (the American Clean Energy and Security Act), is more like the third panel in Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights — a hellscape that disturbs the sleep of anybody who contemplates it carefully.

Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future. The inclusion of carbon offsets, which can be manufactured out of thin air and political imagination, will eliminate most of the demands that the legislation puts on industry, though in doing so it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and the bailouts put together. Waxman-Markey creates a permanent new regime in which environmental romanticism and corporate welfare are mixed together to form political poison. From comic bureaucratic power grabs (check out the section of the bill on candelabras) to the creation of new welfare programs for Democratic constituencies to, above all, massive giveaways for every financial, industrial, and political lobby imaginable, this bill would permanently deform American politics and economic life.

The House of Representatives, famously, did not read this bill before passing it, which is testament to either Nancy Pelosi’s managerial incompetency or her political wile, or possibly both. If you take the time to read the legislation, you’ll discover four major themes: special-interest giveaways, regulatory mandates unrelated to climate change, fanciful technological programs worthy of The Jetsons, and assorted left-wing wish fulfillment. We cannot cover every swirl and brushstroke of this masterpiece of misgovernance, but here’s a breakdown of its 50 most outrageous features.

— Stephen Spruiell is a staff reporter for National Review Online. Kevin Williamson is a deputy managing editor of National Review.

This article is very long (5 pages) so you will actually have to take the time to read it before you start telling us how it is right or wrong. Of course, a blank check response would be so fitting for some of those who gather here.

 

[Altron]

Of course, a blank check response would be so fitting for some of those who gather here.

obama forever! g-dub is illiterate. there are no wmds. nancy pelosi is evil. sarah palin is an idiot. joe biden is an idiot. global warming is a lie. the cake is a lie. banks dont need a bailout. fuck gm. golden parachutes. al gore smells like a monkey. nra for life!

 

[jimpeel]

And there ya go ... just like clockwork. Always dependable.

 

[Gonz]

1498 pages!!! How in the fuck do we have a government body that would dare to attempt to pass a bill with 1500 pages? They have the gall to introduce a 300 page amendment at 3AM, the night before passage. Then vote on the bill when not one single page has been printed?

I don't care what you think of the bills intent. The actions of our Congress is bordering on treason. Passing unknown legislation.

The pdf

 

[spike]

You said "just the facts" and then posted an opinion piece. There's a whole lot of "non-facts" there.

 

[jimpeel]

You said "just the facts" and then posted an opinion piece. There's a whole lot of "non-facts" there.

Based on the content of the bill. How is that "opinion"?

I was hoping that the reason you were taking so long to show up on this was because you were actually reading the piece.

 

[spike]

Damn Jim, the first line is even opinion. Can't you recognize this?

I'm not going to read every psycho opinion piece you post. You said "just the facts" and got my hopes up, but then I immediately saw that you were lying.

 

[jimpeel]

Damn Jim, the first line is even opinion. Can't you recognize this?

I'm not going to read every psycho opinion piece you post. You said "just the facts" and got my hopes up, but then I immediately saw that you were lying.

Ah, yes, judging the book by the cover again are we? Read the first line of the piece and reject everything else in the entire article based upon that one line of text.

Did you read any of the factual content of the fifty aspects of the bill or were you simply to overwhelmed by the FACETIOUS opening line of the piece to read further?

You really need to learn to separate facetious ramblings designed for humor from reality. Really. Could ya just give it a try?

 

[spike]

Jim, it's a biased opinion piece and not "just the facts" like you stated. The opinions are all over the place Jim, not just in the opening line.

I find it amazing that you can't see this.

 

[jimpeel]

Jim, it's a biased opinion piece and not "just the facts" like you stated. The opinions are all over the place Jim, not just in the opening line.

I find it amazing that you can't see this.

Yep. Its all opinion. Not a single fact in there anywhere. Its all a lie and the analysis is totally wrong. Nothing there taken from the actual text of the bill whatsoever. In fact not a single word in the entire article is even spelled correctly. Its all made up and is written in Klingon.

Ignore the man behind the curtain.

 

[spike]

Yep. Its all opinion. Not a single fact in there anywhere. Its all a lie and the analysis is totally wrong. Nothing there taken from the actual text of the bill whatsoever. In fact not a single word in the entire article is even spelled correctly. Its all made up and is written in Klingon.

Is that your best attempt at a Straw Man today?

Here's piece that disagrees with you.

The Cap and Trade Success Story
Video: Cap. Trade. Grow.
See why cap and trade is the best economic solution for reducing global warming emissions.

"Cap and trade" harnesses the forces of markets to achieve cost-effective environmental protection. Markets can achieve superior environmental protection by giving businesses both flexibility and a direct financial incentive to find faster, cheaper and more innovative ways to reduce pollution.

Cap and trade was designed, tested and proven here in the United States, as a program within the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. The success of this program led The Economist magazine to crown it "probably the greatest green success story of the past decade." (July 6, 2002).

The following points highlight some real world results of that program:

The Acid Rain Experience
Unprecedented Environmental Protection at Unmatched Cost Efficiency


The expected market price for SO2 allowances was in the range of $650-$850 (in 2000 dollars). The actual market has been between $100 and $200 for most of the program.

In the 1990s, the U.S. acid rain cap and trade program achieved 100 percent compliance in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions. In fact, power plants took advantage of the allowance banking provision to reduce SO2 emissions 22 percent (7.3 million tons) below mandated levels for the first phase of the program.

On the eve of legislation, the EPA estimated that the program would cost $6 billion annually once it was fully implemented (in 2000 dollars). The Office of Management and Budget has estimated actual costs to be $1.1 to $1.8 billion -- just 20 to 30 percent of the forecasts.

The market-based approach enshrined in the U.S. Acid Rain program has demonstrated that environmental protections need not compete with economic well-being.

The following chart, based on government data, demonstrates this point graphically:

Environmental Protection
No Longer Environment vs. Economy


Why do market-based environmental protections work so well?
Markets provide greater environmental effectiveness than command-and-control regulation because they turn pollution reductions into marketable assets. In doing so, this system creates tangible financial rewards for environmental performance.

Because cap-and-trade gives pollution reductions a value in the marketplace, the system prompts technological and process innovations that reduce pollution down to or beyond required levels. This point is not theoretical; experience has shown these results.

What are the elements of a well-designed cap and trade program?
A successful market-based program requires just a few minimum elements. All of the following are absolutely essential to an efficient and effective program:

A mandatory emissions "cap." This is a limit on the total tons of emissions that can be emitted. It provides the standard by which environmental progress is measured, and it gives tons traded on the pollution market value; if the tons didn’t result in real reductions to the atmosphere, they don’t have any market value.

A fixed number of allowances for each polluting entity. Each allowance gives the owner the right to emit one ton of pollution at any time. Allocation of allowances can occur via a number of different formulas.

Banking and trading. A source that reduces its emissions below its allowance level may sell the extra allowances to another source. A source that finds it more expensive to reduce emissions below allowable levels may purchase allowances from another source. Buyers and sellers may “bank” any unused allowances for future use.

Clear performance criteria. At the end of the compliance period (e.g., one year, five years, etc.), each source must hold a number of allowances equal to its tons of emissions for that period, and must have measured its emissions accurately and reported them transparently.

Flexibility. Sources have flexibility to decide when, where and how to reduce emissions.

Summary
An active cap-and-trade market enables those who can reduce pollution cheaply to earn a return on their pollution reduction investment by selling extra allowances. It enables those who can’t reduce pollution as cheaply to purchase allowances at a lower cost than the cost of reducing their own emissions. It enables all participants to meet the total emissions cap cost-effectively. And it gives all emitters incentives to innovate to find the least-cost solutions for total pollution control.

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1085

 

[catocom]

1498 pages!!! How in the fuck do we have a government body that would dare to attempt to pass a bill with 1500 pages? They have the gall to introduce a 300 page amendment at 3AM, the night before passage. Then vote on the bill when not one single page has been printed?

I don't care what you think of the bills intent. The actions of our Congress is bordering on treason. Passing unknown legislation.

The pdf

you sure got that right.

 

[Gonz]

Hey spike....I posted just the facts. 1498 pdf pages.

 

[spike]

 

[jimpeel]

Is that your best attempt at a Straw Man today?

Here's piece that disagrees with you.

Your piece is predicated on the existence of global warming.

Global warming is a hoax.

Global warming is a scam.

Global warming has failed to appear for the last ten years.

The global warming advocates ran away from the term based on its non-performance and started using the term "climate change" just like they ran from the term liberal and started using "progressive" instead.

The Cap and Trade scam is the next big power grab and will take us one more step toward dictatorial rule by the federal government. Of course, there are those who would celebrate the institution of dictatorial rule and the downfall of the United States. What they fail to realize now, and what they will realize when it is too late, is that they will not be among the power elite and will be treated just like the rest of the maggots.

 

[spike]

Except you just posted radical opinion in a thread with a title "just the facts" further cementing your position as "anything but the facts guy".

 

[Gonz]

That's not the tax increase you're looking for

 

[jimpeel]

Except you just posted radical opinion in a thread with a title "just the facts" further cementing your position as "anything but the facts guy".

Tell them that when they put you against the wall.

 

[spike]

Yes Jim, when the little fairy goes around wall pushing I'll tell her you mislabeled your thread. Happy now?