Cap-And-Trade Bill
Sep. 17th, 2009 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
drscott... and the stalled cap-and-trade bill, rammed through the House with armtwisting and giveways to polluters, is shown to be very costly.
Now economists would tell you (and did try to tell everyone) that a cap-and-trade approach would be subject to political gaming. Which is why Congress picked it, since horsetrading is how they gather campaign contributions -- pay-to-play, give us money or we'll neglect your interests. The House ended up giving away most of the revenues to favored industries and limiting the cost signals required to reduce emissions.
I can tell you how to get the most improvement in greenhouse gas emissions at least cost -- a carbon tax, announced now at zero, to rise slowly over decades. This allows people and businesses to plan to avoid the cost of it without actually putting much of a drag on the economy. But a simple and fair system doesn't allow politicians to extract maximum leverage from it.
Now economists would tell you (and did try to tell everyone) that a cap-and-trade approach would be subject to political gaming. Which is why Congress picked it, since horsetrading is how they gather campaign contributions -- pay-to-play, give us money or we'll neglect your interests. The House ended up giving away most of the revenues to favored industries and limiting the cost signals required to reduce emissions.
I can tell you how to get the most improvement in greenhouse gas emissions at least cost -- a carbon tax, announced now at zero, to rise slowly over decades. This allows people and businesses to plan to avoid the cost of it without actually putting much of a drag on the economy. But a simple and fair system doesn't allow politicians to extract maximum leverage from it.
