The House passed a bill limiting carbon emissions today. I have to admit I am not thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of changing global behavior with respect to carbon, but the whole cap-and-trade dimension gives me the willies. Truthfully I think I would rather see everyone get a new tax to pay and then have the government offer incentives in the form of deductions for people and companies that behave better. Seems less twitchy that way.
Creating a carbon market and letting the market solve the problem gives me the willies. It's a fair concept, divvy up a bunch of credits and then let people working cleanly sell their credits to people working dirty. But it just isn't going to work that way, is it? All of a sudden there will now be "carbon traders" and "carbon brokerages" and people that make their living off of the exchange of carbon credits that have nothing to do with the creation and release of carbon. Isn't that just more drag on the system? People leeching profit off of something that previously didn't support them?
Just the incarnation of the traders is a problem, and that assumes they act ethically - which we know, right now, today, without a possible doubt that they won't. Sure, vast majorities of people involved will do just what they are supposed to, but experience has shown us that it doesn't take too many greedy people to bring the whole system off kilter. Participants in all markets have been found to hoard resources to create artificial shortages to drive up rates. We've already seen it with oil and gas, Enron did a lovely job in that world with natural gas and electricity - they were trying to introduce the process to bandwidth, it's spilled over into corn through ethanol. Why oh why would we create another system through which we allow ourselves to be raped by businessmen.
Folks, it sucks already. Let's not make it worse.
I read that the EU implemented the cap and trade thing and then almost immediately regretted how they initially allocated credits. Plus, here's another chance for us to give away something to business so they can operate - like giving the spectrum to TV to being with. Is this something we should give away, or should all the companies have to buy carbon credits from the start. Or, should they even be allowed to buy the credits, maybe they should lease them.
Why not create x number of carbon credits per township and then give the exclusive rights to set prices and lease the credits to industry to school boards? Two birds with one stone?
If there's one thing I've learned over the last several years it's that as inept and corrupt as government is, it never seems to be nearly as corrupt and greedy as the private sector. Keeping the planet safe should be managed by people doing it for its own sake, not simply to make a profit.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Cap And Trade
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Yet another mammoth bill voted on by people, the majority of whom never even read it before casting their votes, and which will result in the single largest tax increase on a population in human history,** and which even its supporters admit will do absolutely nothing to affect the world's climate.
Without China and India on board, nothing we do will make any difference whatsoever.
My taxes are going to skyrocket so that a bunch of greenies can feel good about themselves and pat each other on the back for "saving the planet".
Fantastic.
I have to say, the concept of the government running every aspect of my life is turning out peaches so far...
And now they want to tax my health benefits to pay for state-run health care-- all the while being careful to exempt union health benefits from taxation. Gotta take care of the base, after all. I think this may be the first time in history that a person's tax liability is dependent on whom they work for.
**So much for Obama's oft-repeated campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. I suppose we can add that promise to the list of broken promises, which includes the "transparency in government" promise, the promise to end warrantless wiretaps and the promise that he'll post every bill on the White House web site for five days before signing it.
Most politicians break a promise here and there-- it's the nature of politics-- but with Obama, it's getting harder and harder to find one that he's kept.
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