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US House May Pass "Cap & Trade" Bill
jamie found this roundup on the status of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, which is about to be voted on by the US House of Representatives. (The article notes that if the majority Democrats can't see the 218 votes needed for passage, they will probably put off the vote.) The AP has put together a FAQ that says, "[The bill, if passed,] fundamentally will change how we use, produce and consume energy, ending the country's love affair with big gas-guzzling cars and its insatiable appetite for cheap electricity. This bill will put smaller, more efficient cars on the road, swap smokestacks for windmills and solar panels, and transform the appliances you can buy for your home." The odds-makers are giving the bill a marginal chance of passing in the House, with tougher going expected in the Senate.
This isn't a tax in the traditional sense. This is an attempt to quantify some of the externalities in our energy consumption and reflect the true cost of what we're doing. Free marketers should be all for this because it increases the amount and accuracy of pricing information to the market. If Republicans and Blue Dogs really care about market competition, they should be overjoyed about this bill because it starts to level the playing field.
But of course this isn't about markets. This is about ideology and some people will never give up the idea that they've got a God-given right to consume everything and pollute as much as they wish and damn the consequences to anyone else.