Cap and Trade to be Replaced

Collin Peterson -- See what this clueless Democrat is doing, below.

This is a positive development, if it’s true.  Cap and Trade was never going to get us to where we need to be on climate change.  If they can get something like this through the Congress it would be a better way forward than the cap and trade bills in discussion until recently.  But a “radical overhaul”?  I’ll believe that when I see it.

Senators to Propose Abandoning Cap-and-Trade. By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, WashPost,  February 27, 2010. “Three key senators are engaged in a radical behind-the-scenes overhaul of climate legislation, preparing to jettison the broad ‘cap-and-trade’ approach that has defined the legislative debate for close to a decade. The sharp change of direction demonstrates the extent to which the cap-and-trade strategy — allowing facilities to buy and sell pollution credits in order to meet a national limit on greenhouse gas emissions — has become political poison. In a private meeting with several environmental leaders on Wednesday, according to participants,  In a private meeting with several environmental leaders on Wednesday, according to participants, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), declared, “Cap-and-trade is dead.”

Graham and Sens. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) have worked for months to develop an alternative to cap-and-trade, which the House approved eight months ago. They plan to introduce legislation next month that would apply different carbon controls to individual sectors of the economy instead of setting a national target.

According to several sources familiar with the process, the lawmakers are looking at cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas output by targeting, in separate ways, three major sources of emissions: electric utilities, transportation and industry.

Power plants would face an overall cap on emissions that would become more stringent over time; motor fuel may be subject to a carbon tax whose proceeds could help electrify the U.S. transportation sector; and industrial facilities would be exempted from a cap on emissions for several years before it is phased in. The legislation would also expand domestic oil and gas drilling offshore and would provide federal assistance for constructing nuclear power plants and carbon sequestration and storage projects at coal-fired utilities.. . . .

“The Senate is understanding this is not a simple problem — it’s multiple problems, and it requires multiple solutions,” said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club.”

The Sierra Club is doing some good work of its own on coal and attempting to get rid of it.  They have a new program called “Beyond Coal” to try to influence people in power to give up on coal and instead create jobs with green, renewable energy.

And finally, this is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of: legally challenging the EPA’s endangerment finding on greenhouse gas emissions.  These dumb dolts in the Congress who don’t “believe” in climate change, (all of them old men who’ll be dead when climate change really hits the fan) need to [...]

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